CultureCon 2026’s “Museum of Us” theme brought an estimated 12,000 people to the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Duggal Greenhouse this past weekend to take part in panels, workshops, career resources, brand activations, and art.
The two-day gathering of Black and Brown creators was founded by Imani Ellis in 2017 after she started the Creative Collective NYC in her Harlem apartment. CultureCon is now in its ninth year.
Artwork was featured throughout the festival’s stages. Among the exhibitors were CheyanneMyersArt and Mara-Lynn’s Tactile_Canvas. Painting, design, and tactile works shared space during the event with film, music, and media.
One art piece making a push to become a literal living archive was “Protect Our Piece,” a custom crocheted couch covered in plastic and stitched with words and phrases that represent what Black communities refuse to lose. Danielle Young, an art director at the BarkleyOKRP advertising agency, developed the crocheted couch concept. She said it reflects a familiar Black family rule: “The plastic-covered couch was more than just a couch. You understood it was protected because it was valuable,” said Young. “So many Black people share that experience, and at a time when parts of our culture risk being lost or erased, the idea of protecting what matters feels especially powerful.”
Young said the “Protect Our Piece” project speaks to the Black diaspora, joining community participation with the creative ingenuity born from making something larger out of limited resources. Its red, white, and blue palette deliberately evokes both the American and Juneteenth flags.
Chicago fiber artist Chelsea B. crocheted the couch, and the project was launched around Juneteenth after months of development. The project references several parts of Black culture that the artists and people who have contributed ideas to it say they don’t want to see an end to: Black joy, HBCUs, Black stories, Black media, and cultural artifacts.
The “Protect Our Piece” couch is designed to keep changing. CultureCon attendees were able to submit ideas about the traditions and institutions they believe should be carried forward, and people who couldn’t view the couch in person can contribute their ideas about what parts of Black culture should be preserved at ProtectOurPiece.com. The project’s creators want to stitch selected responses onto the couch. “I want ‘Protect Our Piece’ to keep growing and creating conversations around Black culture,” said Young. “The dream is to see the couch travel to galleries, meaningful cultural events, and public institutions like the Smithsonian, picking up new stories along the way — and one day, maybe even find a home at a place like the Obama Presidential Center!”
