You, if no one else Panel Discussion
In conjunction with You, if no one else, Arlington Arts Center presents a discussion about the role of artists and arts institutions in times of political turbulence. What role do arts institutions play as spaces for civic dialogue? What strategies are artists using to engage with broader communities and create platforms for urgent and difficult conversations? Artists Michèle Colburn and Danielle A. Scruggs will be joined by curator Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell to offer their perspectives as artists, activists, educators, cultural workers, and citizens. The panel will be moderated by Blair Murphy, curator and Interim Exhibitions Manager at Arlington Arts Center.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
KAYLEIGH BRYANT-GREENWELL is a Washington, D.C. native and a cultural programmer devoted to exploring ways to engage with marginalized audiences through art, museum, and social justice practice. She is a contributor to national initiatives towards increasing equity and inclusion in museums including: Museum As Site for Social Action [MASS Action], The Empathetic Museum, and the Inaugural National Summit for Teaching Slavery. In her role as Education Specialist with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture, she curates participatory public programs focusing on social justice issues, which empower museum audiences to share their own ideas and strategies towards equity. Before coming to NMAAHC, she contributed to the launch of the Women, Arts, and Social Change initiative at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, as the public programs coordinator.
MICHÈLE COLBURN is a Washington, DC-based artist and native Washingtonian. She works in multi-media and makes work in both two and three dimensions. Her practice focuses on creating works that address political and social concerns, both national and global. Her work has been exhibited in DC, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles, and is in numerous private collections throughout the US. She earned a BA in Art History from Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, and an MFA from American University in 2012. She has worked in the arts and cultural arenas for the better part of 16 years including for the Hirshhorn and Whitney Museums of Art and is currently an Adjunct Professor in the DC metro area. She also teaches for Arlington Arts Center. She is represented by Charles Krause Reporting Fine Art, in Washington, DC.
DANIELLE A. SCRUGGS is a photographer, photo editor, and writer from Chicago living and working in Washington, DC. Her editorial and commercial work has appeared in TASTE, The Washington Post, On She Goes, Chicago Reader, NPR, Ebony, Greenpeace USA, Detour, Complex Media, and Buzzfeed. Her personal work, which includes photography, text, and installation, explores the various ways one can navigate, shape, and take up physical and psychic space, and how this leads to the construction of the self. She has exhibited her work at Flashpoint Gallery, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, A.I.R. Gallery, Arlington Arts Center, the National Institutes of Health, Roman Susan Gallery, and the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
BLAIR MURPHY is a curator based in Washington, DC and the Exhibition Manager at Arlington Arts Center. She was a Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow of the Whitney Independent Study Program from 2014 to 2015. Her past curatorial projects include exhibitions at The Kitchen (New York, NY), Field Projects (New York, NY), Flashpoint Gallery (Washington, DC), Arlington Arts Center (Arlington, VA), Washington Project for the Arts (Washington, DC), VisArts Rockville (Rockville, MD), and DC Arts Center (Washington, DC). She was a Partner at Field Projects, an artist-run project space in New York, from 2015 to 2016 and Program Director at Washington Projects for the Arts from 2011 to 2013. She has written for Hyperallergic, BmoreArt, and Daily Serving, among other outlets. She holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and an MA from Georgetown University.
