This Is What I Know About Art

June 26, 2020

Gr 7 Up-Drew, a writer, art curator, and activist, brings art to the people primarily via social media and other online platforms. In this short-but-powerful account, Drew presents a work that is part memoir and part treatise. She shares what it means to be a person of color in a predominately white field and describes her path through the art world, from college to internships to jobs at prestigious institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Drew uses her voice and her various platforms to highlight underrepresented artists, and push against the white norms and expectations that dominate the art world. Her enthusiasm and passion for the work of Black artists shines, and it is precisely this m�lange of knowledge, emotions, and advocacy that will inspire young artists to persevere despite the obstacles. The text offers a window into her world; she spotlights some of the individual artists who she is most passionate about, providing insight into their work and their significance in the broader world. There's a lot here to contemplate, reread, and explore, and it's worth every minute. VERDICT A unique and thoughtful commentary on the art world. A book that should be included in most collections for young people.-Jody Kopple, Shady Hill Sch., Cambridge, MA

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Starred review from April 15, 2020
Curator, author, and activist Drew shares her journey as an artist and the lessons she has learned along the way. Drew uses her own story to show how deeply intertwined activism and the arts can be. Her choices in college were largely overshadowed by financial need, but a paid summer internship at the Studio Museum in Harlem became a formative experience that led her to major in art history. The black artists who got her interested in the field were conspicuously absent in the college curriculum, however, as was faculty support, so she turned her frustration into action by starting her own blog to boost the work of black artists. After college, Drew's work in several arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, only deepened her commitment to making the art world more accessible to people of color and other marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, and widening the scope of who is welcomed there. Drew narrates deeply personal experiences of frustration, triumph, progress, learning, and sometimes-uncomfortable growth in a conversational tone that draws readers in, showing how her specific lens enabled her to accomplish the work she has done but ultimately inviting readers to add their own contributions, however small, to both art and protest. This deeply personal and boldly political offering inspires and ignites. (Nonfiction. 12-18)

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