Black Designers in Chicago: Institutes of Design on the South Side
Event details
Join us for research seminars hosted by the Department of History with a selection of visiting academics, alongside University of York researchers. All students and staff are very welcome.
A zoom link will be made available for distance learning PhD students on request. Please contact Dr Jasper Heinzen or Dr Stephanie Mawson if you have any questions. View the full schedule for the semester.
Speaker: Dr Chris Dingwall (Washington University)
Abstract: What if the history of modern design began in the South Side of Chicago? Before the Bauhaus School of Design relocated from Germany to the South Side of Chicago in 1937, the neighborhood was already home to a thriving network of African American craftspeople, commercial artists, beauticians, and sign painters who were committed to practicing and teaching design in their community and for the mass consumer marketplace. They were designers and institution builders. From the South Side Community Art Center and the Johnson Publishing Company to informal networks of sign painters and hairdressers, Black designers organized to teach, practice, and disseminate their disciplines on local and global scales.
This talk draws from Black Designers in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2026), a new book that centers African Americans in the history of modern design and design in the making of modern Black life. While focused on the cultural geography of the South Side of Chicago, the talk will argue for the significance of community-based archives and artifacts for rethinking the global history of modern design.
Image: Black Designers in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2026)