Curator, Writer, Historian
TK Smith is an award-winning writer, curator, and cultural historian. His career consists of community advocacy, public-facing scholarship, and critical engagement with the creative and political discourses of memory work in the United States. With leadership experience across major museums, universities, and independent arts organizations, Smith brings a demonstrated commitment to scholarship, equity, cross-sector partnerships, and the transformative role of cultural institutions in civic life.
Smith’s writing has been published in several exhibition catalogues, academic journals, and periodicals. He has written for Art in America, the Brooklyn Rail, and ART PAPERS, where he was a contributing editor. In 2021, he was awarded an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for short-form writing and in 2024 he was awarded the Leo and Dorothea Rabkin prize for critical art writing.
Smith’s independent curatorial practice has spanned 10 years. Most recently, he curated the 2026 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial: The Price of the Ticket. He previously served as Curator, Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University and Assistant Curator: Art of the African Diaspora at the Barnes Foundation.
As a public scholar, Smith has lectured for several institutions, including the University of Mississippi, University of California – Irvine, and the Wichita Art Museum. He has taught courses at the Barnes Foundation, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Cornell University, where he lectured in the Architecture, Art, and Planning program.
Currently, Smith is a doctoral candidate in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware, where he is completing his dissertation entitled, “Granite, Power, and Piss: The Transformation of a Confederate Symbol.” He earned his Master of Arts in American Studies and his Bachelor of Arts in English and African American Studies, with a certificate in Creative Writing from Saint Louis University.
