ARTISTS & DESIGNERS WORKING IN TRACEWORK: LEGACY, MEMORY, PAST + FUTURE

Alisha B. Wormsley
Interdisciplinary artist working with text, installation, photography, and social practice to assert Black futures while grounding them in collective memory and lived histories.
https://www.howwegettonext.com/there-are-black-people-in-the-future/

Aneesh Bhoopathy
Graphic designer behind the new Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani’s, visual identity and campaign. She is part of the Philadlehpia-based design group, Forge,
https://www.forge.coop/

Ayana V. Jackson (Current AIR at EN!)
Artist whose photographic practice interrogates histories of colonialism, gender, and power by re-staging and re-embodying archival imagery. Through self-portraiture and historical citation, her work exposes the constructed nature of the archive while reclaiming agency over Black representation across time.
https://www.ayanavjackson.com/

Bahia Shehab
Lebanese–Egyptian designer, artist, and historian whose work bridges Islamic visual culture, calligraphy, and political resistance, treating typography as a living archive.
https://www.bahiashehab.com/

Candy Chang
Artist and civic designer whose participatory public works invite collective reflection on loss, hope, and shared experience. Through simple, accessible frameworks installed in everyday spaces, her projects transform personal expression into visible, communal dialogue
https://www.candychang.com/

Dina Nur Satti
Designer and ceramicist whose work treats objects as containers of memory, often referencing Sudanese and diasporic histories through material and ritual form.
https://www.instagram.com/dinanursatti/?hl=en

Shepard Fairy
Street artist, graphic designer, and activist Shepard Fairey created the poster of then Senator Barack Obama in 2008 as a form of grassroots activism to support Obama’s first presidential campaign.
https://www.artic.edu/artworks/229396/barack-obama-hope-poster

Fred Wilson
Conceptual artist known for excavating museum collections to reveal suppressed histories and institutional bias, reframing the archive as an active, political space.
https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/fred-wilson/

Hank Willis Thomas
Conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture.
https://www.davidsoncollegeartgalleries/with-these-hands

Sylvia Harris
Information designer whose work reimagined complex civic systems—such as healthcare, voting, and public services—by restructuring how public information is organized, accessed, and understood, foregrounding clarity, equity, and use over form.
https://www.aiga.org/membership-community/aiga-awards/2014-aiga-medalist-sylvia-harris

Helina Metaferia (Just created two public artworks in the City of Newark)
Interdisciplinary artist whose work examines migration, displacement, and collective memory through collage, installation, performance, and social practice. Drawing on archival research and community collaboration, her practice traces the entanglement of personal history with broader political and historical movements.
https://www.helinametaferia.com/

Ibrahim Mahama
Artist whose large-scale installations use found materials embedded with economic and colonial histories, emphasizing trace, labor, and circulation over time.
https://www.instagram.com/ibrahimmahama3/?hl=en

Junius Williams (City of Newark Historian)
Activist, author, and cultural organizer whose lifelong work centers Black self-determination, political memory, and Newark’s grassroots histories. Through writing, organizing, and institution-building, his practice preserves movement knowledge as living legacy rather than static archive.
https://www.juniuswilliams.com/

+ Rise Up Newark
Community organization and cultural platform dedicated to documenting, preserving, and activating Newark’s radical histories. Through storytelling, public programs, and grassroots archives, Rise Up Newark treats legacy as a tool for present-day organizing and future-building.
https://riseupnewark.com/

Lebohang Kganye
Artist working with photography, performance, and family archives to explore lineage, memory, and post-apartheid identity through reenactment and spatial collage.
https://www.lebohangkganye.com/

Maya Lin
Artist and architect whose work explores memory, landscape, and collective history through minimal, site-responsive forms. Working across sculpture, architecture, and environmental design, her practice engages how spaces shape reflection, remembrance, and public experience.
https://www.mayalinstudio.com/

Noelle Lorraine Williams (Director, NJ Historical Society)
Artist working across sculpture, performance, and historical research, reanimating Black historical narratives and embodied memory.
https://blackpower19thcentury.com/stay-the-ballantine-house

Nontsikelelo Mutiti (Director, Yale MFA Graduate Graphic Design Program)
Nontsikelelo Mutiti is a Zimbabwean-born visual artist and educator. She 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.
http://nontsikelelomutiti.com/

Noelle Lorraine Williams (Director, NJ Historical Society)
Artist working across sculpture, performance, and historical research, reanimating Black historical narratives and embodied memory.
https://blackpower19thcentury.com/stay-the-ballantine-house

Adrian Piper
Conceptual artist and philosopher whose work confronts race, identity, and social power through performance, text, and installation. Using strategies of provocation and self-reflexivity, her practice challenges viewers to examine their own assumptions and positions within larger systems of belief.
http://www.adrianpiper.com/

Salù Iwadi Studio
Design studio working across furniture, objects, and interiors rooted in African narratives, material culture, and reinterpreted craft traditions.
https://www.saluiwadistudio.com/projects

Shimon Attie
Artist whose site-specific installations and projections overlay historical images onto contemporary spaces, making traces of erased communities visible in the present.
https://www.shimonattie.net/

Temi Coker
Artist and designer whose visual language draws from diasporic histories, African aesthetics, and speculative identity-making through typography, image-making, and systems design.
https://temicoker.co/About

Theaster Gates
Artist whose work transforms archives, libraries, and collections into sites of renewal, treating cultural inheritance as a social and spatial practice.
https://rebuild-foundation.org/

Trés Seals
Designer/ type designer, and owner of Vocal Type. He had a brain tumor diagnosed at age four and found writing and drawing as “the only means to work through the pain.”
https://www.treseals.com/

Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Artist and filmmaker whose work investigates lost or suppressed histories, blending archival research with speculative storytelling to imagine alternate futures.
https://www.tuanandrewnguyen.com/

W.E.B. Du Bois
Sociologist, writer, and activist whose work examined race, inequality, and Black life through research, writing, and pioneering data visualization. By combining empirical analysis with narrative and visual form, his practice reframed social data as a tool for understanding lived experience and systemic injustice.
https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/web-dubois

We Should Do It All (WSDIA)
Creative studio and collective engaging art, design, publishing, and cultural production centered on overlooked histories and collective authorship.
https://wsdia.com/

LIST OF FREE/BROADLY ACCESSIBLE ARCHIVES
& RESEARCH RESOURCES (WITH FOCUS ON NEWARK + NJ)

Newark Public Library — Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center
Major local archive with documents, photographs, maps, newspapers, scrapbooks, yearbooks, ephemera and more in Newark and New Jersey history. Many items are digitized and searchable online, with extensive collections in African American and Hispanic community history, local organizations, and printed materials.
https://www.npl.org/main/cfcnjic-collections/

Newark Public Library Digital Collections
Free online access to thousands of digitized historic items including photographs, printed materials, and local history content developed with a Carnegie grant.
https://digital.npl.org

My Newark Story (Library Project)
An outreach program tied to the Newark Public Library’s digital archives with subject guides and contextualized primary sources on industry, migration, labor, and community history.
https://www.npl.org/mynewarkstory/

AGGREGATED AND SPECIALIZED CATALOGS

Newark Archives Project
A searchable online database of descriptions for thousands of archival collections related to Newark history, held across multiple repositories (libraries, archives, museums, and government agencies). It’s a powerful tool to locate primary sources by keyword, subject, date, or repository.
http://nap.rutgers.edu

Digital Archive of Newark Architecture (DANA)
A specialized digital archive focused on the built environment of Newark — maps, architectural documentation, photographs, planning materials, reports, and related texts. This archive connects resources from NJIT, Newark Public Library, and partnering institutions.
https://design.njit.edu/digital-archive-newark-architecture

UNIVERSITY & ORAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS

Rutgers University–Newark Archives
Holds historical materials documenting the Rutgers–Newark campus and city context, including annual reports, course catalogs, student newspapers, photographs, ephemera, and more. Visits are by appointment.
https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/newark/visit-study/rutgers-newark-archives

Institute of Jazz Studies (Rutgers–Newark)
An internationally significant jazz archive with extensive recordings, periodicals, books, and oral histories. It is free to consult with appropriate registration through the library.
Contact through: https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu

Queer Newark Oral History Project
A community-centered oral history initiative documenting LGBTQ+ Newark experiences; materials are often available publicly through project partners and digital hosts.
Search online for transcripts and recordings.

STATEWIDE AND COMPLEMENTARY RESOURCES

New Jersey Digital Highway (NJDH)
A statewide digital portal aggregating digitized cultural heritage from multiple archives and libraries across New Jersey, including Manuscript images, prints, photos, and document scans.
https://njdigitalhighway.org

New Jersey State Library — Digital Collections
Provides online access to historic New Jersey publications, local histories, rare books, and images curated for public use and research.
https://www.njstatelib.org/research_library/digital-collections/

New Jersey Historical Society
Offers manuscript materials, rare books, maps, pamphlets, and photographs documenting statewide social and cultural history; research access is free and open to the public during regular hours.
https://jerseyhistory.org/explore-our-collections/

EXAMPLES OF MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR LEGACY PROJECTS

• Historic photographs and negatives documenting neighborhoods, events, and community life (Newark Public Library)

• Primary source scrapbooks and ephemera from local organizations and cultural events (Cummings Center)

• Oral histories and interviews capturing lived experience and community memory (Queer Newark, Institute of Jazz Studies)

• Built environment documentation — maps, plans, architectural drawings, and infrastructure records (DANA)

• Archival descriptions across repositories via the Newark Archives Project catalog (NAP)

• Museum institutional archives reflecting local art exhibition histories and programming (Newark Museum Library & Archives)

TIPS FOR USING THESE ARCHIVES

• Search catalogs first. Use NJDH and the Newark Archives Project to find specific collections and determine location before visiting.

• Make appointments. Most special collections (Rutgers Archives, Newark Museum Archives, Cummings Center) require advance scheduling.

• Request digital copies. Many repositories will digitize materials on request if you cannot visit in person.

• Document metadata. Record source details (repository name, collection title, box/folder numbers) for future reference or publication.