A note from Kat Cheairs,
MAKEDA SCHOOL Founding Director

I founded MAKEDA SCHOOL FOR ART, MEDIA, AND HUMANITIES IN 2022 to respond to a need I saw for creating "third spaces" for education and learning outside of the more traditional classroom structure and environment. MAKEDA SCHOOL programs emerge out of pedagogy which examines the "specific" as a way to enter complex dialogues about our shared societal, cultural, artistic, and political history.

Course themes are grounded in a curriculum that foregrounds  Black Studies, Queer Studies, and Critical Theory, not only in response to the current political climate seeking to silence these discourses but as a means to illuminate liberatory modes of thinking. My work as an educator, artist, and researcher is always seeking to learn more about the context of my existence. What does it mean to be alive in this time; in this body; in these geographies? This can take place through engagement with literature, art, film and video, archival material, deep study, contemplation, and shared dialogue with others. I believe that collaborative learning can be a site of great transformation within ourselves, in our communities, and in society as a whole. 

The photograph of the Freedmen's Bureau School seen throughout the site is located on the Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill, TN where my father's ancestors were enslaved. This work is thus highly personal and part of a lineage where education is freedom, freedom located in the mind, body, and spirit. Thank you for being a part of this third space for collective learning. 

- Kat Cheairs

Katherine "Kat" Cheairs (she/they), MFA is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and community impact leader.