(upbeat music)
I like to say that I'm a curator of experience,
in that I really think a lot more about environments
than objects.
I wanna make sure that the rooms that I'm in
are as diverse as possible.
I wanna make sure that the exhibitions that I attend
are as diverse as possible.
The portfolio of institutions that I support
are as diverse as possible.
It really is about making sure that there's
an experience of community,
a momentum that's created if I'm doing something.
I grew up around art
but I never really thought about it
as a professional option for me.
But it was interning at the Studio Museum in Harlem,
that I became aware of how vast the museum world can be.
And that vastness could provide an opportunity
for someone like myself.
And when I got back to college,
I immediately switched to art history
because it was kind of this awakening moment for me,
this understand, like,
this is an industry that I wanna be in.
In the first semester,
was so excited to know that I was kind of like,
on this life path.
Like any true millennial,
I went into social media
digging for something that could activate me
in the same way that the Studio Museum had.
On Black Contemporary Art,
I work alongside several editors
to put out as much art by Black artists as possible.
Like, it's a very simple mission.
It started with, really five posts that I posted.
But, when I was really starting the blog
I didn't know much.
And so being able to grow along with them
and inform my practice as a researcher,
as an art historian,
and then also to see them grow
and ebb and flow and have babies.
It just became so much deeper than a blog.
'Cause it is an industry that is opaque,
and intimidating, and exclusionary,
it's really important for,
for me personally,
to make sure people know
that there's just so many points of entry.
There's lawyers.
There's registrars.
There's conservators.
There's guards.
And it's so cool to know all of them.
And I feel responsibility to share them.
But when it comes to being a part of the art world really,
that first post inserted me into the art world.
Like, immediately.
The way that social media,
it like thrust up against,
and is in this bump and grind with art,
it affords so many of us,
who otherwise would be silenced opportunities,
to have a voice.
To join a chorus, as well.
You have Black artists
who are starting their own organizations.
You have Black artists working at the intersection
of art and social justice.
You have Black artists who are on a traditional like,
white chip gallery path.
But what I would say that I see more and more of,
is just like, more examples.
Right, more opportunities.
The proliferation into pop culture again.
'Cause it's not just about the galleries.
It's not just about the museums,
or just the studios.
It really is about the proliferation.
It's not just for the privileged,
it's not just for people who
just have an art history degree.
It's very much all of ours.
I have been a witness to so much evolution.
But there has been so many ways
that I've seen in my short time change happen.
And then also, of course, arriving
and surprising people in rooms.
You know.
Other Black people in rooms.
Other women in rooms.
Where they're like, "Wow.
"It's so nice to see you here."
In my lifetime I've had people
that I'm deeply inspired by, and 100 percent wanna be.
I have people who I absolutely hate.
Equally (laughs) inspiring.
You know?
'Cause I'm like, "I'm tired of seeing you do it this way."
It inspires me to continue to go.
I think for myself, I represent so many identities,
and I advocate for them all full stop.
I am a Black woman, first and foremost.
It's my favorite one of my identities.
It's the one I feel most honored to wear everyday.
I am a nerd.
I am queer.
I, in my time, have been extended and afforded
the opportunity to be all those things
by a matrix of people.
And so I take it upon myself to make sure that other people
and their own respective identities
have those same opportunities at every turn possible.