ANNUAL REPORT 20 23
Letter from Monetta White
Dear Friends,
2023 has been a landmark year for MoAD (Museum of the African Diaspora), marked by significant growth and remarkable achievements. As we reflect on this past year, I am proud to present our 2023 Annual Report, a testament to the vibrant journey we’ve embarked upon, fueled by your generous support. Your contributions have been instrumental in our mission to stay true as a contemporary art museum that celebrates Black cultures, ignites challenging conversations, and inspires learning through the global lens of the African Diaspora. Your belief in our institution is not only an investment in MoAD’s present but also in its future. For this, we are profoundly grateful.
The year began on a high note with the welcoming of our inaugural Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Public Programs, Key Jo Lee, who joined the museum in January. Lee’s curatorial leadership has significantly positioned MoAD as a frontrunner in the global contemporary art scene. Her efforts expanded our reach to international artists, raising our caliber of art historical scholarship, and firmly aligning with our ambition to showcase a diverse array of talent. Lee’s debut exhibition, Spectrum: On Color & Contemporary Art, was a celebration of contemporary Black artists from around the world, exploring the nuanced role of color in their artwork. In tandem with this, we presented JoeSam: Text Messages, guest curated by Erin Jenoa Gilbert. JoeSam is a beloved artist who has lived and worked in San Francisco for over four decades. We are honored to have presented his first solo museum exhibition in San Francisco. Additionally, our Emerging Artist Program (EAP), spotlighted four phenomenal Bay Area artists – Ramekon O’Arwisters, Nimah Gobir, Salimatu Amabebe, and Lishan AZ – giving them their first solo museum exhibitions. I could not be prouder of the exhibitions and the talented artists we exhibited in 2023.
Engaging with and uplifting our community is MoAD’s passion and remains our core focus. Over the past year, we reached and inspired over 8,200 visitors through our 96 dynamic public programs, from artist talks to performances in partnership with SFJAZZ to our Cultural Critic-in-Residence Dr. Artel Great. But it is not just within our galleries that the magic happens; the impact of MoAD goes beyond the museum. In 2023 we reached over 2,000 youth and educators that discovered the power of art through MoAD in the Classroom, MoAD Teens Summer Program, and the numerous school tours who MoAD proudly hosted.
Thank you for believing in MoAD and for ensuring a safe space for Black art to be exhibited, explored, and appreciated. Your investment strengthens our abilities to meet our goals and overcome challenges through our amazing exhibitions and educational explorations. We have immense gratitude for your support and for you being a part of MoAD.
Monetta White CEO and Executive Director
EXHIBITIONS
16,898 VISITORS
The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion
10.05.22 - 3.5.23
In the fall of 2022, MoAD presented the first and only West Coast exhibition of The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion. This exhibition highlighted the work of 15 contemporary fashion photographers—from London to Lagos, New York to Johannesburg—whose images present radically new perspectives on the medium of photography and art, race and beauty, and gender and power. Curated by renowned New York curator and critic, Antwaun Sargent and organized by Aperture, New York, the exhibition included over 100 select works from groundbreaking artists, including Tyler Mitchell, the first Black photographer hired to shoot a cover story for American Vogue. The work of this international community of Black photographers has been widely viewed and is reinvigorating the contemporary visual vocabulary around beauty and the body with new vitality and substance.
Black Venus
4.5.23 - 8.20.23
Black Venus, curated by Aindrea Emelife, is an exhibition that surveys the legacy of Black women in visual culture—from fetishized colonial-era caricatures to the present-day reclamation of the rich complexity of Black womanhood by 18 artists (of numerous nationalities and with birth years spanning 1942 to 1997). This exhibition was a celebration of Black beauty, an investigation into the many faces of Black femininity and the shaping of Black women in the public consciousness—then and now. Juxtaposed against archival depictions of Black women dating back to 1793, the contemporary works on view collectively created a global, cross-generational inves-
- Attendee “
I really enjoyed the exhibition, I’m definitely coming back with family and friends!
tigation into Black women’s reclamation of agency amid the historical fetishization of the Black female body. The exhibition’s thematic foundation was the Hottentot Venus, a visual-culture archetype named for the assigned stage name of Saartje Baartman (born 1789 in South Africa). Enslaved by Dutch colonizers and toured around Europe as part of a “freak show” due to her non-Western body type, caricatured depictions of her spread around the globe and indelibly catalyzed the Western exoticization and othering of Black women. In Black Venus , archival depictions of Baartman and other historical Black women paired with the vibrant, narrative portraiture by some of today’s most influential Black image-makers whose work deals with layered narratives of Black femininity.
Alison Saar: To Sit A While 4.5.23 - 4.30.23
”Don’t get up. Just sit a while and think. Never be afraid to sit a while and think.”
— Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry was a playwright, journalist, and activist. Her play A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway and has been revived on Broadway in 2004 and 2014. Generations of Black theater, television and film artists were inspired by and cut their artistic teeth on her masterpiece. In 2022, the Lorraine Hansberry Initiative launched a national tour of a sculpture of Hansberry’s likeness by Los Angeles-based artist, Alison Saar, and a unique scholarship to cover not the tuition, but the living expenses of women and non-binary BIPOC dramatic writers in graduate school to give them time to actually write.
Alison Saar’s work To Sit A While featured the figure of Hansberry surrounded by five bronze chairs, each representing a different aspect of her life and work. The lifesize chairs were an invitation to the public to do just that: to sit with her and think
JoeSam.: Text Messages 9.27.23 - 3.3.24
JoeSam. is a contemporary mixed media painter and installation artist. Born on August 17, 1938 in Harlem, New York, he received his B.A. degree in sociology in 1961 from St. Paul’s College in Virginia, his M.S. degree in educational psychology from Columbia University in New York, and his Ph.D. in education and psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a self taught artist who has been practicing for over 40 years.
While a student at Columbia, he facilitated educational seminars for public school teachers and at the Floyd Patterson House in the East Village, a residential treatment facility for juvenile offenders. In 1976, committed to youth education and empowerment, JoeSam. was hired as director of the Head Start program for the City of San Francisco, California. While working full time, JoeSam. began the Black West Series and the Black Jazz Series. In 1985 he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and retired from education to be a full time artist. JoeSam. was named an artist-in-residence at San Francisco’s Learning through Education in the Arts Project (LEAP) in 1987. In 1999, he became a Djerassi Artist-in-Residence in Woodside, California and was awarded the Compton Foundation Fellowship. He executed commissioned artworks for several institutions including the San Francisco Mission Police Station Juvenile Facility, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Rosa Parks Metro Rail Station, and the Sharks Ice Center in San Jose, California.
His colorful compositions contain found materials from the streets of California. Juxtaposing discarded elements such as bicycle wheels, cigarettes, plastic pipes and wooden blocks with archival images and news clippings, discordant colors in
large capital letters strewn across the canvas provide context clues to the message he wishes to convey. His works are political commentary on the continuous state of affairs in the Black community. Incited by the Jonestown Massacre of 1978 in which hundreds of African Americans were poisoned by cult leader Jim Jones, to the observation of the Black body on the auction block, to the Rodney King beating by the LAPD, to the Charleston shooting in which three men and six women were murdered at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, JoeSam. has referenced these events without calling the trauma or bloodshed to our collective memory. He has been commissioned to create artwork for commercial purposes including The Invisible Hunters ( 1987), which was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; and album covers for Bobby McFerrin’s Medicine Man (1990), Bennie Maupin
and Dr. Patrick Gleeson’s Driving While Black (1998), and Upsurge’s All Handson Deck (2000) and Chromatology (2004).
During his four (1975-2015) decades in San Francisco he forged life-long friendships with other Bay Area painters including Robert Colescott, Joe Overstreet, Raymond Saunders, Arthur Monroe and Mary Lovelace O’Neal. This exhibition, the first museum exhibition in San Francisco, featured approximately 20 mixed media paintings from key series produced between 1985 and 2020 from the artist’s personal collection and private collections.
The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry
9.27.23 - 3.3.24
The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry was a visual art exhibition curated from within the Central California Women’s Facility at Chowchilla (CCWF) by Tomiekia Johnson and Chantell-Jeannette Black of Empowerment Avenue in partnership with MoAD and Flyaway Productions. Through the work of five visual artists and two poets, the exhibition made visible the invisible women in prison through their own words and images—building empathy and empowering viewers to take action.
The online exhibition, which featured artworks, poems, and a zine, also included an opportunity for viewers to write letters to the artists and a call to action for those who would like to advocate for change.
This exhibition originated as part of Flyaway Productions’ multi-year exploration of the experiences of people impacted by incarceration. The partnership between Flyaway Productions, Empowerment Avenue (EA) and Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD) began in 2020 with the digital exhibition Meet Us Quickly: Painting for Justice from Prison, curated from prison by Rahsaan Thomas (Executive Director of EA) and composed of artworks by men at San Quentin. The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry is a repeat collaboration focused on the experiences of women from the Central California Women’s Facility, curated from that prison by Chantell-Jeannette Black and Tomiekia Johnson. The exhibition was one facet of Flyaway’s project If I Give You My Sorrows, which explores women’s complex relationships to their beds.
Spectrum: On Color & Contemporary Art
9.27.23 - 3.3.24
How do artists use color to guide our perception? In this exhibition, curated by Key Jo Lee, MoAD’s inaugural Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Public Programs, a multigenerational and international group of contemporary Black artists illuminated the importance of color to both the form and content of their work. Through a series of thematic couplings and groupings, each visitor explored how each artist employs color to convey mood, identity, architecture, event, etc.
The exhibition was accompanied by digital and analog educational tools and programs meant to equip our audiences with new and/or refined questions and language with which to engage contemporary Black art through color.
Participating artists included:
Tariku Shiferaw
Stacey Gillian Abe
Sheena Rose
Mildred Thompson
Barkley Hendricks
Manyaku Mashilo
Delita Martin
Tawny Chatmon
Rashid Johnson
Richard Mayhew
Gabriel Mills
Felandus Thames
EMERGING ARTISTS PROGRAM
Ramekon O’Arwisters:
Freeform and Razor-Sharp 4.27.23 - 6.11.23
In this exhibition, MoAD selected key sculptures from O’Arwisters’ studio that spanned several years of his formal experimentations and placed them in conversation with his additional practice of blackand-white photography. As an extension of his conceptual process, these self-portraits employ a transference of materials from O’Arwisters’ sculptures to create a sharp and intimate dialogue with his own body.
Nimah Gobir: Holding Space
6.14. 23 - 8.20.23
Holding Space unveiled a suite of smalland large-scale figurative paintings that uplift home, homemaking, and belonging in the context of immigrant narratives. Through depictions of family members and loved ones in everyday situations, Holding Space humanized the Black experience and paid homage to Black families. Embroidery, pattern, and textile motifs conveyed the layered expressive textures inherent to family homes. This exhibition was a meditation on how homes are places that hold secrets, histories, and vestiges of loved ones.
Salimatu Amabebe: SON 9.27. 23 - 12.10.23
In SON, Salimatu Amabebe opened the door to reconsider the relationship between home, memory, and metamorphosis. The deep red interior, reminiscent of blood, invited reflection on the domestic space as one of close kinship ties, yet subject to dynamic change. The pewter casts in the space drew from the artist’s personal archive to preserve but also to probe the inherited lessons from his father including masculinity and movement. We observed how the inexactness of repetition acts as a productive improvisation of self-creation. Such gaps demonstrate how the memories we hold in our bodies enable performative acts of transfiguration and imagination. SON was Amabebe’s first solo museum exhibition. Co-curated by Salimatu Amabebe & Key Jo Lee, Chief of Curatorial Affairs & PublicPrograms at MoAD. Text by Luke Williams, Emerging Artists Program Fellow.
Lishan AZ: Eugene’s Cove 12.13. 23 - 3.3.24
In 1919, at a segregated beach on the south side of Chicago, 17-year-old Eugene Williams was killed by a white gang after he accidentally floated across the color line. Eugene’s Cove explores the relationship between Black folks and water by imagining an underwater world where those we thought drowned sank and became something more. Drawing on mythology and historical events from across the diaspora, through 35mm film photography, soundscape, installation, and video, this exhibit immersed the viewer in a world in which Eugene’s laughter rang out, taunting, “You tried to drown me, but I’m just down here thriving.”
2023
MoAD supports artists in their courage, authenticity, innovation, and in their independence.
- Ramekon O’Arwisters
RAMEKON O’ARWISTERS
RESIDENCIES, AWARDS & PUBLIC PROGRAM
As you can surely imagine, it’s not easy being an artist. No one said it would be. The immense indifference is insurmountable and, at times, quite incapacitating. However, when people care about you and your creative vision, one is embraced; one feels appreciated; one feels accepted and accomplished. This is how I feel about MoAD. Early this year, I had my first one-person museum exhibition at Museum of the African Diaspora. The only Black museum in the Bay Area provided exhibition space and financial support for my creativity. It is very important for me to absolutely trust my creativity; it is also quite empowering for the leadership and curatorial department of an established museum, like MoAD to acknowledge my artistic endeavors. It is difficult to remain sane in an ever increasingly insane world, and for a Black, queer artist, like myself, sanity is made more difficult when subtle and not-so subtle cultural and societal messages bombarded one with negativity, feelings of unworthiness, and disappointment. However, at MoAD, my “otherness” was not something to avoid, but a world view to engage and support. My story is included in the infinite, and non-stop phenomenally rich stories of the African diaspora. Everyone is the story; the story is everyone. Who
are we without our story? It is a very poignant question. Artists are extremely important in creating art that explores our universal histories in creative ways that unites everyone in our shared humanity, in our universal story. Hundreds of artists have done such creative exploration though exhibitions, performances, artist’s talks, panel discussions, poetry reading, and more at MoAD. For me, artistically telling my story in such an important museum is extremely empowering, fulfilling, and non-stop affirming. What does it mean to be successful? What does it mean to “make it?” What does it mean to strive and not just “get by?” For me, it means to be honestly acknowledged, financially supported, and emotionally affirmed by those who look like me. Museum of the African Diaspora supports artists in their courage, authenticity, innovation, and in their independence. I am very grateful to the leadership, board members, trustees, and staff at MoAD for allowing me to be who I am, and for providing a platform for me to be who I need to become.
Thank you.
— Ramekon
O’Arwisters
RESIDENCIES, AWARDS & PUBLIC PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
AWARDS
8,200 ATTENDEES
Chef-in-Residence
MoAD’s Chef-in-Residence program, the first of its kind in a contemporary art museum, has been seminal in creating space for people of color to give voice to crucial issues around food justice, climate justice, and social justice while nurturing a love of healthy foods, creativity, and community. From its very first offering, a panel discussion entitled Black Women, Food, and Power, to the widely lauded Black Food Summit in September 2022, the program brings together hundreds of leading Black chefs, writers, scholars, activists, artists, and other creatives to advance the health and well-being of the African Diaspora. The 2023 Chef-in-Residence is Jocelyn Jackson.
Poets-in-Residence
Founded in 2018, the MoAD Poets-in-Residence program provides writers with opportunities to respond to contemporary art of the African Diaspora and extend the reach of the museum through public programs and school-based writing workshops. This annual four-month paid residency provides two poets of African descent the opportunity to pursue their own writing projects, in addition to responding to MoAD’s current exhibitions. Over the course of the program, the selected residents develop and host poetry workshops for the high school students in the Spoken Arts Department of Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco. The 2023 Poets-in-Residence were Ashia Ajani and Thea Matthews.
African Literary Award
Presented by MoAD, the African Literary Award recognizes an African author who has produced a work of literary excellence and taken a leadership role in promoting writing and literacy in their local communities. The award is granted to an author whose work has been read by the Museum’s African Book Club. In September 2022, author Rémy Ngamije was selected as the inaugural African Literary Award recipient for his book An Eternal Audience of One and his community literary initiatives in his home country of Namibia. In 2023 Nigerian writer Eloghosa Osunde, author of Vagabonds!, was selected as the African Literary Award finalist.
Cultural Critic-in-Residence
Launched in January 2023, MoAD’s Cultural Critic-in-Residence program connects film, scholarship, visual and pop culture in an exciting and novel approach. The Museum’s inaugural Cultural Critic-in-Residence is acclaimed filmmaker, author, and scholar Dr. Artel Great. Dr. Great is an intellectual and creative force who transcends boundaries and defies conventional categorization. His publically-engaged scholarship contributes to the production of knowledge in Black cinema and visual culture and Black cultural theory. Through this residency, Dr. Artel Great engages filmmakers, historians, scholars, media experts, artists, and cultural producers and local, national, and international audiences through virtual and in-person programming.
2023
2023 Poets-in-Residence
Ashia Ajani and Thea Matthews
PARTICIPATED IN TOURS 1,942
Chef-in-Residence
Jocelyn Jackson presents Diaspora Dinner 2023
One of MoAD’s signature Chef-in-Residence programs, the Diaspora Dinner featured a deliciously curated menu of international cuisine, lively entertainment, and an insightful conversation between two of America’s Top Chefs, Rahanna Bisseret Martinez and Carla Hall. Hosted at the beautiful Southeast Community center in the Bayview, this special event also highlighted the publication of Bisseret Martinez’s debut cookbook, Flavor + Us.
Curator Talk | The New Black Vanguard: Antwaun Sargent in conversation with Rikki Byrd
Following the day-long Engage Symposium, this conversation featured Antwaun Sargent, curator of the exhibition The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion. Together with fashion scholar Rikki Byrd, Sargent reflected on the themes, aspirations, and legacy of this acclaimed traveling exhibition.
Diaspora Dinner with Chef in Residence Jocelyn Jackson, Chef Carla Hall, and Rahanna Bisseret Martinez
Poetry Reading | Black Fire This Time
Featuring live readings and a community dialogue with 13 Black poets, this program highlighted the publication of the critically-acclaimed anthology Black Fire This Time, Vol. 1. Celebrating the history and legacy of the Black Arts Movement, this anthology contains the work of over 100 Black poets and writers and the last living legends of the movement
Artist Talk | Alison Saar in Conversation with Evie Shockley
In celebration of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, artist Alison Saar paid homage to Hansberry with the installation To Sit A While (on view at MoAD April 5-May 1, 2023). Bridging visual art and
poetry, this dynamic conversation paired Saar with poet Evie Shockley, whose collection, suddenly we, features Saar’s artwork on the cover.
Conversation | Curating from the Inside: Women Exposing Prison through Art and Poetry
Celebrating the launch of the digital exhibition The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison through Art and Poetry on MoAD’s website, this hybrid program explored the challenges faced by women at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla where both the co-curators and all of the artists for this exhibition reside, while uplifting the empowerment that telling their own stories can bring. This program and the exhibition were created in partnership with Flyaway Productions and Empowerment Avenue.
106 PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Activation & Artist Talks | Salimatu Amabebe: Sun Home
In conjunction with Emerging Artist Program Awardee Salimatu Amabebe’s exhibition SON, this performance and activation featured artists Zekarias Musele Thompson, Styles Alexander, and Gabriele Christian and was followed by an artist talk with Salimatu Amabebe in conversation with artist Tahirah Rasheed. Incorporating sound, music, and movement, this activation expanded upon the exhibition themes of SON, exploring the relationship between home, memory, and metamorphosis.
“I’m very impressed with the content and space MoAD is presenting. This is my second time attending an event. I am going to become a member for sure.
- Attendee
EDUCATION PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
1,491
YOUTH & TEACHERS
SERVED
MoAD in the Classroom
MoAD in the Classroom is an arts-based, visual literacy and cultural studies program for third-grade classrooms located in the San Francisco Bay Area. A MoAD Educator makes two trips to the classroom and the students make two visits to the museum. While in the classroom, MoAD Educators teach students about museum themes, current exhibitions, and visual arts vocabulary. During the museum visits, students view current art exhibitions, learn how to view and talk about art, and participate in hands-on art activities. Following the initial classroom and museum visits, each class participates in four supplementary classroom visits from teaching artists, during which students complete project-based artwork, serving as a summary evaluation of what students learned throughout the program. As a culminating event, students display and present their work to peers, family members, and other friends beyond the classroom.
MoAD Teens
MoAD Teens is a dynamic five-week program that seamlessly blends structured learning with hands-on, paid work experience to empower aspiring young artist professionals on their path to success. Students explore diverse art career pathways, learn while earning (participants are paid $18.50/hr), gain transferable skills, and work collaboratively with MoAD Teaching Artists. In 2023, 20 Bay Area teens worked for 12 hours per week for 5 weeks (60 total hours) and each earned $1,110.
On view at MoAD September 27, 2023 through March 3, 2024, Old Roots, New Leaves was a group, mixed-media exhibition curated by ten youth artists in MoAD’s first teen-led art exhibition. The artists reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and are deeply connected to many global cultures. From East Africa to Sierra Leone to Arkansas to the Dominican Republic, each artist uniquely honors their cultural legacies in both old and new environments. Through textiles, sculpture, painting, drawing, video, and photography, this exhibition provided a space for young people to reflect on how their personal experiences with culture and traditions impact their artistic practice.
MoAD Engage Symposium Keynote Speaker - Antwaun Sargent
VIRTUAL PROGRAMS
In the Artist’s Studio
Each month, MoAD staff members visited some of our favorite artists in their studios to see what they were currently working on and how their work has changed since the onset of Covid-19. This was a rare opportunity to hear from artists directly from their studios. We followed all talks with an audience Q&A.
Art As We See It
This series of conversations by MoAD docents celebrates the art and rhythms of the African diaspora by pairing visual art with music. Our docents search online archives to bring selected artworks and pair each piece with music. Participants are invited to join the discussion via chat as they consider style, inspiration, political and cultural context, and highlight the textures and rhythms of art and music.
Thank you for continuing MoAD’s virtual programming— I very much appreciate these learning opportunities. The presenters are terrific — they share their expertise with enthusiasm.
Thank you!
- Attendee
42 SCHOOL TOURS
FINANCIALS
Autumn Breon performing at the Afropolitan Ball
THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SUPP ORTERS
This list reflects gifts received between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023. Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy. If you have any questions or concerns, please email Sheeka Arbuthnot, Chief Development Officer, at sarbuthnot@moadsf.org.
VISIONARY
Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock
City and County of San Francisco Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS)
INNOVATOR
California Arts Council
CommonSpirit
Crankstart Foundation
Footlocker LISC
Jill Cowan and Stephen Davis
Kaiser Permanente
KHR Family Fund
NBA Foundation
San Francisco Grants for the Arts
CHAMPION
Anonymous
CSAA Insurance Group
Gilead Sciences
Lisa P. and Ken Jackson
San Francisco Foundation
Westridge Foundation
BENEFACTOR
Schatzie Allen Jefferson and Family
Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard
Karen Jenkins-Johnson and Kevin Johnson
Kelson Foundation
Kimball Foundation
William and Shannon Nash
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Beryl and James Potter
Salesforce
State of California
US Bank
Robin and Carl D. Washington
Wells Fargo Foundation
ADVOCATE
Justin Bayless
Bernard Osher Foundation
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Annette Blum and Michael Pearson
Alicia and Mark Carter
Jay C. Cowan
Quinn Delaney and Wayne Jordan
Dodge & Cox
Elisa Durrette and Ruth McFarlane
Harry and Michele Elam
FivePoint Communities
Peggy W. Forbes and Harry Bremond
Greenberg Traurig
Dorothy Lathan
Lisa Pritzker Family Foundation
Neiman Marcus
Board Treasurer Eric McDonnell at the Afropolitan Ball
New Paradigm Capital
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Siebert Williams Shank & Co
Tiffany Stevenson
Denise Vohra
Warner Music Group
Diane B. Wilsey
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich
& Rosati Foundation
Yerba Buena Community Benefit District
CURATOR
Katie and Rodger Allen
Amplitude
Jennifer Brody
Eugene and Sonya Clark-Herrera
Brook Dooley
Tom Emrich and Jonathan Carver Moore
Maya Forbes and Marc Wolodarsky
Julie Goldman and Robert M. Rosner
Gordon D. and Tameka Greenwood
Akieva and Martin Jacobs
Kim and Daniel Johnson
Vimbayi Kajese and Tawanda Sibanda
Tonia and Adam Karr
The Lilly Awards Foundation
Marin Community Foundation
Vincent McCarley
Bryan and Tara Meehan
Hydra Mendoza and Eric McDonnell
Pam Moore
Jared Newberry and Marilena Morales
Sonjia and Gregory Redmond
Julius Robinson
Madalene and L. Wade Rose
Jessica Silverman
Bonita Stewart
Cheryl and Charles Ward
Michael and Gina Warren
Barry L. Williams and Lalita Tademy
Ammanuel Zegeye
Zlot Buell & Associates
COLLECTOR
Vernon Anderson
The Archie-Brown Springboard Fund
Brenda Berlin
Susan E. Brown
Wanda and Karl Cole-Frieman
Julia Collins
Michele Crumes
Ingrid and Monte Ford
Valerie Francis
Nilka and Maik Klasen
National Black Programming Consortium
Monifa Porter
Mike & Kelly Smith
Pandora Thomas
David and Susan Tunnell
Deirdre Visser
Harold Wallace
Dorian Webb and Keith M. Spears
Rhonda Williams
Robin Wright
DOCENT
Anonymous
Francine Anthony
Lawrence Bancroft
Denise Bradley-Tyson
Heidy Braverman and David Skinner
James & Bernice Brown Family Fund
Nancy Bussani
Rosemarie and Ronald Clark
Derek & Ramona Coates
Eric Coles
Paula and Charles M. Collins
Molly Coye
Charles Desmarais
Lisa Finley Lennon
Matthew Finney
Debra Flores
Holly J. Friar
Stanlee Gatti
Charlie Goldberg
Mary and Steve Gorski
Maia J. Harris
Alisahah Jackson
Sonja Johnson
Kara Kelly and Rahsaan Thompson
Lillian and Joseph Murphy Charitable Trust
Adam Maggio
Sarah Manyika Ladipo
Karesha A. McGee
Donita Murphy
Oral History Center
Sherri Pittman
Theresa Power and Ken Seeger
Jennifer Roberts
Tonya Russell
Hilary Sarnor
Andre Scott
Emily Scott
Francine O. Shakir
Joel and Deborah Skidmore
Rishika and Marc Spears
Greg Stern
Gerald Vurek
Wayne C. and Vanessa Washington
Eileen and Thurman V. White
Monetta White and David Lawrence
Jean-Mary Widmaer
Kathy J. Williams
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
IN-KIND
Adobe Systems Inc
Brown Estate Vineyards
Cadogan Tate
Common Ground Spirits
Daou Vineyards
MasterClass
Uncle Nearest
ESTATE & TRUSTS GIFTS
The Estate of Frankie J. and Maxwell Gillette
MATCHING GIFTS
Adobe Systems Inc.
Blue Shield of California
Chevron Matching Employee Funds
CSAA Insurance Group
Gates Foundation
LinkedIn Corporation
ARTHUR AND TONI REMBE ROCK
In 2023, philanthropists Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock made a transformative investment in MoAD with a leadership gift of $1,500,000. With this gift, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock ensure that MoAD’s critically-acclaimed exhibitions, educational initiatives, and public programs continue to amplify diverse voices in the contemporary art world.
“Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock have been supporters of MoAD since its inception. Their expanded commitment to MoAD underscores the true importance of our work and helps set a new bar for what is possible for MoAD’s future,” says MoAD CEO Monetta White. “We are deeply grateful for the opportunities this leadership gift provides and thrilled to have such thoughtful and committed partners in the work we do to address America’s entrenched inequities.”
COLLABORATORS & PARTNERS
826 Valencia
African Studies Association
Aquarius Press
Asian Art Museum
Black Public Media
blackwomxnhealing
City Arts & Lectures
Community Arts Stabilization Trust
Community Music Center
DCTV
Empowerment Avenue
Flyaway Productions
Greywolf Press
Heyday Books
Jonathan Carver Moore
Kaiser Permanente
Litquake
Lorraine Hansberry Theater
Mark Rhoades
Milkweed Editions
Neiman Marcus
Penguin Random House
POV/PBS
Quiet Lightning
Public Profit
Ruth Asawa School For the Arts
SFJAZZ
Sistah Scifi
The Italian Consulate
UCSF REPAIR
World Channel
Yerba Buena Community Benefit District
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
Youth Speaks
2023
BOARD MEMBERS
L. Wade Rose - Board Chair
Peggy Woodford Forbes - Vice Chair
Eric McDonnell - Treasurer
Julius Robinson - Secretary
Jill Cowan
Elisa Durrette
Michelle Gaskill-Hames
Vimbayi Kajese
Beryl Potter
Tiffany Stevenson
Ammanuel Zegeye
STAFF
Monetta White - CEO and Executive Director
Sheeka Arbuthnot - Chief Development Officer
Philip Broadus - Chief Operating Officer
Key Jo Lee - Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Public Programs
Linda Spain de Bruin - Chief Financial Officer
Dariane Beamon - Education Program Associate
Sheleia J. Brooks - Visitor Experience Associate
Demetri Broxton - Senior Director of Education
Tinashe Chidarikire - Digital Content Manager
Alicia Chow - Visitor Experience Associate
Si Mon’ Emmett-Salah - Education Program Manager
Tsedey Gebreyes - Senior Education Program Manager
Elizabeth Gessel - Director of Public Programs
Alex Jenney - Events Manager
Kitsaun King - Development Manager
Imani Lee - Visitor Experience Manager
Jenna Littlejohn - Grants Manager
Alia Lundy - Executive Administrator / Membership Manager
Nia McAllister - Senior Public Programs Manager
Danyn Oakes - Marketing Project Coordinator
Tamara Orozco - Director of Marketing and Communications
Paul Plale - Brand Design Manager
Mary Powers - Registrar
Paul Rodriguez - Director of Operations
Maya Sadler - Education Program Manager
Maiyio Taylor-Jackson - Digital Marketing and Community Manager
Dayonna Tucker - Membership Manager
Luke Williams - Curatorial Fellow
TEACHING ARTISTS
Asual Aswad
Viviana Carlos
Feyi Ajayi-Dopemu
Amelian Hamilton
Aja Johnson
Ramona Soto
Aambr Newsome
INTERNS
Ryan Bardot
Susan Singleton
Léa Henaux
Sumin Oh
Suhyeon Kim
Robyn Simpson
Teresa Ahumada
DOCENTS
LuCurisa Hammork
Rodney Paul
Charlie Goldberg