We were lucky to catch up with Darryl Dwayne Walker recently and have shared our conversation below.

Darryl Dwayne , appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I would say the most meaningful project that I’ve worked on would be the vetting and founding of our first ever Community Advisory Board Committee for The Newark Museum of Art. The cultivation of this board continues to keep us in lock and step with the community’s needs and allows us to truly be a community resource. That is reflected in our ever rising attendance numbers for our signature public programs such as Art After Dark and Community Days.

Prior to me stepping into the role of Manager of Community Engagement which might I add before me the museum has never had such a role in existence. We like most museums had difficulty connecting on a larger scale with the city that we served as we kind of lost sight of our original mission which is to be a museum of the community. A mission that started with our museum founder and has been our North Star ever since. In trying to align ourselves with the current museum culture in the late 90’s and early 2000’s we strayed away from our community centric thinking and did as most institutions were doing at that time which was creating public programs and offerings in a vacuum without true, authentic community insight.

That led us into a space where our museum attendance and relevancy to the community started to waiver. We realized that just before the pandemic we needed to do something to change that. Which is when this position was created at the end of 2018. When we reentered the building following the pandemic in 2021 with me the then Coordinator of Community Engagement I got to work right away. I quickly assembled our community advisory committee under the direction of my then Deputy Director Silvia Fantoni and museum Director Linda Harrison with assistance from my co-chair community advocate Marcy DePina.

The synergy of the committee with our museum staff and museum programing has been sheer magic ever since. Our first big Community Night Event showed and proved the true value and importance of having the insight of our Community Advisory team. We had an amazing Runway show in partnership with celebrity designer Marco Hall whose boutique is a stones throw away from the front steps of the museum. And as the jazz musicians played the couture pieces he designed glided down the front steps of our museum and then sashed into the sectioned off streets of downtown Newark as we converted the Main Street in front of the museum into a runway. As the models in their all white pieces traversed down the runway and back up the steps of the museum the show culminated with legendary fashion model and one of the first trans super models Tracey “Africa” Norman. Tracey closed out the show adding an exclamation mark to the recently unveiled light installation by artist Philip K Smith III which illuminated the nights sky, as the models all proceeded to walk back into the building. Working with the community advisory board we were able to plan and execute our first massive event during a time when large crowds were not allowed to be indoors and could only be hosted outside.

Utilizing my community contacts along with the contacts and insight our our committee members we were able to safely host an event that supported the unveiling of the museums commissioned Three Half Lozenges by iconic Artist Philip K Smith III while still celebrating and engaging with the community at large and including community members such as celebrity designer Marco Hall and legendary jazz musicians who were also from Newark and the greater tristate area. That momentum has continued to propel us to increase our museum attendance while also increasing our museum membership and expanding our community reach.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I originally moved to Newark to further my career as a performing artist. With my background in theater, dance, and creative directing, my goal was to work in TV, film, and theater. In 2012, I was hired by the museum for a summer contract as a performing arts educator who could connect the artwork in the museums gallery spaces to imaginative musical performances. While teaching at the museum I managed to book my first off-broadway gig and perform along side grammy musical legend Fred Hammond and as that contract was coming to an end, the Newark Museum of Art (NMOA) extended my museum contract, eventually offering me a full-time position as a museum educator of performing arts, which led me to later being promoted and becoming the first Manager of Community Engagement at The Newark Museum of Art.

NMOA created the position because they wanted to better serve the people of Newark and authentically showcase artists and programming which amplifies the museums mission to be community centric. I welcomed the opportunity to be a bridge to the museum and the community while leveraging the museums collection and event space to empower the next generation of artists. I promised myself that when I could create space for black and brown artists, I would do that. Being that the museum is embedded in a community that predominately serves a black and brown audience I knew that this would be the perfect space to amplify the often overlooked artist community of color.

I’m excited about the work I’ve been able to accomplish in this role over the last 5 years. Building a more community-centric space, while partnering with living artists of color from the community and putting their work on view. I’ve created our very first innovative digital community gallery which sits in the museums welcome center and taps into the pool of local artists. The beauty in this digital gallery is that we can change it as frequently as needed. The other win is that because this is a low cost way of displaying art through the art rotations I can spotlight more living noted artist from the city of Newark and the greater New Jersey area who might not have ordinarily been able to exhibit in a museum space largely due to the bureaucracy of the art world.

I’ve always said that when you are in a space where you can create positive change that directly impacts your community, then that’s what you should do. A lot of my inspiration behind the new innovations at the museum are rooted in the thought process of our museum founder John Cotton Dana who once had a whole exhibition centered around his staff’s teacups. As this was an exercise to prove that art is everywhere and is connected to everything we do and consume. Our museum founder was also big on education and having education accessible to all, as he got his start as a librarian before later becoming the Director of the then “Newark Museum.” He wanted to make museums for everyone which at that time was not the case. Museums historically were spaces only for the rich and did not allow access to everyone. Our founder single handedly changed that which became the inspiration behind many other museums including the MOMA which copied our museum model. I want to continue that legacy by pushing our museum further and I feel that we are doing just that by centering ourselves in the apex of community. After all if a museum has no people to view the works then what’s the point?

I think the thing I’m most proud of is that I managed to last for 13 years in a space that doesn’t typically have black men. Having worked in this space for as long as I have and visiting/collaborating with other institutions I see the lack of diversity and it is a little disheartening. I’ve realized that one of the biggest reasons museums stump their foot when it comes to lack of representation on their walls and in their spaces is often due to their lack of diversity on their staff. I hope that will change in the future and I hope that I might play a small role in that.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I would like to unlearn is that I have to water myself down to thrive in certain spaces. I’ve always been a multi hyphenate and that has always been my superpower. However when you go to art school and then college and then enter the work force you’re constantly being told that you have to pick only one road to success. You can’t thrive in your career if you have your hands in too many things. I’m a walking, talking example of that being a lie! Having multiple skillsets in various spaces actually makes your lens unique in how you would approach a thing because you’re not limited to the industry standard because you don’t fit industry standards.

My rule of thought is that the industry standard is the baseline for a thing however when you have more of an edge to bring to something that catapults you to the front of the line. You don’t move in a straight line like your peers who only fit the standard you move in a zigzag or even better you move on a curve, bound to eventually create a full circle! Bringing two ends together to meet, forcing collaborative thinking, collaborative work allowing you and others like you to propel forward in the most efficient and comprehensive way. Leaning into all of your talents and gifts allows you to look at a thing more holistically so you can better determine how to accomplish what it is that you’ve set your mind to. I feel the world needs more of that.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I feel the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is centered around the idea of community. As a creative and an artist we create with the hopes that other people will connect with the work and see themselves reflected back. Any artist who says they make art and they don’t care if people like it is a lie. We care if people like it, we might not care about the scrutiny of peoples negative judgments which often comes with their opinions. However, we do care if people see us and if what we’re doing or have done invokes some type of emotion. Because at the end of the day, love it or hate it, art is suppose to make you feel something and I think as a creative that is our goal, it’s our mission, to make you feel.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.darryldwayne.com/tv-film-theater
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darryldwayne/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darryl-dwayne-walker

Image Credits

Charles David (Elevate Welcome Reimagine “EWR”)
Darryl Dwayne Walker
Mike Peters
Chrystofer Davis