It’s been a big year. For the first time, I did my best to keep a running list of all the things I’d want to remember. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself busily moving through the days and, at the end of a year, I’ve forgotten much of what I’d accomplished in the past 365 days. This list was my effort to avoid that. I also wanted to be able to remember because, for me, listing these (mostly professional) accomplishments is also an opportunity to sit in gratitude: Most of what I achieved was done with the support of many other people. I am grateful to my colleagues, dear friends and family–especially my love and my partner, Bridgett, and our kids, Tyler and Abbie–who have inspired, advocated and encouraged me throughout.
What are some of your accomplishments for 2021? Here are some of mine:
January
I left Weeksville at the end of January. A chapter closed. It was time.
April
The New York Times covered the arrival of Weeksville’s incoming president & CEO and the institution’s turnaround. Because of the latter, I’m hurt to see that I’m nowhere in the initial article. Yes, the institution that I’d labored to save–with great risk to my professional reputation–tried to erase me from the narrative. So, I corrected the record. Fortunately, I’m part of a community that, in the face of that erasure, not only bore witness to my efforts, reaffirmed my work, and provided an important counterbalance against the toxicity I encountered within that venerable organization. In the end, the Times updated the online version of the article. While I’m grateful they corrected their oversight, I’m more grateful that I got to say my piece and not carry that resentment around with me.
In happier news, I published my first article in Hyperallergic (“How To Build Resilient Black Arts Organizations”) which, incidentally, came out the day after that NYT article. The universe was lookin’ out!
July
I moved my mom to Brooklyn from Cleveland. She’d been in a nursing home since the previous September. A few weeks later, I traveled back to Cleveland to close up her apartment.
I also took an analog photography class thanks to a Father’s Day gift from Bridgett. While it was good to get back in a darkroom after many decades, it only reinforced for me that I’m a fully digital photographer and I really can’t imagine going back to analog.
August
Mayor DeBlasio appointed me to the African American Civil Rights History Museum Task Force, which as announced in 2020. Hopefully, the incoming mayor will convene this group.
September
I started my new job at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling!
October
My colleague Nico Wheadon asked me to blurb her forthcoming book, Museum Metamorphosis, which will be published this spring. It features conversations with over 40 museum leaders and cultural workers, and explores new ways of building socially- and community-relevant institutions. Hopefully, my first blurb won’t be my last!
December
I was invited to join the Arts, Parks and Culture committee for Mayor-Elect Eric Adams’s transition team.
The arts web site CultureType included me in its roundup of executive appointments in the arts for 2021. What a stellar and inspiring group of leaders to be among!
Finally, I ended the year having read five books! Not a lot, I know, but it’s five more than I read in 2020. The count starts over tomorrow.
I head into 2022 determined to be a better person–husband, father, friend, colleague, arts leader, photographer, citizen–than I’ve been this year. Forward ever!
