Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell, is a Washington, D.C. native and museum engagement strategist with over 12+ years of GLAM experience [Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums], devoted to exploring ways to cultivate potential new audiences through art, museum, and social justice practice.

As a dialogic antiracist facilitator, she is a contributor to national initiatives towards increasing equity and inclusion in museums including: Museum As Site for Social Action [MASS Action], The Empathetic Museum, and the inaugural National Summit for Teaching Slavery. 

In 2018 she joined the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery as Head of Public Programs, leading an extensive calendar of programs across two museums. She also led new outreach and inclusion initiatives towards developing new audiences, developing and improving public engagement through policy and antiracist practice, and establishing modern protocols towards highly effective programming. Additionally, she served on the museum’s internal Diversity Council towards collaborative efforts to improve DEAI efforts across both museums. In July 2021 she transitioned to a new role at the museums as the first-ever Community Engagement Specialist, to continue leading and creative new collaborative engagements with communities, with particular focus on non-visiting communities. 

Before coming to SAAM she served as education specialist with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture, curating dialogic participatory public programs, including the popular A Seat at the Table, focusing on social justice issues, which empower museum audiences to share their own ideas and strategies towards creating social equity.

Before coming to NMAAHC, in 2015 she launched the Women, Arts, and Social Change initiative at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, leading the outreach effort to bring in over 900 new audience members and designing dialogic participatory programming. She advanced the museum’s feminism advocacy and brokered diverse and creative collaborations between the museum and local activists and arts leaders. Before that she served as an adjunct professor with P.G. College, and as a community organizer with P.G. County Arts and Cultural Heritage. Previously, she served as the visual arts coordinator at Strathmore, where she was responsible for an expansive portfolio of exhibition-based educational programming and a professional residency for emerging artists. Prior to that role, she served as business operations manager at the David C. Driskell Center, where she wore many hats in programming, management, and collaborative projects.

In addition to her facilitation consulting she also develops curricula on the intersections of museum and social justice practice. In 2018 she designed Trinity Washington University’s art history curriculum in African American and Global Resistance Art survey courses. 

As a curator, she produces contemporary art exhibitions exploring race, gender, politics, and social issues. She is a frequent juror, guest lecturer, panelist, and moderator of national and international art exhibitions, conferences, and initiatives. She has served in the leadership of the DC Chapter of ArtTable, Inc. from 2014 to 2018. She served on the National Arts Education Advisory Council with Americans for the Arts, 2018-2020, the Selection Committee of Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington, DC, an incubator for exploring the intersections of art and social justice 2016-2019, on the Artist Advisory Council of VisArts in Rockville, MD 2017-2019. 

Her writing has been featured in The Inclusive Museum Leader ed. by Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, Seize the Moment: How Museums Can Prepare for the Post-Pandemic Age, ed. by Avi Decter, Marsha Semmel, and Ken Yellis, andMuseum Education for Today’s Audiences: Meeting Expectations with New Models, ed. by Mary Kay Cunningham and Jason L. Porter with additional contributions with American Alliance of Museums, Viewfinder: the museum education journal of the National Arts Education Association, Americans for the Arts, Museum-Ideas (U.K.), and MASS Action, among others. She earned her bachelor of arts in art history from the University of Maryland, College Park and her master of arts in museum studies from the George Washington University.

Photo by Colin Stevens of Drummin’Up Photography.