Alexsandra Mitchell

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Alexsandra Mitchell is an arts administrator, scholar, speaker, and creative whose work intersects the field of Africana Studies, the arts, the African Diaspora, spirituality, libraries, and archives. She currently serves as the Manager of Education and Public Programs at the California African American Museum. Alexsandra served as a reference librarian and an archivist at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. Prior to joining the staff in the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, Alexsandra was a lecturer at New York University ’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study, and worked with institutions such as National Geographic Television, The Library of Congress, The West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal, The New York Historical Society, and The Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, New York. She has appeared on the Travel Channel’s “Mysteries at the Museum” , and NPR. Alexsandra was a visiting professor at Pratt University ’s School of Information, where she created her own course: Archiving the Diaspora: Collections, Community, and Culture. She is co-author of Research Techniques and Strategies for the Study of Black Writings, Rowman & Littlefield (forthcoming) and a contributor to Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in Library and Information Science.

GM: You have a background in library sciences and art administration – what was your path to this career?

AM: I went to Howard University and completed an undergraduate degree in African-American Studies, with a minor in Sociology. During my junior year, I looked into summer internship opportunities to continue my research and started at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. I worked on a project with the South African Archival Project, which at the time was run by the History Department at Howard University. That’s where I really began working in archives, and I wanted to continue in that. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture had a six-week summer institute opportunity for undergraduates who were interested in pursuing graduate degrees in the humanities. At that time, the program took five students from HBCU’s and five students from local New York area schools. We had a really robust coursework program with professors from various graduate programs in art history, Africana studies, history, and all subjects relating to the African diaspora, and we also conducted research on what became an online exhibition that Sylviane Diouf curated for the Schomburg Center. During my time there, I wondered if I wanted to go into graduate school immediately or look at job opportunities. After speaking with a number of archivists, a few different professors, and my mentors, I decided to pursue a dual Master’s in Africana Studies at NYU and Library Sciences at Long Island University. So after completing my studies, I worked as an adjunct assistant curator at the Tamiment Library, Robert F. Wagner Archives at NYU, and ultimately returned to the Schomburg Center as a reference librarian, where I managed reference services. I also oversaw the programming for the Manuscript Archive Moore Books Division, where I had a series related to the intersections of arts and archives. There, I worked with a number of artists, such as Firelei Báez and Derrick Adams, on shows that they developed for the Studio Museum in Harlem and the accompanying public programming. I also developed the Schomburg’s Community Archives Project, where we taught community members how to archive and preserve their own personal memories and historical documents, and worked with the Mobile Library Service at Rikers Island.

GM: You are currently Manager of Education and Public Programs at CAAM. What does working at a groundbreaking space like CAAM mean to you?

AM: CAAM has been a really great opportunity for me to engage in the Black arts community here in Los Angeles and the West Coast more broadly, with CAAM being one of the primary foundational institutions for Black art, history, and culture across the state. I also work with a number of really incredible colleagues here at CAAM; we have really incredible curators. [It’s been great] to develop relations with my peers in that regard, but to also work with a number of really incredible artists for various shows and public programs that we put on. (Continued)

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We’ ve been able to partner with a number of local Black organizations and businesses, and we also work with USC. I get to work with the undergraduate work study students, so I’m very happy to support that. It’s also been an opportunity for me to think about this point in my career – not just where I want to go, but helping the next generation as well. I’m able to do that through working with our gallery guides; it’s very fortunate that some of them are pursuing full-time jobs in curatorial capacities. One of my favorite gallery guides is about to pursue an MA in History at Howard University, and I’m very excited for her. Being able to informally mentor them has been really gratifying for me. I’ ve also worked with the Atlanta University Center’s Curatorial Studies program, which is for undergraduate students who want to diversify the field. Beginning last year, we hosted an undergraduate student as a summer intern; this year, the student will work with Essence Harden and Taylor Renee Aldridge. Being able to facilitate the partnership between the AUC and CAAM and support the next generation of students who will possibly go into the field is a wideranging opportunity that’s really been a pleasure. […] I’ ve been lucky enough to lead a career where I’ ve worked in majority Black spaces. It’s been intentional, but I’ ve also been lucky that I started at an HBCU and participated in programs like Africana Studies, where it’s mostly students of color, not all Black artists. Having worked at the Schomburg Center and then CAAM, it’s really been a gift to work in Black spaces.

GM: What are some new initiatives that you’re working on at CAAM?

AM: With this iteration of CAAM’s rebranding mission, which started with Naima Keith’s tenure and has continued under the phenomenal leadership of Cameron Shaw, we initially geared our public programs towards adult audiences. Now, we’re honing in more on supporting families and teens through public programs. I was able to partner with Penguin Random House, LA Public Library, and a number of statewide library systems to do virtual public programing for families during our temporary closure. We’ ve been able to extend those programming offerings to things like family yoga for children and caretakers during the day and weekend artmaking workshops on Sundays. I’m overseeing the public programming for partnershiprelated Art + Practice exhibitions, such as the current show, “Deborah Roberts: I’M. ” We’ ve also expanded our wellness offerings; we traditionally offered yoga on a quarterly basis, but we saw during the pandemic that there was a very large interest in increasing our free virtual and in-person offerings of yoga here at the museum. We have extended that to a monthly offering with our really incredible yoga teacher, Constance Hartwell-Havard. We love having her here; she’s really formed her own community here with the yoga offerings. We also extended our sound bath programming; initially, the idea was that we would have those in partnership with the exhibition “Matthew Thomas: Enlightenment” , which focuses on the Buddhist principles of meditation and spiritual practice. We have a great interest in that via public programming, so we’ll have sound baths here more regularly. There’s a wide range of programming that we’re continuing to build upon with our partnerships, such as LA Philharmonic. I am currently working on a public programming partnership with the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco. With our friends in Northern California, [we want to] have more of a presence across the state. I’ ve also been able to work with a number of studios, such as HBO, Array, Netflix, and Amazon Studios on public programming offerings. [I want to] go beyond our traditional conversational series to really engage with different audiences at CAAM and get people in to see art.

Photo by HRDWRKER

GM: How do you highlight BIPOC in your practice?

AM: Having worked in Black institutions and at CAAM, where our focus is to center work created by artists of color, I have the opportunity to solely focus on working with people identifying as BIPOC. I love to center their voices; it’s really a gift in terms of public programming. From time to time, we are outside of those bounds, but we have the opportunity to provide the space for people to highlight their work in ways they don’t get to at major art institutions.

GM: What could art institutions do to better engage with Black art and artists, especially in terms of exhibition organizing and programming thematics?

AM: Do your research! (Laughs) I know it’s a basic answer, but develop trustworthy relationships with artists to see what works are coming. The pandemic is still happening of course, but we’re post pandemic in terms of everything being closed. Get out to shows, engage with people at openings, come to see the shows at CAAM and elsewhere, and really do so with care and positive intention. Support them financially in ways that are respectful to them and their practice, and really work to support the next generation in ways that are going to be positive, not only for you, but also for their careers in ways that can help them expand.