Irban Art began with a single idea: to give creative work somewhere to land.

From that idea, we began to search for stories we could not easily find: fantasy and imaginative literature centered on complex Black women and men characters immersed in Black American culture. Characters who were shown experiencing adventure, love, friendship, curiosity, and ordinary life without their existence being defined by racism or poverty. The development of Empress of Islands became the beginning of something larger. Publishing one story was not enough. We wanted to build the kind of creative home we had been searching for.

For generations, creative work has lived quietly in homes, notebooks, family collections, computer files, studios, and the minds of people who may never have been given a clear path to develop it further. Irban Art was created from the belief that Black creativity deserves somewhere concrete to land: a place where original work can be developed into intellectual property, connected to its creator, shared with the communities seeking it, and preserved for those who come next.

We believe who gets to create, publish, preserve, and decide what is worthy of an audience matters.

Black American stories are at the foundation of Irban Art because Black American creators remain underrepresented within the institutions that shape publishing and the visual arts. Lee & Low's 2023 Diversity Baseline Survey found that 72.5% of publishing, literary agency, and review-journal respondents were White, while only 5.3% identified as Black/African American/Afro-Caribbean. Among literary agents specifically, 73.7% identified as White and only 4.3% as Black/African American/Afro-Caribbean.

This disparity is also visible in the visual arts. A study of 18 major U.S. art museums found that approximately 85% of artists represented in their collections were White. More specifically, the Burns Halperin Report's examination of 31 U.S. museums found that only 2.2% of acquisitions and 6.3% of exhibitions between 2008 and 2020 were by Black American artists. For Black American women, the figure was just 0.5% of museum acquisitions.

These numbers are part of why Irban Art chooses to center and prioritize Black American creativity rather than treating representation as an afterthought. We want Black American writers and artists to have room to create expansive work, build intellectual property, experiment across genres and mediums, and see their cultures and imaginations represented without having to make themselves more familiar, more palatable, or more commercially convenient.

At the same time, our commitment to creative independence extends beyond our center. We recognize that creators from other communities of color have also faced exclusion, stereotyping, limited access, and pressure to reshape their characters, cultures, and stories to fit mainstream expectations. We make room for creators of color who have experienced that same pressure to become less of themselves in order to be welcomed into the industry.

Irban Art's doors are centered, not closed. Black American voices remain the foundation and priority of what we build, while our broader creative community includes artists and writers of color whose work shares our commitment to creative independence, cultural integrity, authentic representation, and the freedom to create without erasing what makes the work their own.

Irban Art was founded by a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and creative whose relationship with art began in childhood and has continued across drawing, painting, graphic and web design, textiles, fashion, writing, and visual development. Moving between mediums fostered an understanding that there is rarely one prescribed path for a creative life, and that the time, craftsmanship, experimentation, and persistence behind a work deserve recognition.

With an Associate of Arts from Community College of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a minor in Philosophy from the University of Denver, the founder brings together creative practice with an academic foundation in communication, critical thought, and the ways ideas move between people and communities. Her professional experience in nonprofit spaces centered around community, housing, and creativity further shaped her understanding of the importance of access, resources, representation, and creating spaces where people can develop and thrive.

That combination of creative and community-centered experience ultimately shaped the philosophy behind Irban Art: creative work needs somewhere to land, and the people who create it need to remain connected to what they build.

Irban Art grew from the realization that publishing one personal body of work would not be enough. The larger purpose is to build something capable of making room for others: a lasting home for creativity, community, resources, and possibility that future generations can see, touch, hear, experience, and build upon.