Ashleigh Smith

Dynamic brand strategist and researcher with 3+ years of experience developing and implementing creative strategies that intersect with race, ethnicity, and identity. Recognized as a 2023 AdColor Future for proven ability to drive inclusive change. Expertise in Black visual culture, curatorial activism, and advertising as a cultural product.

Modern and Contemporary Portraiture, Contemporary African American Art, Black Feminist Studies, Curatorial Activism, and the intersections of race, ethnicity, and visual culture.

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Summer Research, Chicago, IL, 06/19 - 08/19

• Developed key aspects of methodology and writing approach for thesis research. Engaged with Black feminist and sociological theories to explore self-portraiture as a tool for liberation.

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Durham, NC, 05/18 - 08/18

• Analyzed curatorial methodology and protest strategies in the 1969 Harlem on My Mind exhibition and its impact on contemporary diversity initiatives in museums.

Rigel Scholars Program, Durham, NC, 08/17 - 12/17

• Explored how museum contexts influence understanding of racial trauma through art historical analysis and visitor perspective understanding of racial trauma.

Art Bridges Foundation, Curatorial Intern, 06/20-08/20

Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Curatorial Intern, 08/2019 - 05/20

• Digital Exhibition: Dreams of Defiance

Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Student Curator, 08/19 - 12/19

• Exhibition: Cultures of the Sea

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Curatorial Intern, 09/18 - 12/18

• Exhibitions: Hugo Boss Prize, Basquiat's Defacement

DuSable Museum of African American History & Culture, Education Intern, 07/18 - 08/18

District Six Museum, Volunteer Intern, 06/17 - 08/17

• Dreams of Defiance, Presented at Duke Arts Conversation, 04/20
• A Self Defined Sex Being, Presented at CAA Annual Conference, 02/20
• Undergraduate Research Symposium in Art History, 04/19
• Black Portraitures V: Memory and the Archive, Attended for Research, 10/19

• Nancy Kaneb Award in Art History, Duke University, 05/20
• Life of the Mind Student Scholar of the Year Award, Mary Lou Williams Center, 04/20
• Samuel DuBois Cook Award for Community Leadership, 02/20
• Kenan Purpose Program Fellowship, 01/19, $5000
• Mary Duke Biddle Award, 05/18, $3000
• Internship Funding Grant, Duke University Career Center, 05/18, $3000