Q&A
WRITING THE BOOK
WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
22
HOLIDAY 2019 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE
DID YOU THINK FROM AN EARLY
AGE THAT YOU WOULD BE WORK-
ING IN THE ART WORLD? I didn’t
understand experiencing art as a life
path until I went to [Smith] college.
It wasn’t until I interned
at the Studio Museum in
Harlem, where I went from
being a visitor to a potential
applicant, that I understood
that working in the arts was
a possibility.
is that I was a student, and I felt
there were more hours in the day
then. I check in when I can, but it’s
not as frequent as it was at one point,
updating it every two hours around
the clock. Now it exists as
an archive.
HOW DID YOU COME TO BE
HIRED AS THE ASSOCIATE
ONLINE COMMUNITY
PRODUCER AT THE
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
WHAT DID YOU GAIN FROM
OF ART, AND WHAT INNO-
YOUR INTERNSHIP AT THE
VATIONS DID YOU ADD
@museummammy WHILE THERE? By the time
STUDIO MUSEUM? I figured
Drew has over
out so many things about
I applied, I had been work-
243,000 followers
who and how I wanted to
ing in social media for about
on Instagram.
be. It’s not often that young
five years, and had a good
black kids are taught they can work
deal of experience in a new medium.
in museums. It’s imperative that
I’d also had some success in other
more curricula teach art-making and
communities I managed, including
working in creative fields as a profes-
[the nonprofit] Creative Time and
sional path. Math is seen as some-
the Lehmann Maupin art gallery. In
thing you use later in life, but art
my time at the Met, our online audi-
doesn’t get treated the same way.
ence grew by over 5 million users
across platforms. I also initiated our
WHILE STILL IN COLLEGE, YOU
We Chat Chinese social network; it
LAUNCHED BLACK CONTEMPORARY
wasn’t successful, but it pushed me
ART ON TUMBLR. WHAT WAS YOUR
to step out of my comfort zone. It
GOAL, AND HOW HAS THE BLOG
spoke to the tourist population at
CHANGED? I had been so invigorated
the institution to serve them more
to learn about artists like Glenn
thoughtfully.
Ligon and Trenton Doyle Hancock,
My predecessor launched
and I wanted to build on that knowl-
Facebook Live, and I expanded on
edge base. I enrolled in art history
our outreach to Korean, American
classes because I was hungry to learn
Sign Language, Spanish and other
more. The blog was an educational
speakers. Our strategy was always to
tool for myself. I made it a collabora-
invite people in whether they could
tive effort; I put out a call to other
come physically or not. It’s such a
people on the Tumblr page to see if
great tool for gallery tours; people
anyone was like-minded and wanted
can experience them from the
to work on it together. It’s always
comfort of their own homes.
been not just one unique person;
three to five people contribute to it,
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TAKING OVER
and it’s edited by committee.
THE WHITE HOUSE INSTAGRAM
The thing that’s changed the most
ACCOUNT FOR A DAY IN 2016?
EXPRESS
K
imberly Drew cred-
its her family with
exposing her to area
museums and plant-
ing the seed of what
has blossomed into a
busy career blogging, posting, writ-
ing about and drawing attention to
African-American artists and their
works.
But as a child growing up in
Orange, she was drawn to the exhib-
its as much for what she didn’t find
there as what she did. “Growing up
in proximity to Newark and New
York, I’m no stranger to cacophony,”
she says. “I liked the silence, and
being in a calm, soothing environ-
ment.”
Now 29 and living in Brooklyn,
Drew is making a lot of noise in
the art world herself. She recently
published an essay for Playboy on
provocative artist Marilyn Minter and
a fashion-focused Vanity Fair cover
story on actress Lupita Nyong’o; a
forthcoming collaboration with New
York Times writer Jenna Wortham on
black creativity is slated for publica-
tion in 2020.
Sometimes Drew is the art herself:
That’s her on a billboard outside
the Galeries Lafayette flagship store
in Paris, promoting its “Fashioning
Change” campaign. In August,
Reebok announced that she was one
of five women asked to work togeth-
er on a shoe design that reflects her
“bold personality.”
Through it all, she has never for-
gotten her roots in Orange; in fact,
she shows them off proudly by way
of a certain tattoo. She spoke to
Millburn & Short Hills Magazine
about her work highlighting culture
at locations here and abroad,
including the White House lawn.