Season 1, Episode 4: Michelle Joan Wilkinson
In this month’s episode, we talk to Dr. Michelle Joan Wilkinson, curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Together, we take a deep dive into Terry Boddie’s Blueprint (2001) as a lens into systems of power embedded in architectural design and the historical ties between visual representation and histories of subjugation. Along the way we discuss Dr. Wilkinson’s earliest encounters with art and art history, her personal experiences documenting diasporic architectural heritage, and the importance of recording and preserving Black oral histories. We also get an exciting behind-the-scenes look at Dr. Wilkinson’s process of curating collections around Black architects and architectural history at the Smithsonian and beyond.
Dr. Michelle Joan Wilkinson is a curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture , where she works on projects related to contemporary black life. Dr. Wilkinson is also developing the museum’s collections in architecture and design, and recently completed a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Previously, she spent six years as director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, and she has also worked at the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her most recent research explores issues of representation in architectural renderings. She is the lead organizer of the symposium Shifting the Landscape: Black Architects and Planners, 1968 to Now .
Show Credits
The Nexus Season 1 is hosted by Tara Oluwafemi and Darien Carr, students in the Master of Architecture program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The show is recorded and edited by Maggie Janik, and the theme music is produced by DJ Eway .