Join us on Saturday, August 5th, at 10 AM for Coffee + Conversation with Shannon Leahy. Shannon will be discussing growing in your design career without losing your soul or sacrificing your values. At The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design

About the Event Join us on Saturday, December 3rd at 10AM for Coffee + Conversation with Justin Smith, founder, and curator of Afrovisualism. Justin Smith is an artist-curator, writer-researcher, theorist and designer from Richmond, VA. He is the founder and curator of Afrovisualism – his curatorial platform and continual studio practice that provides curation, visual direction, and creative development for artists and creatives. He constellates frameworks of Black aesthetic formulations in a harmonious arrangement of curatorial and design projects, visual essays, collages, and moodboards. He coined and theorized Black Aesthetic Continual Theory as a way to establish his Afrovisualist language and realms of thought that contextualizes “crate digging” as an immersive sample-based process that centers curatorial research, theory and design. His Afrovisualist practice is driven by the continual advancement of Black artistic expression, Black visual-sonic culture, Black aesthetics, and Black cultural production. His nuanced approach considers worldbuilding theoretics of Black aesthetic continuums, timelines and chronologies. This program is sponsored by our friends at Blanchard’s! Come enjoy a cup of delicious coffee and design centered discussion. Check out Justin’s Afrovisualist work ahead of time on Instagram @afrovisualism.

About the Event Join us at The Branch Museum on Friday, October 14th at 10 am for Coffee + Conversations with a local designer! This month’s designer is Kristin Schmidt, a biomedical engineer at SPARK Product Development. Kristin received her BS in Biomedical Engineering from UVA in 2019 after owning her own massage therapy business for six years. Following an engineering role in a biotech startup, she joined SPARK for the dynamic challenge of solving novel problems. She also appreciates learning new things at every turn. SPARK is located in Richmond and develops functional, beautiful products – from concept to market, across a variety of industries. They find elegant solutions and bring ideas to life through engineering-based industrial, mechanical, and medical design that balances form and function. Have a cup of coffee provided by our generous sponsors at Blanchard’s Coffee, and have product design-centered conversations with Kristin. We recommend bringing a notebook and a pencil to sketch out your next big idea and ask questions during this informal round-table discussion.