Glass in the Culture: Cedric Mitchell Design at BETX The Exchange

Glass in the Culture: Cedric Mitchell Design at BETX The Exchange

There are moments when the work leaves the studio and enters a completely different conversation.

BETX The Exchange was one of those moments.

Created with Mass Appeal during the BET Experience in Los Angeles, The Exchange brought together Black artists, designers, independent brands, and cultural voices under one roof.

Cedric Mitchell Design was invited to be part of that story.

More Than a Marketplace

The Exchange wasn’t built around simply displaying products.

It was designed as a living archive of the diaspora—a space where every brand carried a story and every interaction moved that story forward.

That intention immediately connected with how I approach my own work.

Glass is the material, but the larger mission has always been about creating objects that carry identity, experimentation, movement, and joy.

Bringing Glass Into the Culture

For the installation, I presented a selection of handblown Kinetic Glasses and Chroma Stack Glasses.

The Kinetic Glasses balance on small glass spheres, creating movement and changing the way people interact with a familiar object. The Chroma Stack collection uses rhythm, color, and repeated forms to bring sculptural energy to functional glassware.

Seeing people stop, pick up the pieces, ask questions, and experience the work in person was the real exchange.

Many people had never encountered handblown glass presented this way—or imagined it existing within a space rooted so deeply in contemporary Black culture.

That is exactly where I want the work to live.

Not separated from culture.
Inside of it.

Objects That Start Conversations

I’ve never been interested in making objects that simply sit quietly in the background.

I want the work to create curiosity. To make someone look twice. To turn an everyday interaction into something playful, unexpected, and memorable.

At BETX, the glasses became conversation starters. People were drawn to the colors and forms, but the objects also opened the door to conversations about craft, design, process, and representation.

That connection is what gives the work life beyond the studio.

Community, Culture and Connection

One of the central messages throughout the BET Experience was simple:

Believe in community.
Believe in culture.
Believe in connection.

Those ideas are also at the center of what I’m building.

Every opportunity to place contemporary glass within new cultural spaces expands what people believe the material—and the people working with it—can become.

This experience wasn’t only about showing finished work. It was about visibility, access, and occupying space within a larger creative ecosystem.

The Exchange Continues

BETX was another step toward the future I see for Cedric Mitchell Design—one where glass moves freely between art, design, fashion, music, architecture, and everyday life.

From the furnace to the table.
From the studio to the community.
From handmade objects to the culture that gives them meaning.

Thank you to BETX, BET Experience, and Mass Appeal for creating the space and inviting Cedric Mitchell Design into the exchange.

This is where the work belongs.