After performing as president and chief government officer (CEO) because the exit of Stephanie Hill in August, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum (BCM) on Wednesday confirmed Vincentian-born Atiba T. Edwards as its new head.
“This appointment is an honor and alternative,” Edwards instructed Caribbean Life in an unique interview on Thursday. “I spent quite a lot of time at Brooklyn Kids’s Museum with my household and, about seven years in the past, I co-taught an arts residency for BCM’s teen program on Artwork and Activism and have now been working right here nearly 5 years.
“The Brooklyn Kids’s Museum helped form my experiences, as a result of it’s rooted in igniting and kindling curiosity amongst youngsters and, in flip, their households,” he added. “Moreover, it was a spot the place range was a part of the material as youngsters would play within the sandbox or store within the grocery retailer or have enjoyable at June Balloon.
“It was merely that youngsters – no matter race, tradition, background or another issues – youngsters being youngsters,” Edwards continued. “It is a particular place as we champion range and produce that to the forefront each month with cultural festivals and public applications that uplift and amplify cultures, so folks see themselves celebrated and others study a wealthy historical past that’s the material of Brooklyn, and, in flip, the world.”
Edwards, who was born in Kingstown, the Vincentian capital, stated he grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn and spent “quite a lot of time” between there and Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
He stated that when he began on the Museum in 2019, because the chief working officer (COO), “it was refreshing to be working deeply in a neighborhood that I additionally spend quite a lot of time in, because the group that surrounds BCM is so wealthy and caring.”
In my function as CEO, Edwards stated he seems to be ahead to “constructing upon the layers of basis my predecessors have laid, courting again to our inception as the primary youngsters’s museum on this planet in 1899.
“I’m excited for the chance to deepen already present partnerships and launch new ones, as we have been based in Crown Heights and stay right here amongst many generations of holiday makers,” he stated. “I need to convey them and all of their youngsters, grandchildren and even nice grandchildren into BCM to see all that we now have achieved in the previous few years.”
Edwards added that “curiosity, identification and joyful studying are the important thing values of why BCM exists and continues to develop.
“It is a place the place everyone seems to be welcomed, as play is among the nice democratic equalizers and technique of schooling,” he stated. “The casual experiences and bonds that BCM has constructed over the past 124 years will be seen internationally, as many individuals went on to work in cultural organizations, politics and each the private and non-private sector.
“I’m honored to be the most recent president and CEO at BCM, as I be part of an incredible crew of colleagues and Board of Trustees who, collectively, we assist to dwell our mission and proceed growing the values of BCM for the 300,000 folks served every year and the tens of millions that Brooklyn Kids’s Museum has served since inception,” he continued.
Edwards stated being the president and CEO of BCM assist him to increase on the set of solutions that younger folks take into account in reply to the query: “What do I need to be?”
He stated it’s because they now see him on this function, alongside his colleagues and friends “who’re additionally main storied arts and tradition organizations.”
To tug from Nina Simone’s ‘Younger, Gifted and Black,” “we should start to inform our younger there’s a world ready for them,” Edwards stated.
“My appointment helps to inform and present them how extensive and great their world will be,” he stated.
Previous to his appointment as performing president, Edwards stated he spent almost 5 years as government vp and COO at BCM, overseeing customer expertise, finance and human sources, constructing operations, and advertising.
Beforehand, Edwards stated he was director of operations at Brooklyn East Collegiate, a center college that’s a part of the Unusual Faculties community.
He stated he started his profession as a Fastened Earnings Analysis Analyst at JPMorgan’s Funding Financial institution, the place he lined the automotive sector, and at Nomura Securities of their “excessive grade and high-yield mounted earnings analysis divisions.”
Edwards – who graduated from the College of Michigan, with levels in Industrial Operations & Engineering and Liberal Arts, with a give attention to poetry and musicology – additionally co-founded FOKUS, a non-profit group that connects and builds group by arts.
In making the announcement, BCM stated “Edwards has been an integral a part of the Brooklyn Kids’s Museum since 2019, when he joined the cultural establishment as chief working officer (coo) and government vp.
“On this capability, he served with excellent management, overseeing numerous essential capabilities of the museum, together with adeptly managing the finances, implementing programs to extend workers effectivity, overseeing an extremely profitable rebranding effort, and spearheading an array of latest choices on the Museum, together with the extremely acclaimed ArtRink exhibition, launch of a mini-golf course and the inauguration of a state-of-the-art auditorium,” it stated.
“His spectacular profession trajectory additionally features a numerous vary of experiences,” BCM added.
“Impressed by the vitality and variety of our borough,” BCM stated it “creates experiences that ignite curiosity, have fun identification, and domesticate joyful studying.”
BCM additionally prides itself as “New York Metropolis’s largest cultural establishment designed particularly for households,” serving 300,000 youngsters and caregivers yearly, “with reveals and applications grounded in visible arts, music and efficiency, pure science, and world cultures.”
