Written by: Anais Caro
Artwork by: Sheryl Fong
Kimberly Drew (she/her/hers), better known as @museummammy on Instagram, is a New York-based curator, author, activist, fashion influencer, and all-around cool person. She believes art and protest go hand-in-hand and focuses much of her work on amplifying the voices and work of Black creatives. This past year, Drew released her book titled This Is What I Know About Art. As an art history major and person of color myself, this book inspired me in ways I had never been before and I fell in love with Drew’s belief that “art and protest will forever be bound together”.
The book details her path “through art and towards activism.” At Smith College, she enrolled in art history classes that lacked diversity in both student enrollment and curriculum, as many art history courses do. She also dealt with professors who scoffed at her quest for any sort of conversation on Black art. Drew’s first internship at the Studio Museum in Harlem, however, opened her eyes to the exquisite wonders of art made by Black people that had been missing from her classes.
Drew understood that this lack of Black art was not representative of the actual art world, the one filtered by the “western” canon and Eurocentric values. Black art and Black artists exist. Drew knew there was a gap, and if it was not going to be filled by her professors, classes, or textbooks, she understood that she would have to take it into her own hands to fill. This experience inspired her to create an online Tumblr blog entitled “Black Contemporary Art”. In her book, Drew wrote, “I knew that I had to resist the erasure of Black artists. I did not want anyone to say that Black artists did not exist,” (22). She aimed to fill the gaps of Black representation in art, detailing artists and creatives for which she came upon who interested her in any way possible.
The mere existence of BIPOC identities are always inherently political. Being a BIPOC in a space where you are historically not welcome is, in itself, activism. The art world is a space that lacks diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility in terms of who gets to teach about art, the way in which it is taught, what kind of art is talked about, and who gets to learn it. As a result of this exclusion, BIPOC have always had to create our own spaces; ones we deem adequate in representation and vitality. It is in these spaces where the revolution begins. By creating her own space, and actively focusing on Black creativity, Black life, and Black art, Kimberly Drew has been pivotal in creating a more inclusive and diverse art world for the future. Black Curation in and of itself is both art and activism; it uses art to tell a story, to create a story, to inflict an emotion, and to emphasize the role of art in both social movements and social history. Drew actively understands this power of existence, art, and serious inadequacy and uses it to question the deep historical (and presently ongoing) ties between museums, colonialism, and racism.
Today, Drew is an independent curator and works on a wide range of projects. These include her upcoming co-edited book set to be released in December 2020 titled Black Futures, a HULU Stories podcast titled “Your Attention Please”, and an Instagram Live series self-titled “#BlackPowerLunchHour” where she engages in conversations with creatives of our time about multitudes of important topics. Drew also recently wrote an article titled “WHAT SHOULD A MUSEUM LOOK LIKE IN 2020?” for Vanity Fair which included the testimonies of nine various art professionals regarding both their observations of the complicated relationship between museums, colonialism, and white supremacy. The article included ideas for ways these institutions can begin to break ties with this history and revise their actions for the future. In this article, Drew and the art professionals recall that there is both a desire and a need for not only an investigation into museums as institutions of political power, but also as places of active change. Many in the art world have looked the other way at the political and social impact of museums in the past and present. It is understood by every party involved, but it has been swept under the rug by many. As an art history student myself, Drew has inspired me to see that I must put in the work to push for even the small changes in the world around me that I want to see. Even though art institutions are powerful conglomerates, those who work in the industry are all there because they are drawn to the power of art, which is ultimately for the people and by the people.
In all, Kimberly Drew is an inspiring glimmer of hope for BIPOC in the art world, whether it be for artists, curators, teachers, or even students. She demonstrates that through small actions we can enact change in our own spaces. As the second-to-last line of This Is What I Know About Art reads, “This is my story about loving art so much that you want to see it change for the better.” For those of us who also love art so much, thanks to Drew, we can see the power it holds for change.
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