On May 18, 2022, City Limits hosted an intimate conversation about art and the power of place, featuring architect Rodney Leon and New Museum Curatorial Assistant Madeline Weisburg, moderated by City Limits Executive Director Marjorie Martay.

About Rodney Leon, architect, founder & principal of Rodney Leon Design: Leon’s architectural career is centered on modern “culturally contextual” design, master planning and mixed-use housing developments for faith-based and international development organizations. He is the designer of the African Burial Ground Memorial in New York City and the Arc of the Return, a permanent memorial to enslaved victims and the Transatlantic Slave Trade at the United Nations. Leon also designed the Cultural Museum of African Art in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, which will open this year.

About Madeline Weisburg, curatorial assistant for The New Museum, New York: Weisburg is curatorial assistant for the exhibition “Faith Ringgold: American People,” which examines the artist’s figurative style as it evolved to meet the urgency of political and social change. It also foregrounds her radical explorations of gender and racial identities, which the artist incorporates into the rich textures of her paintings, soft sculptures, and story quilts.

Watch the full conversation below.

This event was presented as part of City Limits’ Art at the Limits series, which explores the people, places and politics of New York City’s five-borough art scene. Supported by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.