Kilolo Luckett, nationally renowned art curator & founding executive director of ALMA | LEWIS, believes in the transformative power of art for both artist & audience.
“When we genuinely connect with art, we can dream whole other worlds of possibility,” she tells Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, who takes the wheel as our podcast’s host on the first episode of this new season of “We Can Be.” “
With nearly 25 years of experience at respected art spaces including The Andy Warhol Museum & Wood Street Gallery, Kilolo founded ALMA | LEWIS as an experimental, contemporary art platform for critical thinking, constructive dialogue & creative expression dedicated to Black culture.
Featuring residencies designed to nurture rising & accomplished Black artists from around the world, Alma I Lewis is named after early 20th-century painter Alma Thomas, who has been cited as a “godmother of abstract painting,” & painter Norman Lewis, the winner of the top art prize at the 1955 Carnegie International.
Born in Mississippi, Kilolo’s artistic journey seemed destined from the start. From selling her friends’ art at the lemonade stand in her neighborhood when she was a kid growing up in Bowling Green, Ohio to becoming one of the creative sector’s most respected writers, historians & curators, her path was meant to be.
“From an early age, I just knew that people needed art in their lives,” she says.
Kilolo’s conversation with Chris dives into both the joys & challenges of overcoming the inequities of underrepresented voices in contemporary art.
From curating expositions & writing exhibition books for galleries & museums around the country to working on an upcoming authorized biography of the first Black supermodel, Naomi Simms, Kilolo is helping ensure that the beauty, depth & vision of Black artists and cultural luminaries are a celebrated part of our history.
“We Can Be” is hosted by Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, and produced by the Endowments, Josh Franzos and Tim Murray. Theme music by Josh Slifkin. Guest inquiries may be made to Scott Roller at sroller@heinz.org.
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