Make Space at Hunter College is a hub for co-created media-making, digital humanities, and collaborative storytelling committed to public discourse, social justice, and community-centered pedagogy and research.
Using a range of emerging technologies and the tremendous advantages provided by interdisciplinary collaboration across media arts, humanities, and sciences, Make Space and its programs support students as engaged citizens and professionals, faculty in their research and artistic production, and NYC-based community groups seeking digital and media tools to support their missions.
Beads & Seeds
A short documentary film project created in IMA class: Media, Advocacy, and the Urban Environment taught by Kelly Anderson. The film is about the first Lenape-curated exhibition in North America which debuted at the Brooklyn Greenpoint Library. The project was a collaboration between the Lenape Center and IMA students: Lucy Adams, Nate Dorr, Sarah Jacobson, Monica Rocha.
Jewel Streets
Stills from a film project by IMA student Sarah Jacobson called Jewel Streets which started in IMA class, Community, Media Advocacy about a neighborhood in NYC that is perpetually flooded and in dire need of improved infrastructure. Jewel Streets introduces the viewer to the neighborhood’s residents, the many health hazards they face and the community groups efforts to help.
Make Space Team
The Make Space team consists of Kelly Anderson (Professor and Chair, Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College), Andrew Demirjian (Associate Professor, Department of Film and Media Studies), James Levy (founder and Executive Director of the Race and Place Coalition and the Whose Land? public history project) and Luca Lee (transmedia artist and journalist). In Spring 2023 we have two IMA student Make Space Fellows, Prisca Edwards and Carlos Morales, mentoring students in the Mellon Public Humanities and Social Justice (MPHSJ) Scholars Program.
Make Space Partners
History of Make Space Project
Make Space grew out of IMA’s collaborative classes, which over the past decade have brought students from Urban Planning, Public Policy and Public Health together with IMA students to create media that advanced social justice in New York City neighborhoods. It was further developed through seed funding from the Ford Foundation.
Phase 1: 2018 – 2020
The Ford Foundation awarded Hunter College funds to develop a vision for a global media center devoted to social justice and community engaged practice. Since receiving the grant, Hunter has engaged in two phases of vision development and early program pilots. Activities have included:
● Extensive interviews with Hunter faculty, students and outside thought-leaders
● Research on similarly-oriented programs and centers in and beyond New York to assess the needs and opportunities in community media and democracy efforts regarding Hunter’s potential role and unique offerings
● Draft and revision of the vision and concept for a Media and Digital Humanities “hub,” called Make Space, based on research, interviews, assessments of existing programs, and reviews of strategic priorities of Hunter
● Successful execution of three pilot projects involving interdisciplinary coursework and community engagement.
Phase 2: 2021 – 2022
In 2021, in collaboration with professor James Levy’s project Whose Land?, Make Space created two Whose Land? fellowships. IMA students Kiara Holley and Luca Lee worked over the summer to foster community connections that resulted in work made by IMA students in the Community Media, Advocacy and Urban Environments class taught by Kelly Anderson. Partner organizations for that project were the Lenape Center, the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition, Seneca Village, and the East New York Community Land Trust.
2023 and beyond
Currently, the Make Space team is establishing a Hunter-based vision team and interdisciplinary working group to ensure alignment with existing programs, departments, and initiatives. The team is prioritizing closely compatible Hunter programs like the Computer Science Department, the Hunter Library, the Journalism program in the Department of Film and Media Studies, and The Department of Africana, Puerto Rican and Latino studies, as well as community-facing and cultural programs like Centro and the East Harlem Gallery. The team is also working closely to establish alignments and co-visioning with Hunter institutional structures like the Roosevelt House, the School of Social Work, and the Mellon Public Humanities and Social Justice program.
In the future, Make Space will offer an innovative way to serve both local neighborhood communities and Hunter students. It will support service-learning opportunities and training in social-equity-oriented digital storytelling, provide physical spaces (on-campus and in local communities) for collaborative work and public events, provide access to equipment, software, and other technological resources to under-resourced communities, and offer programming support to community partners working on digital projects.
For more into about Make Space, contact makespaceathunter@gmail.com
Sample community-facing coursework (produced through IMA courses)
● Archival Media and Participatory Aesthetics class
Mother, Bethel, Harlem, USA
A collaborative project and exhibit between artist and professor Thomas Allen Harris, IMA students and the Hunter East Harlem Gallery.
● Media, Advocacy and the Urban Environment class
Sound Walk for the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition
A collaboration between the coalition and IMA students Kiara Holley and Prisca Edwards.
Beeds & Seeds
Documentary: A collaboration between the Lenape Center with IMA students Monica Rocha and Nate Dorr.
Gentrification Express: Breaking Down the BQX
Documentary by Samantha Farinella, Elliot Hetterly and Amanda Katz. Created in collaboration with UPROSE.
Subprimed
Documentary: A collaboration between students Nayo Joy Simmons, Kahil Shkymba, and Sarah Friedland.
Rezoning Harlem
Documentary by Natasha Florentino, Tamara Gubernat, Juliana Alzate and Pamela Nichols.
The Domino Effect
Documentary by Megan Sperry, Brian Paul and Daniel Phelps.