I am a graduate student in the Museum Studies MFA program at Syracuse University. Before enrolling in my graduate degree, I worked in a multi-faceted role as curatorial assistant, registrar and preparator at the Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) in Syracuse NY. Community Folk Art Center is the city of Syracuse’s only art museum and/or community center whose purpose is to educate, deepen and broaden the understanding of the art and culture of people of color and marginalized communities, with a focus on people from the African American diaspora. I curated gallery exhibitions, facilitated artist talks, and coordinated film festivals and social events in my various roles at the museum. My responsibilities also included communicating with artists and shipping companies, maintaining hospitality standards for guests and visitors, conducting school tours and workshops, writing and editing flyers, labels and other marketing materials for any and all gallery events.

I have had the great fortune to be mentored and trained by artists and administrators who are exceedingly skilled and experienced within the museum industry and they have helped me to fully embrace industry standards and practices so I can merge my art background with common practices to create unique yet accessible art exhibitions. After furthering my education under the inspiring direction of the Syracuse University faculty, I have become fluent in museum standards and practices including passive and active art conservation, museum history and management, collections care and preparation, fine arts curatorship, and academic writing for museums. Our classes worked with a variety of local museums including small, innovative museums, such as the Matilda Joslyn Gage House, and large, celebrated museums, such as the Everson. These collaborations enhanced my understanding of variation and creativity in a museum setting. In my last semesters of graduate school, I was fortunate enough to become a Teaching Assistant for a first-year History of Design course. Helping young artists establish the foundations of their art history knowledge allowed me to incorporate a thoughtfulness into my art history understanding, as I saw aesthetic and communication reinterpreted through their eyes.