A Celebration and Summary

2016-2026

Beebe Arts is a Detroit-based multidisciplinary practice spanning art, research, education, and community design, built on the belief that knowledge lives in people and places institutions routinely overlook, and that liberation is something practiced, not just theorized.

Beebe Arts LLC was founded in 2016. 

In the ten years since, across research studies, community design programs, coaching relationships, and participatory arts practice, a small number of commitments have repeated:

  1. People outside institutions already think systemically.

  2. Meaning-making, not information transfer, is the actual mechanism of change.

  3. Research design is inseparable from what it produces.

  4. Equity and liberation require distributed capacity, not technical solutions alone.

  5. The labor of creating better timelines, carried disproportionately by Black women and women of color, is among the most structurally significant and unrecognized labor in any system.

Before Year One: The Research Foundation, 2013 to 2016

Original Logo

2018 Logo

2022 Logo

Beebe Arts LLC is an effort of love, born directly of Dr. Chanel Beebe's lived experience as a community member, artist, and advocate based in Detroit, Michigan. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan and her graduate studies at Purdue University, Dr. Beebe began asking the same questions she would spend the next ten years building an organization around:

Who gets listened to?

Whose knowledge counts?

What does it take to design with people? 

More about Dr. Chanel Beebe

Dr. Chanel Beebe is a Detroit-born interdisciplinary artist, educator, researcher, and writer whose work lives at the intersection of creativity, community, and systems transformation. She holds a B.S. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University, where she was a Gates Millennium Scholar and a Ford Foundation Fellow. Her dissertation, But What Does It Mean to the People Who Matter?, investigated meaning-making in engineering outreach through a critical, community-informed lens, the same question that would go on to shape everything Beebe Arts became.

She founded Beebe Arts LLC on the belief that art, data, and dialogue are not separate disciplines but one practice, and that liberation is something built in relationship, not delivered from outside it. As an Intermittent Lecturer at the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, she teaches identity-driven design research and social inquiry. Across research, education, consulting, and art, her throughline has stayed the same for ten years: knowledge lives in the people institutions overlook, and the method used to gather that knowledge shapes what can be known at all.

Our Process

Digital Media Design

Ongoing partnership for artists, practitioners, small creative businesses, and arts organizations building and sustaining a public presence: consistent, intentional, and grounded in who they actually are.

Services

  • Social media management, content strategy and planning

  • Graphic design for social and print, email marketing

  • Event and ticketing management, website and digital presence management

  • Copywriting and advisory, content production coordination

Educational Design

Cultivating enriching learning environments, grounded in holistic student development, community, and real-world social contexts.

Services

  • Curriculum development and design, teacher training and professional development

  • Educational program evaluation, research methodology training

  • Leadership development in education, equity and inclusion in education

  • Youth development and engagement, publication and symposium support

Research Design

Comprehensive research design and implementation blending creativity, community engagement, and rigorous methodology to drive impactful outcomes.

Services

  • Strategic research design and implementation, literature review and analysis

  • Budget management and data-driven decision-making, experience design and prototype development

  • Community brainstorming and co-creation events, collaborative partnership and stakeholder engagement

  • Program evaluation and impact assessment, data analysis and reporting

Cultural Design

Ongoing practice curating exhibitions, festivals, and publications for artists and community voices: consistent, public, and built to last.

Services

  • Exhibition curation and call for art, installation and reception coordination

  • Festival and marketplace programming, vendor and small business showcase coordination

  • Magazine editorial direction and production, book development and editing

  • Formatting and cover design, ISBN acquisition, publishing and distribution

Whats Next

The past ten years are just the beginning of the work and impact Beebe Arts LLC intends to make!

Stay tuned for more events, reach out to us about our consulting, and follow our social media for more updates!

Looking Ahead

CREATE FESTIVAL

August 15

9321 Rosa Parks Blvd, Detroit, MI 48206

redd.con

November 7th

100 Lenox, Detroit, MI 48215

A creative community service network built on the belief that Detroit is and will continue to be the most original and creatively authentic city in the world. Reddcon opens opportunities for artists through grants, exhibitions, and installations.

Beebe Arts' annual community arts festival is now in its sixth year.

Art exhibitions, live music, creative workshops, and handmade crafts, with free entry.

Cultural Design Marathon

The design sprint methodology at the center of Beebe Arts' first ten years, now with a home of its own.

THANK YOU

To every community partner, collaborator, client, and supporter who has worked with us over the years, THANK YOU!

We can’t wait to continue this work and see what type of world we can co-create!