What becomes possible when art, science, and technology converge in service of human flourishing?
Good Mirrors is a social practice studio and research consultancy grounded in a single thesis: that human flourishing depends on creativity to imagine new possibilities, community to sustain us, and collective memory to understand who we are and where we've been.
Everyone deserves a good mirror.
We build mirrors - immersive, participatory, and research-grounded - that help communities see themselves more fully and imagine what becomes possible.
We partner with artists, researchers, institutions, and funders who believe in the transformative power of creativity, community, and story.
We're particularly interested in collaborations at the intersection of arts practice and research, where the work can generate both cultural impact and an evidence base for what human flourishing actually requires.
Our Principles
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Imagination as a tool for transformation
Creativity is the capacity through which people expand their sense of what's possible for themselves and their communities. We design experiences that activate imagination as a social practice, not just an individual pursuit.
Artwork by: Aisha Shillingford
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Belonging as the ground of flourishing
Humans do not flourish alone. We thrive in relationship, in circles of care, shared practice, and mutual witness. Our work cultivates the conditions for genuine belonging.
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Story as the architecture of identity
The stories a community has access to about itself shape what it believes is possible. We build archives, exhibitions, and digital infrastructure that expand the record, ensuring that more people can see themselves in the stories that shape culture.
hu·man flou·rish·ing /ˈhjumən ˈfləriSHin/: a state of being in which individuals embody their full potential, live with dignity, and meaningfully engage with the world around them, not as an individual achievement, but as a collective condition that communities create together.
Our work is grounded in emerging research on flourishing, narrative, and well-being from the Harvard Human Flourishing Program to the community-based participatory research traditions of public health. We believe art is a research site and we are building the evidence base to prove it.
Recent Projects
Good Mirrors Index
Technology is redefining how we think, dream and remember. We believe it plays a critical role in preserving memory and shaping identity, perspective and well-being. If technology shapes who we become, then communities must have agency in its design - so that our futures reflect human-centered values of care, empathy, and equity.
Good Mirrors Index is a digital encyclopedia created to expand the data used to train AI systems ensuring that technology better reflects human stories, particularly those of Black women, with greater depth and accuracy. This is our most ambitious assertion: that collective memory, encoded correctly, changes what the future can see.
Supported by Mozilla Foundation, Meta Open Arts, and New Inc.
WITNESS Exhibition
A visual arts exhibition and national tour preserving cultural memory through the eyes of Black women. Co-curated with Tina Knowles and in partnership with Black Women Photographers, WITNESS is a study in how representation shapes the record of who we are.
Supported by Pivotal Ventures.
TRUTH Portal
An interactive installation that collects and transmits audio-based stories of Black women, by Black women - combating algorithmic bias by expanding the narratives that shape how communities are represented online.
Experience the portal online at TRUTHPortal.xyz
Supported by the Mozilla Creative Media Award. Read more here.
Mirror Work
31 bespoke affirmations created as a ritual of reflection and care. Mirror Work is a physical artifact of creative practice.
Mirror Work has been featured in exhibitions including WITNESS and Kinfolk Tech’s KIN Festival, and finds home with women whose creativity and brilliance continue to inspire our work - among them Tina Campt, Ava DuVernay, Ruha Benjamin, Tina Knowles, Jasmine Wahi, Fe Noel, and Jannah and Kiyanna Handy of BLK MKT Vintage.
We are a collective of artists, researchers, designers, community-builders, and impact-minded strategists.
In the News
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‘Few people ask us what we think about ourselves’: This L.A. art show elevates Black women and nonbinary artists
Co-curated by GOOD MIRRORS Founder, Genel Ambrose and Tina Knowles, philanthropist and Artistic Director of the WACO Theater Center, WITNESS exhibition asks: What do we witness when we see through the eyes of Black women?
Read about it in the L.A. Times here.
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Tina Knowles and Genel Ambrose on Curating a Love Letter to Black Femme Artistry
WITNESS exhibition is an immersive visual art experience that features work by Black women and non-binary artists who project their vision of the world, society, community, and themselves through art.
Read ELLE Magazine’s review here.
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TRUTH Portal Challenges, Changes Algorithmic Bias Against Black Women
Mozilla Creative Media Awardee TRUTH Portal uses positive storytelling to address harmful online narratives about Black women.
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10 Projects Rethinking Data Stewardship: Announcing Mozilla’s 2022 Creative Media Awards
GOOD MIRRORS Founder, Genel Ambrose, is one of ten global recipients of Mozilla's 2022 Creative Media Award. The grant will be used to build TRUTH Portal, an interactive platform of stories of Black women, by Black women to combat systemic bias in artificial intelligence.
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Emerging Visionary Grant Partnership
In collaboration with SheaMoisture, GOOD MIRRORS created the Emerging Visionary Grant, a 50k opportunity for 10 Black women storytellers who use prose, poetry, and other forms of expression to expand the narratives of Black women and foster history-making change in their communities.