Allison Glenn and Toya Northington:
Promise, Witness, Remembrance

Please join us for our next lecture in the ASU-LACMA Navigating Change in Museums public lecture series. The speakers with look back at how Allison Glenn developed the exhibition Promise, Witness, Remembrance, to reflect on the life of Breonna Taylor, her killing in 2020, and the year of protests that followed, in Louisville and around the world, in concert with Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mother, the invaluable community engagement strategy and committees Toya Northington developed, and the National Panel Glenn built. It will also look forward to the long-term programmatic work that Northington is currently doing at the Speed Art Museum, that takes this moment as a departure. Both “how we did this” and “how the museum is implementing PWR in current and future work”. 

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Allison Glenn is a curator and writer deeply invested in working closely with artists to develop ideas, artworks, and exhibitions that respond to and transform our understanding of the world. Glenn’s curatorial work focuses on the intersection of art and publics, through public art, biennials, special projects, and major new commissions by leading
contemporary artists. She is currently a Senior Curator at Public Art Fund in New York City and one of the curators of Counterpublic 2023, a St. Louis-based triennial. Glenn recently garnered critical acclaim for Promise, Witness, Remembrance (2021) at the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY. Previous curatorial roles include senior curator and
director of public art at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; associate curator, contemporary art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; curatorial associate and publications manager for Prospect New Orleans international art triennial Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp; and a curatorial fellowship with the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Her writing has been featured in catalogs published by The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Prospect New Orleans, Princeton Architectural Press, Studio Museum in Harlem, and she has contributed to Artforum, ART PAPERS, Hyperallergic, Fresh Art International, ART21 Magazine, and Gulf Coast Quarterly, amongst others. Glenn received dual master’s degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Modern Art
History, Theory and Criticism and Arts Administration and Policy, and a Bachelor of Fine Art Photography with a co-major in Urban Studies from Wayne State University in Detroit.

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Toya Northington, MSSW is an artist, researcher, and social entrepreneur. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Georgia State University and also holds a master’s in social work from the University of Louisville. Working in mixed media and across disciplines, Toya’s works are an act of resistance, pushing back against societal expectations. Northington engages in multiple strategies to promote social change and further her commitment to social justice. Among
these strategies are her engagement in research that seeks to improve conditions for highly marginalized populations (i.e., formerly incarcerated African American men and women living with HIV; incarcerated older adults) and the empowerment of sexual minority youth. Northington brings a unique and important feminist perspective to her work and life as an African American working-class woman. In 2012, Toya founded an art-based, mental health and social justice organization, artThrust. This was the first non-profit organization employing art-based, trauma-informed programming to address the
psychosocial needs of Black girls and LGBTQ+ youth in Louisville, KY. She is also currently the Executive Director of artThrust and the Community Engagement Strategist Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the Speed Museum. Her most esteemed museum accomplishments included creative aging programs recognized by the American Alliance of Museums and E.A. Michelson Philanthropy, and the community engagement strategy for the highly acclaimed exhibition Promise, Witness, Remembrance (2021) at the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY.

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Moderated by ASU-LACMA Master's Fellows Mariama Salia and Deliasofia Zacarias

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SPONSORED BY

• ASU School of Art in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

• ASU Art Museum in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art

• ASU Museum and Heritage Studies program