Virtual Conversation: Designing an Exhibit with Nina Cooke John and Eddie Opara

Join the designers behind the With Every Fiber exhibit, architect Nina Cooke John of Studio Cooke John, who was recently awarded the 2024 New Perspectives Award by AIA New York | Center for Architecture, and award-winning designer and partner at Pentagram, Eddie Opara, for an exploration of the design processes employed during the creation of this innovative and first-of-its kind Design for Freedom experience.

John and Opara’s discussion also considers what it means to create an exhibit through the lens of the Design for Freedom movement to eliminate forced labor in the building materials supply chain.

This conversation will be followed by a Q&A.

About Nina Cooke John

Nina Cooke John, Principal of Studio Cooke John Architecture + Design, was one of the first architects in the U.S. to commit to embarking on a Design for Freedom Pilot Project. She tracked materials for fair labor in Shadow of a Face, a public monument celebrating the life of Harriet Tubman and supported by the city of Newark, NJ. See the concrete cast of Tubman’s eye, used in the creation of the monument, in the exhibit.

Studio Cooke John is a multidisciplinary design studio valuing placemaking as a way to transform relationships between people and the environment.

Nina Cooke John is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Dwell, NBC’s Open House, the Center for Architecture’s 2018 exhibition, Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture, and PBS NewsHour Weekend.

About Eddie Opara

Eddie Opara joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in 2010. A long-term collaborator, Pentagram developed the Grace Farms’ brand identity upon opening in 2015. Opara’s projects range across multiple media and clients including; lululemon, Samsung, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Nike, Grace Farms, the Menil Foundation, the Corcoran Group, Morgan Stanley, New York University, SHoP Architects, buroOS, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), David Adjaye Associates and Princeton Architectural Press.

Eddie Opara is a senior critic at the Yale University School of Art. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Columbia University School of Architecture and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has appeared in publications such as Wired, Fast Company, Creative Review, Archis, Surface and Graphis. Opara recently authored a book, Color Works, published by Rockport. He was named one of Adweek Creative 100 in 2018, one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2012 and 2014, and was featured in Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 list.

About With Every Fiber 

With Every Fiber is a long-term exhibit aiming to inspire understanding and care about the materials that make up the built world around us. In 2020, Grace Farms launched Design for Freedom, a collaborative global movement to remove forced labor in the building materials supply chain, create true market transformation, and build a more equitable future. This exhibit is Grace Farms’ first major initiative to bring this movement to the public.

This immersive and interactive exhibit is curated by Grace Farms Creative Director Chelsea Thatcher and designed by Studio Cooke John Architecture + Design, with the graphics designed by Pentagram. It is the result of collaboration and contributions from 20 preeminent designers, material suppliers, cultural institutions, and construction industry leaders already committed to the Design for Freedom movement.

Learn more about With Every Fiber