< previous Interviewer: In addition to being a fine artist, you are also a curator, writer, lecturer, researcher, and designer. You are just as comfortable in art and art historical settings as you are in the humanities… and math, science, and medicine for that matter. How do you manage these disparate interests with such fluidity? Roberts: They aren’t disparate interests in my mind. And I don’t try to manage anything. This is just who I am. I am curious about everything. And art, the humanities, math, and science are all indispensable methodologies for understanding the world around me. I must create art. And I love being a curator and researcher. When you make a singular work of art—or a series for that matter—you create an interpretation in your voice. But when you design a project and curate an exhibition with other artists, you are able to magnify that already powerful exploration with more voices, more worldviews, more perspectives. Curating and interpreting humanities-based historical exhibitions is a contemplative experience. I feel personally charged to preserve African American cultural property and history. Making art, curating and designing exhibitions, doing research, writing, designing projects—it’s all about understanding and telling the story. Everything I do is focused around personal and collective narrative, memory, and storytelling. At this point in my life, I do not want to choose between being an artist and being a curator and researcher. And why should I? Why should I choose between my left arm and my right? My nose and my ear? This is who I am and this is how I experience and interpret the world.   < previous   © 2005 keisha roberts, all rights reservedphoto creditsdesigned by keroberts.com