Above: Seated in The Traveler chair designed by Stephen Burks.
Museum Curator, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Michelle Joan Wilkinson, Ph.D. is a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). She co-curated two inaugural exhibitions: A Century in the Making: Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture and A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond. Prior to NMAAHC, Wilkinson spent six years as Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum (RFLM) in Baltimore, where she curated over twenty exhibitions. She has also worked in the Cultural Resources Division of the National Park Service; at the Studio Museum in Harlem; and as an Assistant Professor at Bard College. (Extended biography at bottom)
Prior Exhibitions at RFLM
FOR WHOM IT STANDS: The Flag and the American People
WINNER! Best Historical Exhibition, 2014, Baltimore City Paper: "For Whom It Stands explores our relationship to the flag. Smartly curated by Dr. Michelle Wilkinson, it uses art and artifacts to consider the flag’s symbolism from various perspectives—including the military, Native Americans, African Americans, and post-9/11. The contemporary artwork is particularly effective, especially Sheila Pree Bright’s photographs."
Before becoming a national icon, the original Star-Spangled Banner sewn in 1813 by Mary Pickersgill was worked on also by Grace Wisher, a 13-year old African American indentured servant in Pickersgill’s household. Wisher’s story is little known. For Whom It Stands shines light on Wisher’s contribution and investigates the broader history and representation of the United States flag as an icon of our nation and its people.
MATERIAL GIRLS: CONTEMPORARY BLACK WOMEN ARTISTS
WINNER, Best Exhibition, 2011, Baltimore magazine. Material Girls celebrates accomplished women artists whose sculptures, installations and mixed-media assemblages incorporate both traditional and unexpected art-making materials. Using hair, beads, tissue paper, rubber tires, plastic and other materials, the artists craft provocative forms and intricate surfaces that play on unique cultural meanings, personal memories and social agendas.
Curator At Work: Exhibitions, Presentations, Media Interviews
PROJECTS
V is for VERANDA
“V is for Veranda” considers 'architecting' as an expressive practice of designing and making informed by the broad context of a living culture.
My maternal grandfather, a black man, was a prolific builder of concrete homes in Guyana, South America. In 1954, Grandfather Wilkinson built a concrete house for his family in a small, predominantly Indo-Caribbean village outside Georgetown, the capital city well-known for its impressive Victorian-era wooden structures. Erected on a main thoroughfare, the house made an impact as a new architectural contribution to the village landscape in what was then British Guiana. Drawing upon photographs and documents from family archives, “V is for Veranda” weaves together personal, oral, and social histories with architectural and design histories.
Beginning with a case study of architecture in Guyana, the project seeks to recover innovations in Caribbean architectural heritage made by native builders like my grandfather.
CURATING ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
Michelle Joan Wilkinson, Ph.D. is a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Her research interests range from African American and African Diaspora cultural studies to architecture and design. In 2018, Wilkinson organized the museum's three day symposium, Shifting the Landscape: Black Architects and Planners, 1968 to Now. Prior to NMAAHC, Wilkinson spent six years as Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, where she curated the critically acclaimed exhibition A People's Geography: The Spaces of African American Life. She has curated over twenty exhibitions, including two award-winning shows: For Whom It Stands: The Flag and the American People and Material Girls: Contemporary Black Women Artists. Wilkinson holds a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. from Emory University. She was a 2012 fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York City, and she completed a short term residency at the Design Museum in London as part of her fellowship year. From 2019-2020, she was a Loeb Fellow in residence at Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is the founder and administrator of Blk Galactic, on online platform aggregating articles, resources, images, and art about the spaces we inhabit and negotiate. Wilkinson's writing has been published in Revue Noire: Art Contemporain Africaine, New Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement, and Liminal Spaces: Women and Migration of the Guyanese Diaspora, among others.
