Rashida Bumbray joins the Board of Directors

Art Matters is pleased to announce that distinguished curator and choreographer Rashida Bumbray has joined the Board of Directors. As a long-standing collaborator, Rashida has offered invaluable wisdom to the organization, serving as a nominator, lead panelist, and trusted advisor to the staff and Board. 

Director Abbey Williams remarks, “We are grateful to welcome Rashida at this particular moment in our history. She is ideally positioned to assume her role in a lineage of stewardship sustained by the organization’s founding members since 1985. From her fluency navigating the philanthropic landscape to her impressive work as a curator who maintains a robust artistic practice of her own, she embodies the deep commitment to artists that grounds our work."

Co-Founder Philip Yenawine adds, “As everyone who knows Rashida is well aware, her warmth burns as brightly as her intellect, talents, and wonderful way with words. She’s exactly who we need in the funding world. She works tirelessly to support artists who stretch the limits of artistic practice, the people Art Matters exists to fund. We welcome her with wide open arms!"

During a time of heightened suppression in the arts and in the world, we affirm our belief in artists’ sovereignty as a critical catalyst for transformation. In partnership with Rashida, we are proud to carry forward our legacy as an artist-led organization, through and through.

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Rashida Bumbray is a curator and choreographer. In 2022, she curated Loophole of Retreat: Venice, a transnational gathering focused on Black women’s intellectual and creative labor as part of Simone Leigh’s exhibition Sovereignty at the American Pavilion for the 59th Venice Biennale.

As a Bessie-nominated choreographer whose practice draws from traditional African American vernacular and folk forms, Bumbray’s performances have been presented by Tate Modern, London; the New Museum, The Met, Harlem Stage, Dancing While Black, and SummerStage, all in New York; and Project Row Houses, Houston.

Bumbray began her curatorial career in 2001 at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, where she coordinated major exhibitions, including Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964–1984 with Kellie Jones. As associate curator at The Kitchen, New York, Bumbray organized critically acclaimed commissions and exhibitions, including first New York City solo exhibitions for many artists, including Simone Leigh, Leslie Hewitt, Adam Pendleton, Lauren Kelley, Jamal Cyrus, Elodie Pong, and Kyle Abraham, among others.

Most recently, as Founding Director of Culture and Art at the Open Society Foundations, Bumbray spearheaded the development of the foundations’ first global program dedicated to advancing diverse artistic practices and strengthening locally led cultural spaces around the world.

For Rashida's full bio, visit her profile.