![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Cameron_Shaw_3_PhotoMattSayles.jpg?w=400\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>ARTnews: In a role like yours, how do you decide what your priorities are\u2014especially when\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0responsible not just to artists, but to a broader community?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Cameron Shaw:<\/strong> CAAM has a really clear mission, and our foremost guide is that mission.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0been unchanged since 1977.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0the first state-supported museum of African American art, history, and culture, and now\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0gearing up for our 50th anniversary next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s\u00a0this great photo from the \u201980s of our founders at the ribbon-cutting for the building\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0still in today in Exposition Park, and I look at that picture all the time. They look beautiful, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0also a reminder to\u00a0myself\u00a0that we\u00a0have to\u00a0be as visionary in 2026 about what a Black institution can be as our founders were in 1977, when they believed this museum should exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSo that aspect of vision is always with me. At the same time, I\u00a0have to\u00a0be\u00a0really strategic\u00a0and pragmatic, and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0about ensuring that our institution is sustainable and stable for future growth for the next 50 years. For me,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0a balancing act: prioritizing artistic vision and creative experimentation alongside\u00a0practical\u00a0needs like renovating our facilities, restructuring our staffing, and creating funding pathways.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI think I\u2019m really good at cutting through\u00a0the noise. I can assess the most pressing problem and solve it.\u00a0Becoming a mother has definitely further sharpened that skill.\u00a0I have less time and energy for nonsense.\u00a0You\u2019ve got\u00a0to get to the problem and solve it.\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019ve\u00a0worked across a lot of\u00a0different parts\u00a0of the art world. What experiences or lessons are you carrying into this role?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019ve\u00a0had the privilege of working in a lot of different environments and\u00a0facets\u00a0of the art world\u2014museums, commercial galleries, journalism, nonprofit management\u2014so I really know how to get things done. But I also understand different perspectives and how to balance different priorities.\u00a0For me, the most important lesson has been translating theory into practice.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0one thing to have a vision for what an institution can be;\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0entirely another to create the systems, cultivate the relationships, and do the work that allows that vision to function. That takes a great deal of knowledge, patience, and faith, frankly, to push through the challenges. And\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0especially true right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n How do you define your vision for the museum at this point in your tenure?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m\u00a0seven years into my tenure at CAAM, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0an interesting moment.\u00a0Preparing for an anniversary is an incredible time because I\u2019m really deep in our institutional history, our archives, and our collections, and I\u2019m talking with staff and others about the moments that have really defined and shaped us.\u00a0 How is the institution thinking about this milestone anniversary?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWe\u2019re\u00a0thinking a lot about the world that made us and the Los Angeles that made us.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0from L.A. I moved\u00a0away for\u00a017 years, but coming back to CAAM is very much a homecoming.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0also not that much younger than the institution, so\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a way of mapping CAAM in the \u201980s, \u201990s, and 2000s, and then, of course, the watershed moment of 2020, which so transformed museums and our experience of the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThese are the kinds of things\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0thinking about right now: What does it mean to be a Black institution at these various moments in history? And what does it mean to be a Black institution right now in a city like Los Angeles, which is one of the most racially and culturally diverse places in the world\u2014a place of cultural production of all kinds, increasingly an epicenter for visual arts production and museum-making, frankly, and a place where Black culture has thrived and been shared with the world in really particular ways?\u00a0Thinking about where our institution sits within those larger histories is important.\u00a0<\/p>\n Did you go to CAAM as a child?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI did. I came to CAAM as a kid and spent time in museums. But the thing\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0dreaming of, I\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0exactly\u00a0seen\u00a0yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n What did those early experiences with art mean to you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s\u00a0funny\u2014I\u2019ve\u00a0been\u00a0asked\u00a0this before, and I feel like my first experiences with art were\u00a0actually not\u00a0in a museum. They were\u00a0in my home. My parents were not art collectors in any traditional sense, or as we might define that in the art world, but they\u00a0made things, found things, and put things together in ways that were beautiful and unique to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThey thought of the home as a space\u00a0of\u00a0gathering and belonging that was informed by aesthetics.\u00a0So\u00a0when I think about creating space, I think it\u2019s informed by those ideas from my home: What does it mean to create space for people to gather, to be joyful, to be themselves, and to feel comfortable\u2014but also to take in new and challenging aesthetic experiences?\u00a0I was always making something.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019ve\u00a0been thinking a great deal about what museums can be for future generations, and\u00a0I think that\u00a0comes very personally from having a child\u00a0in\u00a0this\u00a0moment.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0thinking about museums as spaces for children to feel safe, to see themselves, to grow, and to learn about their communities, but also about others.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0also been increasingly thinking about the museum as a space for play, and\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0where\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0be devoting time and energy in the coming years: imagining what that means in the context of our museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n How do you define \u201cplay\u201d in a museum?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s early to talk about it, but\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been thinking about play in terms of spontaneity, collaboration, and resilience\u2014how play-based spaces help us imagine and build positive interaction, and how that could be part of museums.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0really asking myself: What would that look like in a historically Black institution? What would it mean to create a culturally specific play space that gave Black and brown children room to be children, and to be children in proximity to art\u2014or to think about art and play as integrated?\u00a0<\/p>\n In looking back through the museum\u2019s history, what has struck you most<\/strong>?<\/p>\n \n\tSo many things. Recently, I found out that we had the shovel from\u00a0the groundbreaking.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0that photograph I mentioned of our founders, and\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0another similar one where\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0got the shovel in the ground. I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0realize we had the shovel.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0those things that bring\u00a0the history\u00a0to life.\u00a0 \n\tThere are\u00a0consistently\u00a0those moments\u00a0of discovery. And when I joined CAAM, there were people on staff who had been there 10, 15, 25 years, so I had the\u00a0great pleasure\u00a0early on of talking with a lot of people about the museum\u2019s history. It feels like a full-circle moment, seven years later, to be getting ready for the 50th anniversary after encountering these pieces of knowledge in so\u00a0many different ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n How does an exhibition like\u00a0\u201cFree and Queer\u201d\u00a0reflect the museum\u2019s mission?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFree and Queer\u201d\u00a0presents California as a pioneering site of\u00a0sustained Black-led\u00a0struggles for LGBTQ equality, civil rights, and recognition.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0an exhibition that directly addresses the intersectional nature of liberation struggles and the multiplicity of the Black experience. Those two truths are core to our mission of researching, collecting, preserving, and interpreting Black art, history, and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBut as you pointed out, the exhibition also reveals a deeply Californian story, which is essential to our role as a state museum. I was\u00a0actually watching\u00a0a video yesterday that\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0getting ready to post, and our curator of that exhibition, Susan D. Anderson, says it best: \u201cBlack history is queer history, and queer history is Black history.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhen we spotlight these under-told and underappreciated narratives, which have\u00a0largely been\u00a0excluded from the historical record. That\u2019s\u00a0how we ensure that the archives we build and the histories we preserve are as inclusive and nuanced as the communities we serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n How did 2020 change the museum, and what are you carrying forward from that period?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI think that\u00a0was a moment when many institutions started to think about what it meant to center Black voices, and people of color more broadly, but particularly Black voices. CAAM has been doing that work for over 40 years\u2014coming up on 50 now\u2014so I started thinking about what else we could model.\u00a0 \n\tNext season\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0be looking further afield at the Black traveler and the Black radical imagination through travel.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0literal travel, like an artist going to Europe, but also time travel,\u00a0sort of an\u00a0Afrofuturist idea of the cosmic traveler.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAs we plan toward 2030,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0thinking about the\u00a0different ways\u00a0we can make connections and create context, as well as what different strategies of support look like for Black artists, curators, and scholars. That includes administrative structures and funding structures. How are we helping usher revolutionary ideas into the world through what we do as a museum?\u00a0And how does that look different for a Black museum in particular?\u00a0<\/p>\n What are some of the ways CAAM is supporting artists right now?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWe launched a residency with support from the Mellon Foundation, and our first participating artist was Sage Ni\u2019Ja Whitson. We recently closed their exhibition,\u00a0\u201cThese Walking Glories\u201d. Right\u00a0now\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0working with Cauleen Smith as our current resident, and\u00a0she\u2019ll\u00a0be presenting a project at the museum in 2028.\u00a0That residency comes with significant financial support for an artist to pursue a project that might otherwise be impossible for them, and that takes time.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0focused on California-based artists with research-based practices\u2014work that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0always have a clear outcome, but where development is part of the journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n What kinds of projects feel especially compelling to you in that context?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI can tell you about Sage\u2019s project. They traveled across the country to sites where Black trans people had been murdered or had died by suicide and performed a ceremony there to honor those people. Aspects of that work were then translated into the museum setting through ritual essences they had created at the sites, as well as photographs and other elements of the ceremony.\u00a0With Cauleen\u2019s work, one of the things\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0be helping to do is produce a new film. There will be other aspects to what she presents at CAAM, but\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0also producing a film.\u00a0<\/p>\n Can you tell us more about CAAM\u2019s more recent film program?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tSomething\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0also been doing is supporting filmmakers.\u00a0We have a small theater that we\u2019ve transformed into a black box, and we\u2019ve worked with a number of filmmakers to commission or premiere work in a museum setting.\u00a0The work\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0doing with Cauleen\u00a0continues that\u00a0on a broader scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI think the work we did with Ja\u2019Tovia Gary is exemplary.\u00a0Sometimes I Feel Like\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0Almost Home<\/em>\u00a0is a new film she created that we commissioned. Ja\u2019Tovia has been a friend of the museum for a decade, and as her practice grew and she became interested in what it meant to show film in a museum setting, we were able to come together and offer her that first opportunity.\u00a0She traveled to her grandmother\u2019s hometown, where much of her family still lives, and engaged in intergenerational conversations about healing trauma. The film she produced is incredible, and we were so proud to show it at CAAM.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0an example of a Black woman filmmaker wanting to do something new, and if we\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0support that, then what are we doing here? It was a great honor to work with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n As the museum\u2019s 50th anniversary intersects with the national\u00a0semiquincentennial, how are you thinking about CAAM\u2019s role?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWe\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have an exhibition or program specifically named as a \u201c250\u201d program, and for me,\u00a0Free and Queer\u00a0is our answer to that. We were founded 50 years ago, and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0still here. We navigate different administrations and political moments by keeping our focus on us: the scholarship, the stories, and the people that define us, and the people who have struggled and fought to create the progress they\u2019ve made in this world\u2014and the progress we hope to see in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tPart of Black history is innovation in the face of oppression and a determination to create safe, inclusive, and joyful spaces for\u00a0ourselves\u00a0and for everyone.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0often about making a way when there seems to be no way. For me,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0the lesson we need right now.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0the \u201c250\u201d lesson:\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0still here.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0broader question museums\u00a0are being asked right now: Is art political? Is there a place for politics in art?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIt comes back to our founding.\u00a0CAAM came out of a Black museum movement happening across the country, but CAAM in particular was the result of a multi-year, sustained campaign by our founders.\u00a0They were politicians,\u00a0artists, and arts advocates working together. For them, creating\u00a0the space\u00a0was civic work. It was, by its very nature, political work. And I think\u00a0that\u2019s the torch we continue to carry.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/california-african-american-museum-celebrates-50-years-1234790610\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CAAM_Spring2026_WillieBirch_01.jpg?w=1024″] This week, the United States marks its 250th birthday,\u00a0arguably no\u00a0closer to agreeing on how that story should be told\u2014or who gets to tell it.\u00a0Under the second Trump administration, museums have become one of the clearest arenas for that struggle. These are places where America\u2019s myth of exceptionalism collides with its lived reality: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2017696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2017696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2017696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2017696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2017696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I\u2019m\u00a0excited to share some of that history right now, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0also got me thinking about how we want to share our hopes for the future and how\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0defining them.\u00a0There are things I\u2019m really excited to share, but I don\u2019t think this is the moment to share them.\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CAAM-PR_2.jpg?w=400\")
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I was also at Frieze, and there was a work by American Artist\u2014we\u00a0worked with them recently\u2014that included a flyer from Octavia Butler\u2019s archive about a talk she gave at CAAM. It mentioned the lecture series that\u00a0the talk\u00a0was part of. It was just a little flyer, but I\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0seen it before. It was one of those moments where I could go back and say to our collections manager, \u201cI saw this work, and I need you to find this flyer and figure out what this lecture series was. I need to know what was going on at CAAM at that\u00a0particular moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CAAM_Spring2026_FreeandQueer_03.jpg?w=400\")
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For me, that looked like depth and breadth. It meant thinking about sustained ideas over time. It meant interconnectedness. We started thinking about our seasons as thematic. The last season we did was\u00a0about\u00a0home. Right\u00a0now\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0in a season looking at the poetry of the everyday: What is\u00a0the beauty\u00a0and learning in our immediate communities, in the immediate world around us? How we spend our time, who we love: these small choices we make every day are actually what\u00a0define\u00a0the world we live in and the world we want to live in.\u00a0<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CAAM_SageNiJaWhitson.jpg?w=400\")
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