About Us
The Solid Black Collective is a group of Black OCAD University Assistant Professors in the Faculty of Design. Our mission is to be a catalyst for change for our Canadian Black diaspora community through our lived experiences and multiple design practices. We are guided by principles of decolonization, diversity and equity, sustainability, interdisciplinarity, health, and wellness. These principles are imbued in the OCAD University strategic plan and ventured to employ innovative design education to benefit the Black community positively.
Kathy Moscou is a mixed media visual storyteller, Faculty of Design Interim Dean, and Associate Professor that has been teaching at OCAD University since 2020. Her contribution to the education of post-secondary students and exhibition history spans more than 25 years.
Kathy’s lived experience informs her art, focus on Black cultural aesthetics, research, and design for social justice. Her art is representational and uses visual storytelling to explore issues of identity, communicate empowerment, celebrate the Black family, and give homage to elders as knowledge keepers. Recent interactive installations have engaged the public to contribute to the hidden Black history of St John’s Ward – Toronto, Ontario and envision a just and equitable future by “Planting seeds of Change”. Her work has been exhibited in Art Gallery of Southwest Manitoba, Royal Ontario Museum, M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, Seattle, Bellevue Art Museum, Wheat City Nuit Blanche, La Yareta Gallery, Chile and featured in Toronto, Nuit Blanche.
Angela Bains is the Acting Associate Dean, Academic Affairs in the Faculty of Design at OCAD University). She also holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Advertising Programme, specialising in decolonising advertising. Angela’s teaching philosophy involves Respectful Design, Black and Indigenous Relational Knowledge and Biomimetics/Biomimicry to foster a “nature as innovator” thought process. Since starting at OCAD University in 2020, she has held several key leadership positions as Graduate Programme Director for the Strategic Foresight and Innovation Master’s programme and Advertising Programme Chair. Her research focuses on thriving Black communities and human-centred design in business. Angela is the Co-founder and Strategic Director of TransformExp Inc., an international award-winning strategy and design firm. In addition, she is the winner of multiple teaching awards including being nominated for the prestigious Canadian Design Educators Award of Excellence.
Artist Kestin Cornwall is an assistant professor who has been teaching in the Faculty of Design (Illustration) since 2020.
Kestin Cornwall’s unconventional mixed-media visual work incorporates classic portraiture and classical references with hybrid art image creation. Cornwall employs various techniques, combining beautiful hand drawings with strong digital image-making, screen-printing and ink transfers. Cornwall also uses skilled acrylic and aerosol painting on wood and other canvases to create unique work.
Cornwall’s work raises thought-provoking questions regarding equality, immigration, and what it means to be Black in North America. Cornwall explores culture and humanity’s relationship with beauty, sex, nature, and cultivation through his creative process. Cornwall uses images to challenge the mass public perception of Black people and people of colour, shaped by history, entertainment, media, and pop culture. The compositions are filled with references to media, popular culture, music, and art history. Cornwall’s work aims to add beauty to the world while invoking the unending social responsibility to capture thought.
