Michelle Joan Wilkinson is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum
of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), where she is expanding
the museum’s collections in architecture and design. She co-curated the inaugural
exhibitions "A Century in the Making: Building the National Museum of African American
History and Culture" and "A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond."
Wilkinson also served as a lead co-curator for "Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial"
at the Cooper Hewitt, which examined how design shapes the physical and
emotional realities of “home” across the U.S., its territories, and Tribal Nations.
Prior to joining NMAAHC, she was Director of Collections and Exhibitions at
the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture,
and held positions at the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum,
and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her work illuminates the often-invisible histories of design,
architecture, and space in African American life, by thinking through the way
built environments reflect identity, preserve memory, and shape experiences of belonging.

 

About the exhibition:
kam.illinois.edu/another-place

Part of the School of Art & Design Visitors series.