The Art of Protection: Exploring Resilience and Beauty in Black Design

Join us on Saturday, October 19th, for a day-long program in celebration of ICA’s current installation, Created by artist and designer Nonstikelelo Mutiti, this installation and her work explore concepts of beauty, labor, and protection while highlighting the relationship between modern design and its roots in African diasporic visual culture.

This multi-part program celebrates the work of Black artists and practitioners in Philadelphia, whose practices center on themes of protection, self-care, resilience, beauty, and public art. Expect pop-up presentations from Black artists and designers, hands-on workshops, and a curated marketplace full of unique finds. Food, drinks, and music are on the house!

This event is free and open to all. | To register for the event, click here.

ICA is committed to creating a welcoming environment for all visitors. For more notes on accessibility including accessible parking nearby visit our Accessibility landing page. If you require any accessibility accommodations or have any questions about the program, please contact Brittany Clottey ([email protected]).

Entryways: Nontsikelelo Mutiti is the inaugural project for a new series that commissions artists to activate the façade of ICA’s building in partnership with Maharam, North America’s leading creator of textiles for commercial and residential interiors. For the 2024 edition, ICA invited Nontsikelelo Mutiti, a Zimbabwean-born visual artist and educator, to reimagine the windows. In the resulting work, Mutiti combined African hair braiding patterns and hair clips with symbols often found in ironwork.

Mutiti is deeply interested in the cultures and communities that are formed in hair salons globally, and often incorporates braids in her work as markers of identity, migration, and culture. Similarly, the use of symbols in ironwork are present visually almost everywhere these decorative architectural features are found including across the African diaspora including in Philadelphia and the broader United States. Mutiti further draws connections between these two art forms in thinking about their use for protection: braids are a protective style to protect hair from the elements while ironwork is often used as a defensive architectural feature in gates and window bars. In the same way that hair braiders continue the practice of braiding systems, ironworkers, and now restoration workers, ensure the survival and persistence of these symbols as important cultural markers.

Nontsikelelo Mutiti is invested in elevating the work and practices of Black peoples past, present, and future through a conceptual approach to design, publishing, archiving practices, and institution building. Mutiti holds a diploma in Multimedia from the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA) and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, with a concentration in Graphic Design. Mutiti is the Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design at Yale School of Art. She has held academic positions at Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA), SUNY Purchase College and VCUarts at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Entryways: Nontsikelelo Mutiti is organized by Hallie Ringle, Daniel and Brett Sundheim Chief Curator.

Programming at ICA is made possible in part by the Emily and Jerry Spiegel Fund to Support Contemporary Culture and Visual Arts and the Lise Spiegel Wilks and Jeffrey Wilks Family Foundation. Public and Student Engagement at ICA is supported by the Bernstein Public Engagement Fund, Suzanne Weiss Doft & Jacob W. Doft, Stacey & Robert Goergen Jr., Hilarie L. & Mitchell Morgan, the Nash Family Foundation, Joline & David Stemerman, and by Dana McDonald Strong & Mark W. Strong.

Support for Entryways is provided by Maharam Digital Projects.

Host or Publisher Institute of Contemporary Art