What is the responsibility of museums in the wake of the Capitol Insurrection? Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell, a DC-based cultural equity strategist, joins us to talk about how critical museums are in the struggle to dismantle white supremacy. We originally spoke with Kayleigh about her practice in late 2020 and planned to release that conversation on January 6, 2021. Instead, she graciously joined us for a new recording to process the violent images of that day, the care museum workers deserve from their institutions, and reflect on the power of collective action in this moment. 

Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell is a cultural equity and audience engagement strategist with over 10 years of museum and nonprofit experience at the intersections of social justice and racial equity. As Head of Public Programs with the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery she is responsible for leading new outreach and inclusion initiatives towards developing new audiences and cultivating public engagement. In the wake of Covid-19 she leads an internal task force towards reopening planning and strategies. In 2020, she served on a 6-month term detail with the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum to develop a new initiative on race and community. She has previously worked with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora. She has developed college-level art history curricula for the study of art by African Americans and the art of social justice movements for Trinity Washington University. She serves on the Board of Washington Project for the Arts, and on the Artist Selection Committee of Halcyon Arts Lab and VisArts in Rockville, MD. Additionally she co-leads strategic efforts for Museum As Site for Social Action and is a member of the Empathetic Museum since 2017. She received her Bachelor of Art in Art History from the University of Maryland, College Park and Master of Art in Museum Studies from George Washington University. She is an alum of the Claremont University Museum Leadership Institute, formerly the Getty.

Follow Kayleigh on Twitter and Instagram @KayleighBinDC. Learn more about Kayleigh’s work at curatorally.com.

Show Notes

Museum Workers Speak https://www.instagram.com/museumworkersspeak/?hl=en

Museums and Race https://museumsandrace.org/2021/01/08/questions-in-the-face-of-sedition/

Museums as Sites for Social Action (MASS Action) https://www.museumaction.org/