My career has been defined by a steady effort to collapse silos: between curatorial and educational work, between institutions and communities, between what museums have been and what they might yet become. The path from arts engagement to institutional leadership has not been linear, but the throughline is clear: a conviction that art has the capacity to build community, shift narratives, and open conditions for change.

Curiosity as practice, engagement as service, site and history as teachers—these are just some of the lessons drawn from two decades of navigating the porous boundary between engagement and leadership. At Project Row Houses, I learned that engagement is not a discrete program but a way of being, deeply responsive to the community's needs and lived realities.

In 2020, as Chief Curator and Artistic Director at the Mississippi Museum of Art, my charge was to reimagine acquisitions and curatorial practice through equity and engagement. The exhibition A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration embodied this approach, expanding migration narratives beyond trauma, foregrounding resilience and plenitude by inviting residents into the museum on their own terms.

The journey from gallery to governance is not without its challenges, but the lessons learned along the way offer a roadmap for museums striving to remain relevant in an ever-changing world. Art, it seems, can indeed be a force for transformation.