Aisha Densmore-Bey
Interests: arts activism, artist housing, affordable housing, art and public programming, urban planning, museums, art-guided public health initiatives, equitable neighborhoods, art and design, public art
Aisha Densmore-Bey’s research explores how artists and arts-based planning in communities of color can create a framework for healthier and equitable neighborhoods in major US cities. She aims to identify methods of urban planning and policy that have worked in concert with art initiatives; investigating if these actions have increased outcomes of improved health, social cohesion, housing stability, and a minimization of the damaging effects of gentrification; including displacement, neighborhood cultural erasure, and inflated housing prices.
While studying at Harvard, Aisha runs an eponymous creative practice focusing on architecture, graphics, art, film, and emphasizes representation for people of color in the design field. Aisha holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Florida A&M University and a Masters of Science in Strategic Design and Management from the Parsons School of Design at The New School. Her Masters capstone project on co-working and living spaces for creatives investigated a business model of affordable housing for creatives and artists in cities; she continues this work as part of her doctoral research at the Graduate School of Design.