Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place

Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place exhibit in Collab Gallery at PMA. Photo by Timothy Tiebout.

Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place surveys the past ten years of industrial designer Stephen Burks’s craft-centered, workshop-based design practice and features a specially commissioned speculative project, called Shelter in Place. In the wake of several global crises, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change and racial inequality, Burks and his studio responded by reconceiving our domestic spaces and posing the question, “How can we design our domestic interiors to enable joyful living while empowering our creativity?”

Stephen Burks Man Made developed five prototypes that explore radical ideas regarding design’s relationship to our spirituality, homes, and communities. This exhibition brings together these prototypes along with several other facets of Stephen Burks’s practice, including award-winning contemporary furniture, key products, and craft-related experiments. Stephen Burks is the recipient of the 2023 Design Excellence Award, which is issued by Collab, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s affiliate group for modern and contemporary design. He is the first African American designer to receive this award.

Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place exhibit in Collab Gallery at PMA. Photo by Timothy Tiebout.

Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place exhibit in Collab Gallery at PMA. Photo by Timothy Tiebout.

Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place exhibit in Collab Gallery at PMA. Photo by Timothy Tiebout.

Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place is on view until April 14, 2024.