A Collaborative Approach for the Future of the Field

As the convening draws to a close, this final session offers a hopeful and galvanizing case study around the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation. Grounded in artist-led and collective leadership and shared values, the project presented here exemplifies how collaboration, creativity, and care can shape not only how we preserve the past, but how we build the future.

Framed by themes of radical imagination and how we can help build the future canon, this conversation invites us to consider what it means to co-create a more equitable, responsive, and enduring field. It is both a reflection and a call—to move together, to share knowledge generously, and to imagine legacy as a living practice we all have a role in sustaining.

SPEAKER BIOS

Tempestt Hazel (Session Chair)

Tempestt Hazel is a curator, writer, and co-founder of Sixty Inches From Center, a collective of editors, writers, artists, curators, librarians, and archivists who have published and produced collaborative projects about artists, archival practice, and culture in the Midwest since 2010. Across her practices and through Sixty, Tempestt has worked alongside artists, organizers, grantmakers, and cultural workers to explore solidarity economies, cooperative models, archival practice, future canon creation, and systems change in and through the arts. An especially cherished moment for Tempestt was when she received the 2019 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award from the Society of American Archivists, which was the result of a nomination by archivists and members of The Blackivists. Tempestt was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, spent several years in the California Bay Area, and has called Chicago her second home for over 13 years.

Zakiya Collier

Zakiya Collier is an Afro-Carolinian archivist, memory worker, and educator. Her work and research explore archival practices that account for the material conditions of Black life and the role of cooperative thought in the sustainability of cultural memory. She is a member of Shift Collective, where she supports communities in collectively developing cultural memory practices and designing sustainable programs to autonomously preserve and share their own stories. Zakiya also leads The Black Memory Workers, a community of 250+ Black-diasporic memory workers committed to practicing care and intention as they prioritize the documentation, long-term preservation, and celebration of Black life and experiences. Their recent experience includes working on archival strategy with the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation, being the Program Director for Archiving the Black Web, co-producing the forthcoming documentary film Somebody’s Gone, serving as the first Digital Archivist at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and co-editing a special double issue of The Black Scholar on Black Archival Practice.

Leslie Cozzi

Leslie Cozzi is the Curator and Department Head of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Baltimore Museum of Art, one of the key partners of the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation. In particular, the museum has been innovative in advancing new strategies and roadmaps for ethical collection building and management, centering the twin values of artistic excellence and social justice in their mission, and focusing on artistic and community partnerships in curatorial decision-making.

Antonio D. Lyons

Antonio D. Lyons is a multidisciplinary artist known for his work across the United States and South Africa. Some of his notable projects include: American History (Actor), Hotel Rwanda (Actor), and We Dance We Pray (Musician/Poet). He is also the Executive Director of the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation, where during his tenure he created a shared internship program in honor of artist Valerie J. Maynard in partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and received 2024–2026 Fellowship funding and support from the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA). He is the Director of the The EnActors at Georgetown University, where he also lectures in the Department of Performing Arts. Maynard was a pioneering member of the Black Arts Movement and beloved icon of the Baltimore arts community.

Marilyn Nance

Marilyn Nance is a visual artist who has produced exceptional photographs of unique moments in the cultural history of the United States and the African Diaspora, and possesses an archive of images of late-20th-century African American life. She encourages people of all ages to protect and organize their personal archives and see themselves as designers, producers, and owners of information. Nance is the matriarch of The Santana Project, an intergenerational, interdisciplinary art collective. She is also a long-time friend of Valerie Maynard and key Board member of the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation, who shared her knowledge and experience on legacy stewardship with the team.