Wiley’s curatorial work includes research, interpretation, programming, grant writing, and advising.
Pulling Together
In December 2022, the Trust for the National Mall announced a partnership with the National Capital Planning Commission and the National Park Service to implement Beyond Granite, a new set of commemorative exhibits, performances, and installations designed to create a more inclusive, equitable, and representative process for commemoration on the National Mall – and beyond. Amber was invited by Monument Lab, a Trust collaborator, to serve on the Curatorial Advisory Board for the exhibition Pulling Together. The advisory board reviews artist proposals and offers feedback.
Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum
Featuring prints, photographs, and multimedia artworks, this exhibition was the first time Rutgers University had conducted a comprehensive and methodical review of its holdings of art by Black women artists. Many of the artists have ties to New Jersey, New York City, and Philadelphia, ranging from canonical figures such as Rutgers faculty and artists Emma Amos and Kara Walker, to emerging artists Nona Faustine, Atisha Fordyce, and Daonne Huff. The exhibition was curated by Wiley and her students Jasmine Daria Cannon, Kyle b. co., Helen Gao, Grace Lynne Haynes, Emily Hu, Grace Kim, Desiree Morales, Michael Randall, and Audrey Roclore.
Artists: Emma Amos, Chakaia Booker, Barbara Bullock, Elizabeth Catlett, Nona Faustine, Atisha Fordyce, Nefertiti Goodman, Daonne Huff, Margo Humphrey, Stefanie Jackson, Carmen Cartiness Johnson, Nadine DeLawrence Maine, Nell Painter, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Lorna Simpson, Shinique Smith, Renée Stout, Sharon E. Sutton (FAIA), Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, Bisa Washington, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Paper Monuments
Paper Monuments was a public art and public history project designed to elevate the voices of the people of New Orleans, as a critical process towards creating new narratives and symbols of the city that represented residents’ collective visions, and to honor the erased histories of the people, events, movements, and places that have made up the past 300 years as we look to the future.
The Pythian Temple poster was a collaboration between artist Christopher Daemmrich and storyteller Amber Wiley.
Arts-based pedagogy
Teaching with the Tang Collection
While at Skidmore I taught a longstanding course — African American Experience — and created an assignment that centered art as a cultural product that can help us better understand that elusive topic. I chose nine pieces from the Tang collection that offered an array of artistic styles, content, messages, and time periods. I looked at the collection and asked, “What will speak to my students? What will create a dialogue between them?”
When and Where I Enter the British Museum
As an academic, as a woman who studies art history and architectural history, as a scholar, as a black woman: those worlds collided when I saw Carrie Mae Weems’s When and Where I Enter the British Museum. It derailed me, and I had to take a moment to reflect on why this image spoke to me so strongly.
