Culture, society, and living a creative, considered life
Over the past twenty years, I have worked across cultural, political, corporate, and institutional life, helping leaders and organizations clarify what they want to contribute, communicate why it matters, and build meaningful relationships with the people they want to reach.
Creativity is at the center of my approach. I’m interested in how an idea becomes something people can feel, understand, and see themselves in. That requires paying attention to the world around us, understanding what matters to different communities, and asking what our work can meaningfully contribute to their lives.
My experience includes corporate and digital communications at Wachovia, communications leadership for the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressman Adam Smith, and work at the New York Public Library and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Through agency roles and independent practice, I have also worked with artists, museums, businesses, and community organizations.
Through ElevenThirtySix, the advisory practice I founded, I have worked with more than thirty artists and cultural and civic organizations, including The Africa Center, Museum Hue, the International Center of Photography, the International Studio & Curatorial Program, and Socrates Sculpture Park. I help clients think through strategic questions, develop compelling narratives, and give their purpose a coherent expression across their work and public presence.
Today, these interests also take shape through Galerie36, the contemporary art house I founded, and Works in Progress, where I write about culture, society, and living a creative, considered life. Across my advisory and creative practice, I continue to explore how we build lives, organizations, and communities that reflect what we actually value.
I work with leaders, artists, and institutions to clarify purpose, develop ideas, and make considered decisions about their work and its place in the world. My approach connects cultural understanding, creative thinking, and civic experience, helping organizations respond to the communities they serve while considering the global forces shaping their work. I welcome partnerships grounded in intellectual rigor, curiosity, and a shared commitment to contributing meaningfully to cultural and public life.
My experience includes corporate and digital communications in finance, communications leadership for the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressman Adam Smith, public engagement at the New York Public Library and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and arts communications at Sutton. Through my own practice at ElevenThirtySix, I have worked with more than thirty cultural organizations including The Africa Center, the International Center of Photography, the International Studio and Curatorial Program, and Socrates Sculpture Park.
I hold a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from UNC Chapel Hill, an MA in Strategic Communications from American University, and a Master of Liberal Arts in Museum Studies from Harvard Extension School, with executive education from Duke University and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Essays on culture, society, and living a creative, considered life.
Perspective
Two years ago, I wrote about the struggle between democracy and autocracy. The closing of the Kennedy Center shows why culture was always going to be one of its most consequential battlegrounds.
What happens when even our most prominent institutions can no longer hold the line?
Read the essay ↗Reading Notes, No. 1
On the courage of your mistakes, and the question I am sitting with this season.
Read the essay ↗From the archive
On going quiet, the end of the information age, and the one thing no machine can do in your place.
Read the essay ↗From the archive
What ten days in India taught me about surrender, instinct, and the life that’s already yours.
Read the essay ↗Partnering with cultural and civic leaders to interpret what they are actually communicating through decisions, structures, relationships, and cultural positioning.
Strategy & advisory
Strategy and advisory for individuals and institutions.
I work with leaders to clarify purpose, think through consequential decisions, and determine how their organizations can contribute meaningfully to the world around them.
Through focused strategy engagements and six-month advisory relationships, I bring an independent perspective informed by twenty years across culture, communications, and civic life. Together, we examine the questions behind the work, identify opportunities, and establish clear priorities and actions.
Explore advisory engagements ↗An art house · Dakar
A contemporary art house rooted in Dakar and open to the world.
Through exhibitions, conversations, and gatherings, Galerie36 presents African and diasporic artists and creates space to spend time with their work and with one another. A place where artists feel supported and people can build a deeper relationship with their own creative practice.
Explore Galerie36 ↗
For conversations and considered collaborations, you can reach me directly.
ak@ayofemikirby.comFor cultural strategy and institutional advisory, explore ElevenThirtySix.
Reading notes, essays, and the questions I’m sitting with. I’m happy to share them with you.
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