Reflecting on her role as a 2025 NOMA Board Trustee, Ariel Wilson-Harris notes that this role calls her to pursue her own core values. “When considering the current state of art, arts education, and the broader industry,” she states, “…there are core values that I, as a museum trustee, owe to myself, our patrons, and the community we serve.”
Wilson-Harris and other attendees of the 2025 Annual Convening of the Black Trustees Alliance, photo provided by Ariel Wilson-Harris
One way that Wilson-Harris pursues these values is by connecting with fellow Black museum trustees through the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums (BTA), a nonprofit organization that aims to equip Black museum trustees with resources to effect critical change within their institutions. Founded “by and for Black trustees of art museums” in 2021, the organization develops programs, research, and communications to help its members increase the presence of Black perspectives within the North American art museum landscape. The BTA’s institutional partners include the New Orleans African American Museum (NOAAM) and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, demonstrating the organization’s connections with fellow museums in the Southeastern United States. Other 2025 NOMA Board of Trustees members involved in the BTA include current Board President Tod Smith and Edgar “Dook” Chase, IV, among others.
For Wilson-Harris, her choice to join the BTA “[stemmed] from a desire to connect with fellow Black museum trustees…[and discuss] shared challenges, learn about best practices, and identify critical pathways for the advancement of art institutions.” This summer, her drive to develop critical connections and conversations led her to BTA’s Annual Convening, hosted May 1-3, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. Centered on the theme “Audacious Reimaginings: The New Advocacy Playbook,” this invitation-only summit featured a keynote conversation between The 1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones and The Opportunity Agenda co-founder Alan Jenkins, which Wilson-Harris attended. Questions driving the keynote conversation included “What will it take to move from presence to power in museum boardrooms–individually and collectively?” During the annual convening, Wilson-Harris also connected with fellow BTA members representing arts institutions across North America.
Keynote conversation between Nikole Hannah-Jones and Alan Jenkins and the 20205 Annual Convening of the Black Trustees Alliance, photo by Ariel Wilson-Harris
The dialogues and relationships built through the organization allow Wilson-Harris and fellow NOMA Board of Trustees members to “[maintain] a strong commitment to the exposure and development of underserved communities within the reach of [arts] institutions.” With connections built by Wilson-Harris and others through the BTA, NOMA and fellow arts institutions can continue to develop their advocacy for Black artists, museum leaders, and visitors, alike.