New York Times Coverage of Prep and Sotheby's Art Academy

Growing up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Akili Tommasino used to cut class to visit artworks like the ancient Egyptian “Head From a Female Sphinx” with gaping eye sockets at the Brooklyn Museum, or Umberto Boccioni’s striding bronze figure, “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space,” at the Museum of Modern Art. 

Wandering through the galleries, Mr. Tommasino also couldn’t help noticing that the only people of color he saw were the security guards; it wasn’t until he later studied art history at Harvard that he realized African-Americans like himself could also be curators, or even museum directors. 

For decades the country’s mainstream art museums have excluded people of color — from their top leadership to the curators who create shows to the artists they display on their walls. Now, eager to attract a broader cross-section of visitors at a time when the country’s demographics are changing — and, in New York, facing an ultimatum linking city funding to inclusion plans — a growing number of museums are addressing diversity with new urgency. 

 

Mindful of this wake-up call, a number of museums have collaborated with mentoring programs like the Prep for Prep/Sotheby’s Art Academy, which Mr. Tommasino founded in 2017 to give disadvantaged high school students an earlier window into the art world. “American museums need to do a better job of hiring, cultivating, retaining and promoting curators of color,” Mr. Tommasino said. “People of color don’t have exposure to arts as viable careers.” 

Having spent the summer meeting artists, critics, and conservators through Prep for Prep/Sotheby’s Art Academy, Liam Garcia-Quish, 17, a rising senior from Queens, is now considering becoming a curator. “This program really opened my eyes to the various opportunities in the art world,” Mr. Garcia-Quish said. “It’s giving people of color the opportunity to shine.”