In the wake of several global crises, designers have responded by redefining our relationship to our homes, including interrogating the modernist trope of better living through design. Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place explores ideas concerning domesticity—namely asking how we can design our interiors to enable joyful living while empowering creativity. It is the first exhibition in over a decade to survey Burks’s workshop-based design practice, presenting several key projects from the last ten years. These industrial design and craft-centered projects will be seen in conversation with Shelter in Place, a new speculative project that will explore the visionary possibilities of design.

As an African American designer, Burks has forged a unique path by embracing the challenge to advocate for hand production as a strategy for innovation within industrial production. Shelter in Place will also demonstrate Burks’s holistic approach across the disciplines of art, architecture, and design that underscores principles of synthesizing craft, community, and industry.

This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.