Fashion Institute of Technology + CMAA

The Cultural Museum of African Art (CMAA) is creating the Museum of the Future and seeks to establish a “Continuum of Contact” with its audience through all pandemics. This vision requires investments in, and applications of, Extended Reality (XR) technologies to engage audiences virtually.

CMAA is leading the fine arts world by embracing this next evolution of audience engagement by creating a Virtual Immersive Exhibition of their new home, historic Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza. This virtual reality space will facilitate exhibitions, panel discussions, and scholarship during, and beyond, this COVID moment.

Dan Beak Mask

360° Interactive view, Touch-enabled

CMAA has partnered with the MASK Consortium to execute this vision. The results of the MASK work product have been met with high praise. MASK is also engaged in the following important New York City cultural projects, inspiring the community to find creative ways to emerge from the paralysis of quarantine. Examples of the CMAA collection can be experienced in the FIT’s Black Student Union exhibition which celebrates the evolution of black culture by going beyond the narrative of slavery and back to the rich heritage of culture and tradition in Africa and its expansion worldwide. Black in Time casts light on creativity, resistance, celebration, self-expression, and black pride. Continuing into the far gallery, “Promised Land” includes both fashions inspired from Africa and historical artifacts. The African objects are generously on loan from the cultural Museum of African Art – an experience created by African artifacts collector Eric Edwards, who has amassed one of the largest African art collections in the United States. In his words “African culture and history are learned through its art.” Curators: Kiara Williams, Awa Doombia