Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell is a native of Washington, DC with over 14 years of experience in museums, higher ed, and nonprofit arts spaces, where she has utilized social justice practices to enhance audience engagement. Before joining the Aspen Institute in 2023 as Senior Program Manager of the Arts Program, she served as the Associate Director of Outreach and Operations with the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. She launched the Center’s new branding including social media campaigns and issues-focused toolkits for non-academics, and developed strategies and architecture for new community-based projects.
Prior to that role she served as the inaugural community engagement specialist with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and created new opportunities to sustain thought partnership and shared authority with BIPOC communities. As head of public programs with SAAM she led an extensive portfolio of programs across two museums and led new outreach and inclusion initiatives toward developing new audiences and cultivating meaningful public engagement. She has built and launched numerous new programming initiatives with the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, among others.
Kayleigh has previously served on the Board of Washington Project for the Arts, on the selection committee for VisArts, and led the DC Chapter for ArtTable. Additionally, she participates in the Museum As Site for Social Action and the Empathetic Museum movements. She has written and published extensively on changemaking in museums.