As part of this year’s Fred Meyer Cultural Policy and Arts Advocacy Lecture Series, Ball State University will welcome curator, writer, and art activist Kimberly Drew to discuss “Race, Art, and Curation in the Age of Social Media” on October 16 at 7 p.m. in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Ballroom. This event is free and open to the public.
Ms. Drew is a curator of black art and experiences and is recognized for making a mark as a champion of black artists and museum accessibility. Ms. Drew has leveraged social media to challenge the exclusionary nature of the arts community. She is widely known as the creator of the Tumblr blog Black Contemporary Art, and her Instagram account (where she is known as Museum Mammy) boasts nearly a quarter-million followers. She is also the former social media manager for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where she made it her mission to increase accessibility in museums.
“It’s my biggest and grandest hope for the future of art that we really start to serve communities better — thinking more abundantly,” Drew said. “When we’re thinking about accessibility with a capital A, we’re thinking about how abundant lives can be.”
She is currently editing an anthology on the contemporary African-American experience for Random House’s One World imprint with Jenna Wortham (a writer for The New York Times Magazine). Ms. Drew has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and NPR.
“Fred Meyer, who provided the means for procuring this speaker, passionately believes in the arts,” said Mary Carter, assistant professor of art education. Fred Meyer is a professor emeritus of political science at Ball State University.