Black art museums carry generations of hope on their shoulders.
The 2005 opening of @moadsf , for instance, was decades in the making and owing to the tenacity of Willie Brown, the city’s first Black mayor, who—together with a team of community members—understood that after years of urban renewal in the 1970s and 1980s led to the gutting and razing of Black neighborhoods, Black San Franciscans needed a permanent place to call their own.
The ambitions of Black museums are often met with challenges, including a near-perfect storm of financial pressures, which has forced the development of out-of-the-box fundraising strategies. The unprecedented scrutiny of any race-driven mission by the current U.S. administration has only made that paradigm worse.
So let’s use this moment to consider: What is a Black museum’s impact in 2026? How does that impact translate to funding? And how do these institutions—even in our most challenging cultural and political chapters—still find room to preserve and build on their legacies?
To answer these questions, CULTURED assembled a roundtable of three Black women in key roles at some of the most well-respected Black institutions in the U.S.: @keyjolee of the aforementioned Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco; @cheryl__finley , of the Atlanta University Center Art History and Curatorial Studies Collective (@auc_artcollective ); and Amy Andrieux (@missaimstar ) of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (@mocada_museum ) in New York.
For CULTURED, these women share what led them to their current roles, why they remain committed, and how, in moments like these, it’s even more urgent, as Andrieux puts it, “to raise the volume and stay loud.” Link in bio to read their conversation now.
Words: Melissa Smith
ON VIEW NOW at Museum of the African Diaspora—UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe.
Curated by Key Jo Lee, MoAD’s Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Public Programs, UNBOUND invites visitors to consider Blackness as expansive, dynamic, and cosmological rather than fixed or earthbound. Inspired by Lee’s essay, “Gesturing Toward Infinitude: Painting Blue/Black Cosmologies,” the exhibition brings together a global, intergenerational group of artists—including Lorna Simpson, Harmonia Rosales, Didier William, Gustavo Nazareno, Oasa DuVerney, David Alabo and Nolan Oswald Dennis—through painting, sculpture, and installation.
Lee shares “Blackness has always moved beyond every frame that sought to contain it, not only stretching across but also seeping through, sliding around, and permeating time, space, and imagination. With UNBOUND, my hope is that visitors feel that expansiveness for themselves, encountering Blackness as a site of existential depth and limitless possibility.”
The exhibition is organized around three core themes that chart different dimensions of Black possibility: Geo-Cartographic, which maps Blackness across both earthly and celestial terrains; Religio-Mythic, which frames Blackness as origin, cosmology, and creation story; and Techno-Cyborgian, which considers Blackness in relation to technology, hybridity, and fluid, evolving identities that move beyond any single fixed form.
Plan your visit and learn more today via the link in bio.
#UNBOUND #MoAD #BlackArt #ContemporaryArt #ArtExhibition
Thank you @rpogrebin for this thoughtful article in @nytimes Get the print version in the Sunday Times tomorrow!
Lee said, the show embodies the museum’s newly defined mission to not “just showcase artists of the African diaspora,” but to “position their ideas, their aesthetics and their intellectual frameworks as central to some of the most urgent and expansive conversations in global contemporary art today.” #unbound #moadsf #keejcurates
ENGAGE! Day 2 invites you into a full day of workshops, performance, healing, conversation, and artistic exploration at MoAD.
On Friday, May 29, step into one of three immersive workshops — a Figure Drawing Session led by Cornelia Stokes, Inaugural Assistant Curator of the Art of the African Diaspora, a Movement Workshop, or an Orishas Workshop — then spend the rest of the day going deeper.
Throughout the day, experience tarot and astrology readings, harp performances by Maya Nixon, guided tours through UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe, Nia Healing Dance with Stephanie Parker, and A Seat at the Feet of the Orisha with Reyna Brown.
VIP guests will join artists Oasa DuVerney, Rodney Ewing, and Michi Meko for an intimate artist engagement and champagne toast before the whole weekend closes with a DJ reception.
Friday, May 29 · 9:30AM–7:00PM Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
Limited capacity remains for select experiences. Reserve your spot today (link-in-bio)!
#ENGAGE #UNBOUND #BlackArt #ContemporaryArt #MoAD
Join us on May 28, 2026, from 6:30–8 PM at MoAD for the launch of ENGAGE!: Art, Blackness & the Universe with a special Book Launch program celebrating When Home is a Photograph: Blackness & Belonging in the World by author and professor Leigh Raiford.
In conversation with artist Sadie Barnette and curator Key Jo Lee, the evening will explore Blackness, belonging, memory, and the ways photographs shape how we understand home and identity. The discussion will be followed by a reception and book signing.
RSVP with the link in bio! Free with Museum admission or for ENGAGE! Attendees.
#MoAD #ENGAGE #BlackArt #BayAreaArts #ContemporaryArt
Have you purchased your tickets yet?! @moadsf In partnership with @cacollegeofarts@calblackstudies and supported by CommonSpirit and KHR Family Foundation, we have designed three exciting days that bring our academic and artistic communities into direct conversation with art lovers and novices alike. Join us for conversations, activations and the opportunity to learn together. Link to tickets is in my bio. Become a member for deeply discounted tickets! #engageatmoad #moadengage #calblackstudies
We are excited to announce the return of ENGAGE!
A THREE DAY convening of dialogue, learning, and curated programs featuring keynote speaker Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein and more.
From May 28 to May 30, ENGAGE! brings together scholars, artists, performers, curators, and scientists for a dynamic gathering of conversation and activations.
Inspired by UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe, curated by Key Jo Lee (@keyjolee ), the convening invites us to reimagine Blackness as infinite and cosmically rich.
Featuring artists Michi Meko (@michimeko ), Oasa DuVerney (@oasasun ), and Rodney Ewing (@ledette ), with activations at Museum of the African Diaspora.
Co-presented with California College of the Arts (@cacollegeofarts ) and in collaboration with UC Berkeley Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies (@calblackstudies ).
Learn more and GET YOUR TICKETS today (link-in-bio).
#UNBOUND #ArtAndScience #BlackFutures #MoAD #ENGAGE
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) is pleased to announce the 10th cohort of the annual Emerging Artists Program (EAP) for 2026–2027.
Selected from hundreds of applicants, this year’s awardees — Jasmine Ross (@jasminereneeross ), Demetri Broxton (@demetribroxton ), Dorian Reid, and Tahirah Rasheed (@tfresh ) — will each present solo exhibitions at MoAD beginning March 18, 2026, continuing through early 2027.
Since its founding in 2015, MoAD’s EAP has served as a vital incubator for emerging voices across the African Diaspora, providing institutional support, visibility, and pathways for artistic growth. The 2026–2027 cohort reflects the breadth of contemporary Black artistic practice, spanning photography, textiles, sculpture, installation, and social practice, while engaging themes of ancestry, identity, resistance, and futurity.
Through these four solo presentations, MoAD continues its mission to place artists of the African Diaspora at the center of the global cultural conversation.
More information on each exhibition will be released in the coming months. Learn more today with the link-in-bio.
#MoAD #EmergingArtistsProgram #BayAreaArtists #BlackArt #ContemporaryArt
