ST. LOUIS, Aug. 11, 2026—The Saint Louis Art Museum will host its annual free virtual summit in October, bringing together arts professionals from around the country to explore how art foundations support artists and art professionals from underrepresented communities.
The event, Advancing Change—Shaping Tomorrow Through Art Foundations, begins online at 10 am on Oct. 1. Registration is required.
Min Jung Kim, the Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum; and Renée Brummell Franklin, the museum’s chief diversity officer, will welcome participants and provide opening remarks at this year’s summit. Next, panelists will examine the function of foundations and art organizations, discussing how their personal experiences with them have shaped their profession.
Panelists include Diedra Harris-Kelley—the codirector of the Romare Bearden Foundation—along with three former Romare Bearden Fellows at SLAM. Harris-Kelley is a formally trained painter and the niece of Nanette Rohan Bearden. Along with codirector Johanne Bryant Reid, she has led a successful run of exhibitions, publications, educational programs and celebratory programs around the life and art of Romare Bearden.
The other panelists include 2014-15 fellow Jordia Benjamin, the executive director of Indigo Arts Alliance in Maine; 2001-02 fellow Rehema Barber-Williams, the director of curatorial affairs at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; and 2015-16 fellow Courtney Baxter-Annis, the supervisor of visitor education and engagement at the Obama Presidential Center. Daniella Statia, the 2025-27 Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellow, will moderate the discussion.
Advancing Change, launched in 2021, is inspired by SLAM’s Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship, which started more than 30 years ago and is one of the nation’s longest-running postgraduate training opportunities for museum professionals from historically underrepresented populations. More than 90 percent of past fellows still work in the arts and cultural sector; the summit provides an opportunity for Bearden alums to discuss how they continue to be changemakers in their fields.
CONTACT: Molly Morris, 314.655.5250, [email protected]
Diedra Harris-Kelley, the codirector of the Romare Bearden Foundation