Kimberly Drew is an American

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

influencer and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

. She is best known as the former social media manager for the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

and her use of the social media handle @MuseumMammy. Drew released her first book, ''This Is What I Know About Art'' in June 2020, as part of a children's book series from Penguin, and published an anthology titled ''Black Futures'' with ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' staff writer

Jenna Wortham J Wortham (formerly known as Jenna Wortham) is an American journalist. They work as a culture writer for ''The New York Times Magazine'' and co-host ''The New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing'' with Wesley Morris. In 2020, with Kimberly ...

in December 2020.

Early life and education

Drew grew up in

Orange, New Jersey The City of Orange (known simply as Orange) is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 34,447, an increase o ...

in a family of artists. She attended Link Community School in Newark, New Jersey. In 2008, she graduated from St. George's School in

Middletown, Rhode Island Middletown is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 17,075 at the 2020 census. It lies to the south of Portsmouth and to the north of Newport on Aquidneck Island, hence the name "Middletown." History Issue ...

. After graduating from high school Drew attended

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence, Massachusetts, Florence and ...

. She studied mathematics and engineering before ultimately declaring a double major in

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

and

Africana studies Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...

, and a concentration in

museum studies Museology (also called museum studies or museum science) is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and ed ...

. During her second year at Smith, Drew interned at the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an African-American art museum at 144 West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Founded in 1968, the museum collects, preserves and interprets art created by African A ...

with

Thelma Golden Thelma Golden (born September 22, 1965) is an American art curator, who is the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, United States. She is noted as one of the originators of the term post-blackness. From 20 ...

, which influenced her later choice of concentration and informed her career path. She graduated from Smith in 2012.

Career

In March 2011, Drew started the

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

blog Black Contemporary Art while still in college. She and others posted about Black artists who were featured on museum websites but had no digital presence on Tumblr, so that they "were part of a recorded history." Drew has referred to herself as a "a

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of "black art and experiences" and has been recognized by

Artsy Artsy, formally known as Art.sy Inc is a New York City based online art brokerage. Its main business is developing and hosting website for numerous galleries as well as selling art for them. It utilizes a search engine and database to draw conne ...

for advocating for racial equality in the art world. She has spoken about the importance of tying art to activism and protests, specifically in the immediate aftermath of the high-profile murders of Black Americans such as

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit tw ...

and

Ahmaud Arbery On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was murdered during a racially motivated hate crime while jogging in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia.

, and the shootings of

Breonna Taylor Breonna Taylor (June 5, 1993 – March 13, 2020) was an African-American woman who Killing of Breonna Taylor, was shot and killed while unarmed in her Louisville, Kentucky home by three police officers who entered under the auspices of a No-kn ...

and

Tony McDade On May 27, 2020, after 11 a.m., a 38-year-old African-American transgender man, Tony McDade, was fatally shot in the Leon Arms apartment complex by an officer of the Tallahassee Police Department, following the fatal stabbing of Malik Jackson on ...

. After graduating from Smith College, Drew worked on the communications team at

Lehmann Maupin David Maupin is an American art dealer. With Rachel Lehmann, he opened the Lehmann Maupin gallery in SoHo, Manhattan, in October 1996. Before opening Lehmann Maupin, Maupin was the director of Metro Pictures. Early life and education Born in Ca ...

gallery, as well as for ''

Hyperallergic ''Hyperallergic'' is an online arts magazine, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded by the art critic Hrag Vartanian and his husband Veken Gueyikian in October 2009, the site describes itself as a "forum for serious, playful, and radical thinki ...

'' and

Creative Time Creative Time is a nonprofit arts organization based in New York City. Founded in 1974, it supports the commissioning, production, and presentation of site-specific and socially engaged public art projects. History Creative Time was founded i ...

. In July 2015, Drew was hired as the Associate Online Community Producer at the

in New York City, a position that she held until November 2019. In 2016, Drew curated the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

's Instagram account during the 2016

South by South Lawn South by South Lawn (stylized SXSL) was a technology and music festival organized by the White House under the Obama administration that took place in October 2016 in Washington, D.C. It was modelled after the South by Southwest music festival. ...

festival. That July, Drew, along with writer
Taylor Renee Aldridge
an
Jessica Lynne
and art historia
Jessica Bell Brown
organized a project called Black Art Incubator, a two-month long program of book exchanges, art

critique Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse. Although critique is frequently understood as fault finding and negative judgment, Rodolphe Gasché (2007''The honor of thinking: critique, theory, philosophy ...

s, and

panel discussion A panel discussion, or simply a panel, involves a group of people gathered to discuss a topic in front of an audience, typically at scientific, business, or academic conferences, fan conventions, and on television shows. Panels usually include a ...

s. In 2018, Drew modeled for the

Chromat Chromat is an American fashion label based in New York City. The label was formed by Becca McCharen-Tran in 2010. Drawing from Becca McCharen-Tran's background in architecture and urban design, Chromat focuses on empowering garments for all b ...

Spring/Summer 2019 runway during

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international Fashion design, fashion collections are shown to buyers, the pres ...

. In 2021, she launched an online event series ''Black Power Lunch Hour'' and began hosting

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

's podcast ''Your Attention Please''. In February 2022,

Pace Gallery The Pace Gallery is a contemporary and modern art gallery with 9 locations worldwide. It was founded in Boston by Arne Glimcher in 1960. His son, Marc Glimcher, is now president and CEO. Pace Gallery operates in New York, London, Hong Kong, ...

announced that Drew would be joining as Associate Director.

Books

Beginning their connection through Twitter's direct-messaging, Drew co-edited and released the anthology '' Black Futures'' with journalist

. After five years in the making, the anthology encapsulates a multitude of art forms by more than 100 Black creators responding to the question, "What does it mean to be Black and alive, right now?" Their creation stamps a time when the height of Black empowerment coexists with long-term systemic oppression. Drew and Wortham's goal is to bring to light how Black culture surrounds everyday society and how Blackness is limitless. ''Black Futures'' was published by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

's One World imprint in December 2020. On June 2, 2020, Drew released her first book, ''This Is What I Know About Art,'' a book for

young adults In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

under the

Penguin Workshop Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initiall ...

imprint.

Honors and awards

In 2016, Drew received the inaugural Feminist Curator Award from AIR Gallery. The same year, she was listed on the

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary Contemporary art, contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that cel ...

100 List, which identifies creative and cultural catalysts of change. In 2017, she was named one of

Brooklyn Magazine ''Brooklyn Magazine'' is an online news magazine, focusing on "New York’s most populous borough through the lens of culture, community, commerce, arts and leisure." The company was bought by Michael Bassik and the website was launched in Decemb ...

's 100 Influencers of Brooklyn Culture. In 2020, she was awarded the Smith College Medal, which recognizes outstanding alumnae who contribute to their communities.

Personal life

Drew resides in Brooklyn and is queer. Her partner is

Chase Strangio Chase Strangio ( born October 29, 1982) is an American lawyer and transgender rights activist. He is the deputy director for transgender justice and staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He is the first known transgender ...

, a civil rights lawyer.

References

External links

Black Contemporary Art blog

Kimberly Drew
on Instagram {{DEFAULTSORT:Drew, Kimberly Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century African-American writers People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Smith College alumni American women bloggers American bloggers American art curators American women curators African-American activists Writers from Orange, New Jersey American queer writers African-American LGBTQ people Activists from New Jersey St. George's School (Rhode Island) alumni