Books can kind of give people that first spark. It can kind of pull you in. The way art books are, the’re heavy on the visuals. They have a lot of pictures. The covers are all really beautifully designed. I think that really draws people in. I think if you can get drawn in a little bit by a book, you can expand your interest a lot further in that.
Asmaa Walton, Detroit native, arts educator and ardent developer of the Black cultural archive
About Asmaa Walton
Asmaa Walton is a Detroit native, arts educator and ardent developer of the Black cultural archive. Walton earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in art education from Michigan State University in 2017. Upon earning a master’s degree in art politics from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2018, Walton joined the Toledo Museum of Art as an Education and Engagement Intern. In the same year, she was appointed the museum’s first KeyBank Fellow in Diversity Leadership, a position where she identified opportunities for diversity and equity programming across museums and cultural institutions. In 2019, Walton was appointed Romare Bearden graduate Museum Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum. In February 2020, she established Black Art Library—a collection of publications, exhibition catalogues and theoretical texts about Black art and visual culture intended to become a public archive in a permanent space in Detroit.
Nine times out of 10 it’s a lot easier to see a Kerry James Marshall [painting] in a book or a magazine than it would be for you to actually go to a museum near you and be able to see one in person.
Asmaa Walton