The Socially Responsive Museum

The Gymnast & Other Positions is Jacqueline Bishop’s most recent book and has been awarded the 2016 OCM Bocas Award in Non-Fiction. She is also the author of the novel, The River’s Song; and two collections of poems, Fauna and Snapshots from Istanbul. Her non-fiction books are My Mother Who Is Me: Life Stories from Jamaican Women in New York and Writers Who Paint/Painters Who Write: Three Jamaican Artists. An accomplished visual artist with exhibitions in Belgium, Morocco, Italy, USA and Jamaica, Ms. Bishop was a 2008-2009 Fulbright Fellow to Morocco, the 2009-2010 UNESCO/Fulbright Fellow, and is an Assistant Professor at New York University. In addition to the OCM Bocas Award, Bishop has received several additional awards, including: The Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for short story writing, A Fulbright year-long grant to Morocco, a UNESCO/Fulbright Fellowship to Paris, The Arthur Schomburg Award for Excellence in the Humanities from New York University, A James Michener Creative Writing Fellowship, as well as several awards from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission.

Julieta Cuéllar is the Global Networks Program Manager at the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience where she supports global exchange and learning among a network of over 200 Sites of Conscience in more than 55 countries. She also aids in the development and implementation of global programs for the Coalition’s members around the world, particularly focusing on global initiatives. Julieta is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in political science and Eastern European studies. She also attended the Institut d’études politiques de Paris and the School of International Training. Julieta’s studies and research have focused on the politics of memory in Serbia and the Balkans.

Alissandra Cummins is the Director of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society and was recently the Chairperson of the Executive Board of UNESCO (2011-2013). She has been lecturer in Heritage and Museum Studies with The University of the West Indies for over fifteen years and in 2011 she was appointed Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Intangible Heritage.  She was awarded Barbados’ Gold Crown of Merit (GCM) in 2005 and is a Fellow of The Museums Association (UK).

Ms. Cummins has also served formerly as Past President of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), 2004 – 2010; Chairperson of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Country of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP) from 2003-2005; Chairperson of the International Advisory Committee of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme, and  2007-2009; Rapporteur and Vice Chair of the World Heritage Committee between 2008-2011.

Alissandra Cummins is a recognized author most recently - Stefano, M L, Davis, P, and Corsane, G (eds), Touching the Intangible: Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Basil Reid (ed.) Caribbean Heritage (2012). She is a co-editor for Curating in the Caribbean (2012) and a contributor and co-editor of Plantation to Nation: Caribbean Museums and National Identity (2014).

Stephanie A. Cunningham is the Curator of Education at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. Her teaching career spans almost ten years and has afforded her the opportunity to teach in a variety of environments. She has practiced inquiry-based learning methodologies at cultural institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, where she helped create the internal Wiki database and pedagogical approach for engaging visitors through the museum's award-winning ASK app. At New York Historical Society she prepared lesson plans that focus on K-12 school’s interest in American history as well as more didactic approaches in tertiary level classes as a lecturer at City University of New York and New Jersey City University.

She has led training workshops for the Guggenheim Museum’s educators on ways to better engage visitors. At Weeksville Heritage Center she assisted in creating educational programs and increasing their online presence. Stephanie also co-curated Walcott House in Saint Lucia, the childhood home of Derek and Roderick Walcott - influential Caribbean visual artists, poets, and playwrights as well as wrote the script for the historic house’s tour guides. Stephanie is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Museum Hue, an organization that works to increase diversity in patrons, professionals, and cultural producers in the creative economy. She holds a B.A. in Art and Art History from Brooklyn College and an M.A. in Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies (CHAPS) from Rutgers University.

Omar recruits and manages over 200 interns and fellows at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH). He conducts presentations to various stakeholders to increase access to the Smithsonian. Omar develops partnerships with educational institutions and non-governmental organizations. He was involved in creating a briefing paper on diversity and inclusion at the museum to the Director John Gray and provides strategy for diversity recruitment for certain positions at the museum. Omar participates in many committees: NMAH Diversity Advisory Council, Smithsonian Latino Working Committee (Deputy Chair); Office of Fellowships & Internships Academic Appointment Diversity & Publicity Taskforce; Federal Committee: STEM Education (Underrepresented Communities) and others. He also serves as the National Board Chair for Museum Hue as well as a member of the Diversity Academy Advisory Board. He created the Smithsonian Career Center Conference to educate stakeholders about the intern/fellow experience at the Smithsonian. Omar has worked at the National Park Service, the Office of the National Museum of the American Latino Commission, NASA and he also was a K-12 teacher in NYC and DC. His research interests are Diversity and Inclusion in museums and cultural institutions; Afrolatinidad/Afrolatinoness in the United States; and Hip Hop history, culture and education. Omar received his bachelor’s of arts in African-American studies from the University of Maryland, College Park and holds a master’s in educational leadership from the American Intercontinental University. He is currently a PhD candidate in American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.  

Cheri Ehrlich is the Manager of School, Youth and Family Programs at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Ehrlich holds an Ed.D. in Art and Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. A dedicated educator for more than 15 years, she has experience working in museums, community centers, K-12 classrooms and universities. As Senior Museum Educator and Teens Program Coordinator at the Brooklyn Museum, Ehrlich worked with the Education Department to shape and develop their long-term vision of teen programs, including the conceptualization and implementation of programs that are now used as models locally and internationally. Ehrlich completed her doctoral dissertation on the potential of critical pedagogies for teaching about contemporary feminist art to adolescents in museums. Her research has been published in the peer-edited journal Visual Arts Research and the new book, Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today.

Sherilyne Jones has been with the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) since 2002 and is the director of the Museum of Belize and Houses of Culture. Previously she worked as a staff archaeologist and served as the editor of the Archaeology Journal from 2003-2010. She obtained an Associate’s degree from St. Johns Junior College in Belize City and a bachelor’s of arts and master’s of arts from the University of South Florida in Anthropology and Latin American Studies. She is currently pursuing a master’s of arts in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester in the UK. Ms. Jones is the immediate past president of Museums Association of the Caribbean 2013-16 and a current board member, member of the technical committee for Red Centroamericana de Museos (REDCAMUS), and member of the Steering Committee for the Downtown Rejuvenation and Historic Government House Project in Belize City, Belize. She coordinates the Our Museum Engagement Team, a collaborative forum made up of community partners, museum staff and trustees who share decision making and work together to progress community engagement and the development of volunteer programs in the spirit of participation and coproduction.

Dr. Deborah L. Mack is the Associate Director for Community and Constituent Services at the National African American Museum of History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. She serves as the principal executive responsible for overall planning, management and coordination of professional service programs and international activities, with functions that include building relationships, training, and technical support for constituent groups; programs with international organizations; collaborative projects with other institutions, museums and agencies; support of alliances and collaborations with cultural service institutions.

Mack served on the advisory Smithsonian Council from 1999 – 2005, as Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Musée Théodore Monod, Dakar (Senegal) in 2010, and from 2005-2011 on the Scholarly Advisory Committee for the National African American Museum of History and Culture. She is an active service member of several professional organizations, among them the Association of American Museums; Association of African American Museums (board of directors Vice President 2011- 2015); International Council of African Museums; editorial board of The Public Historian, National Council on Public History; peer and field reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Deborah L. Mack holds a Ph.D. and an M.A., both in anthropology from Northwestern University, and a B.A. in geography from the University of Chicago.

Erica Moiah James is Assistant Professor in the Departments of The History of Art and African American Studies at Yale University. Before arriving at Yale she served as the founding Director and Chief Curator of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. Dr. James earned the master of fine arts from The University of Chicago and a doctorate degree in art history from Duke University. While at Duke she was awarded several fellowships including the International Association of University Women graduate fellowship and The John Hope Franklin Fellowship. Since that time she has served as a Clark Fellow at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and as a post-doctoral teaching fellow at Washington University, St. Louis.

Professor James has curated more than a dozen exhibitions and has published more than thirty essays and exhibition catalogues, most recently “Speaking in Tongues: Metapictures and the Discourse of Violence in Caribbean Art” (Small Axe 37, 2012) and “Blue Curry: Art, Image and Objecthood” (ARC, 2012). In 2012 she also completed a four-year book project focused on one of the largest private collections in the Caribbean entitled Love and Responsibility: The Collection of Dawn Davies (2012). Professor James is currently finalizing a manuscript entitled Caribbean Art in The Global Imaginary, working on an essay focused on the political aesthetics of the American artist Charles White, and co-editing a special issue of MaComere Journal (UToronto, 2014) on the art of women artists from the global Caribbean.

Monica O. Montgomery is an international speaker, graduate professor, museum director and cultural entrepreneur, curating media and museums to be in service to society. She is a winner of the 2016 Arts Entrepreneurship Award from Fractured Atlas. Monica is Founding Director of the Museum of Impact (MOI) the first mobile social justice museum. Museum of Impact’s inaugural exhibit ‘Movement Is Rising: Journey of #BlackLivesMatter’ curates current events around human rights abuses of people of color. The pop up exhibit is traveling the country, transforming visitors from bystanders to ‘Upstanders’ collecting stories and oral histories via the Activist Love Letters™ project

She is the co-founder and Strategic Director of Museum Hue, a multicultural collective advancing professionals of color, in arts, culture, museums and creative economy. Museum Hue has a robust community of practice reflecting ideas of intersectionality, diversity and agency.  Monica is an alumna of Temple University with a Bachelors of Arts in Broadcast Communication and LaSalle University, with a Masters of Arts in Corporate Communication. She is an adjunct professor with Harvard University. She has taught and presented at Johns Hopkins University, New York University, American University, Pratt Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Marymount Manhattan College and City College of NY among others. She holds leadership positions in MASS Action - Museums as Sites of Social Action project through the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Audience Diversity Academy of AMA UK, the New York City Museum Educators Roundtable, U.S Department of Arts & Culture and the Talent Philanthropy Network.

Kristina Newman-Scott is the Director of Culture for the State of Connecticut where she oversees all aspects of the state’s programs and services related to art, culture and historic preservation. Prior to this role, Newman-Scott served as the Director of Marketing, Events and Cultural Affairs for the City of Hartford, the Director of Programs at the Boston Center for the Arts and Director of Visual Arts at Hartford’s Real Art Ways. Kristina’s leadership in the community has earned her several awards and recognitions including being selected as a Hartford Business Journal Forty Under 40, a National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellow, a Hive Global Leadership selectee and most recently, a 2015 Next City Vanguard 40 Under 40. 

She has been a visiting curator, guest lecturer and speaker at many organizations and institutions across the country including, TEDx Southern Methodist University, TX; New York University & The School of Visual Arts, NY; Rhode Island School of Design, RI; University of Connecticut  & Wesleyan University, CT; National Association of Media Arts and Culture; and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY. Ms. Newman-Scott was a visual artist, arts consultant and a television/radio personality in Jamaica, where she was born and raised.

Prerana Reddy has been the Director of Public Programs & Community Engagement for the Queens Museum since 2005.  She organizes screening, talks, festivals, visual art exhibitions, artist residencies and performances, many of which are developed in collaboration with diverse local community organizations and cultural producers.  She is also in charge of the museum’s community engagement initiatives that combine arts and culture with social development goals in nearby neighborhoods predominately comprised of new immigrants. These initiatives include the museum’s offsite immigrant arts & education center, Immigrant Movement International, and the design and ongoing programming of Corona Plaza. Reddy holds an MA in Cinema Studies, with a focus in documentary and visual anthropology, from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

For over 18 years Rachel Watts has worked in the arts education and youth development fields. She develops innovative programs that support student growth as learners, artists, and innovators in order to prepare them to navigate college, the workforce, and life.  Born in Ghana, she developed her passion for dance, theater, music, art, carnival and cultures of the world growing up on the island of Trinidad.

Ms. Watts is the Director of Programs at ArtsConnection Inc. in New York City, a non-profit which provides residencies in dance, music, theater, and visual arts to over 100 public schools each year and programming for teens during out of school time.  From 1998-2005 she was a Program Manager and Research Associate at ArtsConnection, before beginning her current position in 2011.  In the interim, she was the Director of Education at Ballet Hispanico in New York City and Director of The MYC Youth Center in San Rafael California, where she created a state of the art facility focused on developing teen leadership skills through the arts and technology.  She received a bachelor’s of arts from Williams College and a master’s of arts in Latin American & Caribbean Studies with a concentration in Museum Studies from New York University. She is also the founder of The TECA Project: Teen Empowerment through Carnival Arts, a free processional arts program that engages teens in the creation of an ‘artivist’ themed costume band for street festivals.

An author, educator, and internationally-known speaker on museum ethics and the relationship among museums and communities, Dr. Sally Yerkovich has over twenty years of leadership experience in museums including The New Jersey Historical Society, Museum of the City of New York, South Street Seaport Museum and Museum for African Art. She recently published A Practical Guide to Museum and “Ethics in a changing social landscape: Community engagement and public participation in Museums,” in Museums, Ethics and Cultural Heritage.

Dr. Yerkovich is currently Adjunct Professor of Museum Anthropology at Columbia University, Director of the Institute of Museum Ethics and Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University, and is on the faculty of the Bank Street College Museum Leadership Graduate Program. She is a consultant to non-profit and educational institutions. She was Chair of the American Alliance of Museums Task Force on Direct Care of Collections, examining the appropriate uses of funds from the sale of deaccessioned objects, and is on the International Council of Museums Ethics Committee and the Ethics and Professional Standards Committee of the American Association for State and Local History.

She was President of the Fund for Arts and Culture, an all-volunteer organization that helped promote the development of civil society by sharing best practices with cultural organizations in former Soviet-bloc countries, and held leadership positions at the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities. She has been invited to speak to cultural leaders in Russia, the Czech Republic, Korea, Finland, England and Ireland.

Hope Jensen Leichter, Ph.D is Elbenwood Professor of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and Director of the Elbenwood Center for the Study of Family as Educator dedicated to “improving education through discovering the creative intelligence in all families.” She teaches courses on the family as educator, focusing on family memories and community education through museums. The topics of her writing include: the family as educator, families and communities at educators, listening to and learning from families, stories as forms of learning in museums. She is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for the study of family memories.

Simon Benjamin is a New York-based Jamaican filmmaker and visual artist.

His most recent projects are a solo exhibition at NLS Kingston in Jamaica, a group show at The Nordic Light in Stockholm, Sweden, and a commission by Tiffany & Co. to create several large installations for a private showroom at their flagship store. His current work explores urban beaches and their place in community. Simon is the Director of COURTESY – a design and filmmaking studio based in Brooklyn. In 2007, Simon was awarded one of PRINT Magazine's New Visual Artists. 

He teaches Motion Design at his alma mater, School of Visual Art in New York City. 

Learn more about his story from his TED talk and follow his visual diary Brooklyn Beachouse.

The Gymnast & Other Positions is Jacqueline Bishop’s most recent book and has been awarded the 2016 OCM Bocas Award in Non-Fiction. She is also the author of the novel, The River’s Song; and two collections of poems, Fauna and Snapshots from Istanbul. Her non-fiction books are My Mother Who Is Me: Life Stories from Jamaican Women in New York and Writers Who Paint/Painters Who Write: Three Jamaican Artists.

An accomplished visual artist with exhibitions in Belgium, Morocco, Italy, USA and Jamaica, Ms. Bishop was a 2008-2009 Fulbright Fellow to Morocco, the 2009-2010 UNESCO/Fulbright Fellow, and is an Assistant Professor at New York University. In addition to the OCM Bocas Award, Bishop has received several additional awards, including: The Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for short story writing, A Fulbright year-long grant to Morocco, a UNESCO/Fulbright Fellowship to Paris, The Arthur Schomburg Award for Excellence in the Humanities from New York University, A James Michener Creative Writing Fellowship, as well as several awards from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission.

Gerard H. Gaskin is a native of Trinidad and Tobago and has worked as a photographer for the last 22 years. His work is represented in the permanent collections at Duke University, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Museum of the City of New York and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Kameelah Janan Rasheed (b. 1985) is an artist-archivist based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from East Palo Alto, CA with brief stints in Johannesburg, South Africa, Kameelah's interdisciplinary and research ­intensive practice considers ideas of selective legibility and opaqueness as a political strategy; the tension between narrative contingencies and narrative resolutions; as well as black traditions of covert literacies and self-publishing.

Until September 2016, she will be a Keyholder Resident at the Lower East Side Printshop. She is also a recipient of the Triple Canopy's 2015 NYPL Labs Commission where she is conducting archival research on early 20th-century Black religious movements through NYPL's expansive archive. For the 2016-2017 season, she will be an artist in residence at Smack Mellon in DUMBO as well as on the faculty at SVA in New York City. In September, she will participate in the Creative Exchange Lab at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art. Upon her return, she will be preparing for several shows opening in New York and Boston in the fall of 2016 and winter of 2017. She has exhibited her work at Studio Museum in Harlem, Bronx Museum, Queens Museum, BRIC Art Gallery, Weeksville Heritage Museum, Smack Mellon Gallery, Vox Populi Gallery, TOPAZ Arts, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Leroy Neiman Gallery, etc. Her long form interviews and essays have been published in The New Inquiry, Gawker, The Guardian, Creative Time Reports and featured on the Creative Time Funk, God, Jazz, and Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn's radio station, Otabenga Jones & Associates (OJAK Radio). 

Currently, she is the Arts Editor for SPOOK Magazine and a contributing editor at The New Inquiry. 

Karina Puente is a Mexican- American fine artist based in Philadelphia, PA and has been represented by galleries in California since she was sixteen. Puente is a painter and installation artist with a primary focus on making large scale Papel Picado backdrops. Her paintings are collected privately around the world and have been shown in museums such as the Corcoran National Gallery, the Miami MoCA, and the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art.

For her creative work, Puente travels extensively to install her hand crafted art on-sight at events, weddings, and workshops. She speaks publicly about what keeps her ignited and how to cultivate creativity.

Nontsikelelo Mutiti is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work encompasses ine art, design, and social practice. Born in Zimbabwe, Mutiti holds a diploma in multimedia art from the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts, and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, with a concentration in graphic design. Recently, she was a resident artist at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, as well as Recess and the Centre for Book Arts, both in New York City. In 2015, Mutiti was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant in its inaugural year. Mutiti continues to develop her work around African hair braiding and themes related to African immigration.

She is currently Assistant Professor in the New Media Department at State University of New York, Purchase College. She lives and works in New York City.

Vaimoana (Moana) Niumeitolu is an Artist (Painter/Muralist, Poet, Singer and Actress) and Educator. She was born in Nuku’alofa, Tonga; raised in Hawa’ii and Utah.  She is the founder of Mahina Movement, an all woman music and poetry trio. 

Kyle Goen is an Artist Painter, Printmaker and Graphic Designer. Kyle Goen’s work is exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and on street corners. He recently collaborated with Vaimoana Niumeitolu in presenting work at the Smithsonian National Arts & Industries building in Washington D.C.  

Shirin Barghi is an Iranian multimedia journalist and filmmaker based in New York. Her work has been published in the Guardian, the Huffington Post, Souciant Magazine and the acclaimed book Beyond Zucotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space.