This Open Studio is not a culmination of work. It is a window into research that remains open. What is on view represents the current state of an evolving body of work — the frameworks, findings, and curatorial thinking emerging from Borders of Belonging and Conditions of Belonging: Joy, presented as a live inquiry rather than resolved conclusion. It is the work as it exists now, inside Henry's AAR studio, inside his Atelier, unfinished in the way that all meaningful research is unfinished. Not despite its open questions, but because of them. The work on view, Conditions of Belonging: Joy, is Henry's curated exhibition for Rome's annual IPER Festival, Festival delle Periferie, installed throughout MAAM / Metropoliz. MAAM is a former salami factory on the eastern edge of Rome occupied in 2009 by a community of immigrants, day laborers, and homeless families, and transformed through necessity into a place to live. By 2012, more than 650 works by over 450 artists were donated to help resist displacement of this community. During his time in Rome, MAAM moved from a precedent Henry was researching to a place he is actively participating in. It embodies what this research is about: the architecture of survival, the politics of presence, and using the beauty and social criticality of art to construct belonging in a world that registers the presence of certain people without ever acknowledging their humanity.

Cory Henry is an award-winning architect, urbanist, and educator who founded the Los Angeles studio Atelier Cory Henry in 2018. His practice integrates architecture and research to address complex social, environmental, and cultural challenges.

A 2025–2026 Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, Henry investigates public spaces as arenas for democracy. He has taught at elite institutions, including the Harvard Graduate School of Design, UT Austin, and the University of Michigan.

Henry holds degrees from Drexel University and Cornell University. His community-centric portfolio includes the Mutual Aid Liberation Center in Atlanta, emphasizing civic equity. He is also a MacDowell Fellow.