a creative workshop to imagine and design a plan for one of your own home shelves

Have you ever taken a “shelfie”? A “shelfie” is a photograph of a bookshelf in which the bookshelf’s contents reflect a portrait of the person to whom the contents belong. For this interactive workshop, join Black Artists + Designers Guild (BADG) to think about the power of home libraries, in conjunction with their installation “The Underground Library” in Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial. BADG will offer a verbal description of the items on various shelves to share stories about what the objects, books, and artifacts are and why they have been selected.

Then, BADG will lead you through a creative workshop to imagine and design a plan for one of your own home shelves, empowering you to archive personal histories and reveal what possibilities may exist in your own settings. Using drawing and collage materials, learn how to curate your own space, preserve history and take it into your own hands, thus creating a blueprint for a personal shelfie.

The program will take place in the BADG installation, “The Underground Library,” a welcoming, interactive space for visitors to Making Home where custom-designed seating, textiles, and carpeting by BADG members and collaborators honor their ancestral legacies in art and design. The library is a 21st-century sanctuary brimming with books, objects, and artifacts relating to Black history and culture.  

SPEAKERS 

A woman with short, dark hair smiles in front of a colorful background. She wears a red and green top.Malene Djenaba Barnett is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, textile surface designer, and the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, a global platform and community of independent Black makers. Barnett’s art reflects her African Caribbean heritage, building on her ancestral legacy of mark-making as a visual identity, and has been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the United States. Her art and design work has also been featured in major publications such as the New York Times, Architectural Digest, and Elle Decor. Barnett is a Fulbrighter, gives talks nationally, and publishes work raising awareness of Caribbean makers and ceramic art traditions of the Black diaspora. She released her first book, “Crafted Kinship: Inside the Creative Practice of Contemporary Black Caribbean Makers” (Hachette) in 2024.

Accessibility & What to Expect:  

  • Format: The program will begin with a brief welcome, then the speaker will give short presentation followed by a hands on drawing and collage workshop including time to ask questions and interact with other participants
  • About the space: This program will take place in Cooper Hewitt’s Process Lab on the first floor of the museum. It is fully wheelchair accessible. There will be group seating at tables. There is an accessible restroom on the ground floor. Read more about accessibility at Cooper Hewitt.
  • Accommodations: The program will have live CART captioning. If we can provide additional services to support your participation, email us at CHEducation@si.edu or let us know when you register. Please make your request as far in advance as possible—preferably at least ten days before the program date.
  • Recording: This workshop will not be recorded.

Support 

Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial is presented in collaboration with Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. This project received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum; the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the National Museum of the American Latino; the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center; and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Generous support is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Support is also provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation; Edward and Helen Hintz; re:arc institute; the Keith Haring Foundation; the Lemberg Foundation; Maharam; and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.