BlackMuse
About BlackMuse

We bring the tools. People decide what to build with them.

BlackMuse is a Tacoma-based workforce-development and emerging-technology organization creating pathways from education to opportunity through state-funded employment services, school and afterschool programs, immersive technology, entrepreneurship and real-world employer experiences.

BlackMuse team members collaborating together
The Story

Where BlackMuse Began

BlackMuse did not begin with technology.

It began with loss.

After losing his father, BlackMuse founder David Robicheaux found himself thinking deeply about access—who gets access to education, who gets introduced to new tools, who gets shown what is possible, and how many doors remain closed simply because people were never given a way through them.

Out of that experience came a desire to build something larger. Something capable of breaking down barriers to education and the tools that make learning possible.

The dream was not simply to create another school program or another technology company. It was to build an expansive network of people, knowledge, opportunities, resources, and technology—and eventually, a virtual resource where anyone could come to learn, explore, create, and discover what might be possible for them.

BlackMuse grew from that dream.

A place where education would not be limited by geography.

A place where emerging technology would not belong only to the people who encountered it first.

A place where a student could discover a career they had never heard of.

A place where someone looking for work could meet a professional in an industry they wanted to enter.

A place where a community could preserve its history.

A place where a school could gain access to tools it could not otherwise provide.

A place where people could learn not only by being told, but by building, experimenting, questioning, and doing.

But the idea underneath it has remained the same:

Open the door.

Put the tools within reach.

Make knowledge easier to access.

Build a network large enough that more people can find their way in.

The Vision

Today, BlackMuse is working toward the idea that inspired its name and its growth: a living, expanding resource network where education, technology, people, and opportunity can meet.

Not one building. Not one classroom. Not one program. A network.

A student might enter through an afterschool program. Someone else through DVR. Another through an employer. Someone might discover BlackMuse through a VR experience, a historical marker, an AI conversation, a workforce program, a game they are building, or a resource they found online.

The entry points can be different. The goal is the same: give people somewhere to explore what is possible—and tools to begin building from there.

Bringing Wakanda to the People

As BlackMuse grew, another metaphor began to describe the larger vision: What would it look like to bring a piece of Wakanda to the people?

Not Wakanda as the origin of BlackMuse. And not simply as a reference to futuristic technology. Wakanda represents what can happen when knowledge, imagination, culture, technology, and resources exist together—and when people have meaningful access to all of them.

For BlackMuse, "bringing Wakanda to the people" means bringing powerful tools closer to where people already are. Into schools. Into workforce programs. Into community spaces. Into businesses. Onto the internet. Into virtual worlds. And eventually into a connected resource network that people can access from anywhere.

We do not believe technology itself is liberation. The opportunity is in what people are able to do once the tools are in their hands.

  • Learn with them.
  • Question them.
  • Create with them.
  • Preserve with them.
  • Work with them.
  • Build something new with them.

We bring the tools.

We open the doors.

What people build from there belongs to them.

What BlackMuse Is

One organization. Four connected doors.

Education, workforce, employers and technology aren't separate departments — they feed each other.

Education

Schools, afterschool, technology and creative learning.

School programs, afterschool programs, VR, game design, entrepreneurship, movement, creative technology, AI, emerging technology and project-based learning.

  • VR + Game Design
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Movement
  • AI + Emerging Technology
  • Project-Based Learning
Explore School Programs

Workforce

State-funded career and employment services.

Pre-ETS, CRP employment services, career exploration, workplace readiness, work-based learning, self-advocacy, postsecondary pathways, internships and employment preparation.

  • Pre-ETS
  • CRP Employment Services
  • Career Exploration
  • Workplace Readiness
  • Work-Based Learning
Explore State Programs

Employers

Businesses opening doors to real-world experiences.

Informational interviews, employer tours, job shadows, mentorship, work-based learning, internships and employment opportunities.

  • Informational Interviews
  • Employer Tours
  • Job Shadows
  • Mentorship
  • Internships
Become an Employer Partner

Technology + Innovation

Tools and products designed for learning, workforce development, history and industry.

Virtual reality, artificial intelligence, immersive learning, MarkerQuest, SterileVR, digital archiving, experimental projects and emerging technology.

  • Virtual Reality
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • MarkerQuest
  • SterileVR
  • Digital Archiving
Explore BlackMuse Labs
The Journey

How BlackMuse grew

  1. 01

    BlackMuse founded

    Started in Tacoma around a question of access: who gets introduced to new tools, and who gets shown what is possible?

  2. 02

    Tacoma youth programming

    VR, game design and movement programming across Tacoma schools and community spaces.

  3. 03

    Washington DVR / Pre-ETS

    Pre-Employment Transition Services delivered across traditional, alternative, therapeutic and residential settings.

  4. 04

    CRP employment services

    Individualized employment services connecting participants, the public agency and employers across the Puget Sound.

  5. 05

    Breaking Barriers Award

    2023

    Recognized by Keep It Local Tacoma for creating new pathways to technology, education and opportunity.

  6. 06

    California school expansion

    A three-school Compton pilot with Think Together grew into work across Lynwood, Paramount, Moreno Valley and Rio School District.

  7. 07

    Youth Shark Tank

    Student teams from Washington and California pitch games, products and ventures in a cross-state showcase.

  8. 08

    MarkerQuest

    A location-based public-history platform, piloted in Tacoma.

  9. 09

    SterileVR

    Immersive workforce training for sterile processing.

  10. 10

    Current expansion

    Growing the ecosystem across schools, state programs, employers and BlackMuse Labs.

Leadership

The people building BlackMuse

David Robicheaux, Founder & CEO of BlackMuse

David Robicheaux

Founder & CEO

“How do we bring powerful tools and real opportunities closer to the people who can use them?”

David Robicheaux is the Founder and CEO of BlackMuse, where he leads the organization's work across workforce development, education, emerging technology and strategic partnerships.

Under David's leadership, BlackMuse has developed programs spanning Pre-Employment Transition Services, employment services, work-based learning, virtual reality, game design, entrepreneurship and emerging technology. BlackMuse has worked across schools, state-funded programs, community spaces and employer networks in Washington and California.

David also leads BlackMuse's expansion into technology development through projects including MarkerQuest and SterileVR — extending the organization from teaching with emerging technology to building new tools of its own.

His focus is not technology for technology's sake. It is building systems where education, creativity, work and technology connect to something tangible: experience, ownership and opportunity.

  • Workforce development
  • Education
  • Program development
  • Emerging technology
  • School partnerships
  • Employer partnerships
  • Washington + California
Taylor Tate, Co-Founder & COO of BlackMuse

Taylor Tate, M.A.

Co-Founder & COO

“What kind of learning — and what kind of people — are our tools helping us create?”

Taylor Tate is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of BlackMuse, helping shape the educational philosophy, curriculum, program design and operational systems behind the organization's work.

With a background in philosophy of education, Taylor's work explores the relationship between education, artificial intelligence, ethics, creativity and human development. At BlackMuse, she helps translate those ideas into learning experiences that invite students to experiment, question, create and think critically about the technologies becoming part of everyday life.

Taylor also leads BlackMuse's Model Behavior educational series, which examines artificial intelligence in the classroom and the ethical, cultural and philosophical questions emerging alongside it.

Her work helps ensure that BlackMuse does more than introduce people to new technology. It creates space to ask what that technology is for, who it serves and what we choose to build with it.

  • Curriculum
  • Program operations
  • Philosophy of education
  • AI ethics
  • Instructional design
  • Emerging technology
  • Technology in learning + community
Watch Model Behavior (opens in a new tab)
BlackMuse on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
Recognition

Breaking Barriers Award

Keep It Local Tacoma · 2023

BlackMuse was honored with the 2023 Breaking Barriers Award from Keep It Local Tacoma, recognizing the organization's work creating new pathways to technology, education and opportunity.

For BlackMuse, breaking barriers means more than providing access to a device or introducing someone to a career. It means creating environments where people who may have been excluded from emerging technologies can touch them, question them, build with them and begin imagining where those tools might take them next.

David Robicheaux holding the Breaking Barriers Award at a Keep It Local Tacoma event
Close-up of the engraved Breaking Barriers Award presented to BlackMuse
David Robicheaux speaking on stage with the Breaking Barriers Award presentation behind him
Virtual Resource Center

BlackMuse Virtual Resource Center

BlackMuse grew from a question of access:

What would it look like to bring a piece of Wakanda to the people?

Not by asking people to go somewhere else to find the future.

By bringing tools into the places where people already:

LIVELEARNWORKBUILD

We don't believe technology alone will save us.

We believe in what people can do with it.

BlackMuse creates spaces where people can explore, make, question, experiment and build for themselves.

We bring the tools. Our people decide what to build with them.

Where would you like to go next?

Work With UsSee Our ImpactGet in Touch
BlackMuse LLC — Tacoma, Washington