Nia hanging out with friends in her favorite shirt
Knitting is Nia’s passion, but crochet is beautiful too!
A relatable mood…
Nia Smith is a designer, crafter, gardener, permanent pedestrian, and community member. She got her start with community organizing as a child, when her dad ran for school board and showed her the importance in participating in your community to affect change. Over the years, Nia has lived and organized all over the country, blending her passion for quality design and advocacy together, to make every place she lives just a little bit better than when she arrived. Her advocacy covers innumerable topics, including, housing, transit, expungement, and abolition. Nia’s design focus is on the built environment, but her background is in handmade fashion. Her eye for detail and dedication to the people around her help her find the sweet spot for neighborhood needs, community dreams, and what is truly possible.
When she’s not at work, she’s biking across the city, knitting too hard, or feeding her friends at her cottage.
What Nia Does at the Design Center:
At the Civic Design Center, Nia engages with people from all over Nashville about what they would want in their neighborhood to make their lives easier and more enjoyable. She works to make sure people are educated in design language and are given the power to manage and make decisions for themselves. No one knows what a space needs more than the people who live there. Her work attempts to deepen our relationship to the areas around us and believe that we can make the changes we want to see.