The Bronzeville Center for the Arts, a 55,000-square-foot home for rotating exhibitions of African American art set to open in 2028, is the latest major development in the resurging neighborhood.
Tapped to lead the project is Michael Ford, the self-proclaimed “Hip Hop Architect” who runs the Madison-based firm BrandNu Design Studio. A Detroit native, he was recruited to Madison by an architecture firm in 2011. In the city, he found his wife and a new life and never looked back.
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Ford has since taken on some big projects – including designing The Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx, starting the Hip Hop Architecture Camp that helps educate and financially support budding architects, as well as being a keynote speaker who has shared a stage with Michelle Obama. Ford’s firm is based in three locations: Dallas, Texas; Albany, New York; and Madison.
The goal for the Bronzeville Center for the Arts is to promote the diverse tapestry of art, history and people of the African diaspora while empowering the community and continuing the legacy of Bronzeville. The project is scheduled to break ground in 2026. We spoke with Ford about his design philosophy behind the new arts center.
Why the “Hip Hop Architect?”
I studied hip-hop culture [in college] and how you can convert elements of hip-hop culture into forms of architecture. And the idea was that every major culture, every significant era in time, had an associated architecture … Eventually, I worked on the Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx, so the moniker became a guiding principle in my work.
How do you decide if a project is right for you?
My philosophy for my firm and the projects that we go after are projects that improve the quality of life or that tell Black stories. For [the arts center], I think it checked off both boxes.
I’ll say it wasn’t an easy process of getting the project. [It] went out to a national request for proposals that brought in bids from around the country. I think it was 2022. To my luck, that was the same year I became the Wisconsin Young Architect of the Year, which is an award by the American Institute of Architects.
What’s your approach to this project?
I want people to realize we’re not a monolithic culture. Black culture in Milwaukee may not be the same as it is in Detroit, may not be the same as it is in Chicago or Minneapolis, even just within the Midwest.
The first thing with any project is to not come in with any assumptions. Let’s learn [from] the specific residents in this neighborhood. What do they want to see when they see an arts center that’s reflecting them? What’s significant aesthetically, programmatically?
I think that’s been our approach for this project – [we’re] really understanding what the immediate neighbors want to see and how they describe Blackness – and then converting it into a piece of iconic architecture.
