Meet Carlton Mackey | Assistant Director of Education, Community Dialogue & Engagement

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carlton Mackey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carlton, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
The High Museum of Art is designed to meet audiences at the intersection of culture and community. We invite everyone to use the Museum as a place to find inspiration and discover new ideas. In line with the museum’s mission, the education department connects Atlantans with art and ideas to inspire better civic life. We activate the museum’s collections and exhibitions with inclusive learning opportunities, and we collaborate to share creative practices alongside art and artists. Our work cultivates growth through inquiry and strengthens people’s connections with themselves, one another and the wider world.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As I mentioned earlier, I am the assistant director of education, community dialogue and engagement at the High Museum of Art. This is a new role at the museum. In this position, I build strategic partnerships and relationships in the community, frame productive discussions (both internally and externally) around fundamental issues defining contemporary society and develop audience-centered programming that bridges our unique institutional strengths with community needs and interests. I joined a High a little less than a year ago, having spent the previous 15 years of my career at Emory University. At Emory, I was a lecturer in the Department of Film and media, the director of ethics and of the arts program at the Emory University Center for Ethics and co-creator /co-director of the Emory University Arts and Social Justice Fellowship Program. Created in the fall of 2020 amid a groundswell of national attention to racial and social injustice and inspired by faith in the power of art to open spaces for conversation, community-making and collective action, the Arts and Social Justice Fellows Program brings Atlanta artists into Emory classrooms to help students translate their learning into creative activism in the name of racial justice.

I hold an electrical engineering degree from Tuskegee University and a master of divinity from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.

On a personal level, transitions present both challenges and opportunities. Moving to a new organization after spending a long time at my previous institution required me to learn new systems and workflows and to navigate the nuances of human dynamics within the new organization. However, I am also excited about the opportunities to build new relationships within the organization and the broader community.

As a public-facing cultural organization, we work each day to stay connected and relevant to the communities we serve through deepening mutual trust. We must be nimble enough to adjust to the ever-changing needs of our communities and to the changing political and social climate of a broader society. We must also leverage the power of art to explore, embrace, uplift and articulate the topics most essential to our city and the historical moment in which we live. This is a challenge, as we must do so in a way that strengthens self-awareness and awareness of others and that frames public discussion in a way that deepens understanding and engenders empathy rather than widening divides.

Amid this challenge, we have the wonderful opportunity to do all of this with creativity, curiosity and courage. Our work is rooted in seeking goodness alongside one another. In this pursuit, and to understand both art and one another more fully, we strive to approach each engagement with generous curiosity and perceptive empathy.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would be thrilled to invite anyone visiting Atlanta on the second Friday of any month to join us at the museum for new initiative at the High Museum that I have the pleasure of co-leading, with two of my colleagues in the education department, Noa Schmitz and Demetri Burke, called OASIS. This program allows those who seek a calming and contemplative event to have a home at the High alongside those seeking communal celebration during our other Friday evenings. It also reflects our work and experience taking spirituality seriously as a primary meaning-maker and an important part of engaging art and creativity.

In addition to the High’s amazing collection of art being on display, OASIS offers four other unique experiences intentionally crafted to transform the Museum into a place of deep reflection and hyper presence that we hope improves mental health and fosters self-discovery and a sense of community and connection.

The first of those four experiences are a series of movement-based sessions offered by local yoga and wellness instructors from the Atlanta community. Thanks to the sponsorship of lululemon, six distinct movement-based sessions are offered during each OASIS, and yoga mats are provided for each guest who participates. These sessions, which last roughly 45 minutes, blend yoga, deep stretching, breathing exercises and journaling.

Each month there is also a sonic experience that may function as either casual meditation or a tranquil space to simply sit or lay quietly. Past experiences have included a sound bath with Himalayan singing bowls by certified sound therapist Margo Gomes, as well as the sounds of Okorie Johnson also known as Okello.

Through a series of conversations with our new director of education, Andrew Westover (who too comes to the museum with a commitment to and expertise in bridging the intersection of art and spirituality) and because of our shared belief that spirituality and spiritual practices are core to the mindfulness practices of many, we have pioneered a conversation series within OASIS called “Seeing With Spirit”—a casual, thoughtful conversation connecting art and spiritual practice. Each month, a faith, spiritual or contemplative practitioner joins a High staff member in a conversation centered on a work of art and the ways that work of art invites deeper reflection into their contemplative practice. Past guests have included Lauren Tate Baeza (the High’s Fred and Rita Richman curator of African art), a Yoruba priestess, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, as well as Christian, Jewish and Muslim thinkers and theologians. Each month, we will engage a different guest with a different spiritual practice.

Finally, we create space for art-making activities throughout the evening lead by our own teaching artists Jaffia Royce and Lakeem Winborne. Guests are free to choose art materials for self-driven artistic creations, be guided through pre-selected activities by a teaching artist or a community partner such as Scraplanta, or create a still life plant drawing with plants provided by local florist Tropical Express.

OASIS is a tremendous vehicle for community engagement that couldn’t happen without each department at the High, and it stands out from other programs within the Museum itself or other events throughout the city. It is welcoming for guests of all ages, and thanks to our partnership with local tea company Just Add Honey and our own in-house signature mocktails, we provide robust offerings for audiences seeking zero-proof options. OASIS allows us to lean fully into our vision of building strategic partnerships and relationships with community partners consisting of artists, educators, activists, spiritual and civic leaders and other organizations both for-profit and non-profit.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
As a relatively new member of the High Museum’s education department, I was delighted to join a team of highly motivated, creative and skilled colleagues. As we work together to align ourselves with and give shape to the values that form our mission, it is with enthusiasm that I celebrate them here and express my joy in being able to work alongside them.

From their work in school programs to empowering teens with enriching programs (like the Teen Team) to nurturing the creativity of our youngest visitors with Toddler Saturdays, to summer programs and camps they have helped nurture a deep connection between art and our community and have fostered rich discoveries for thousands of Atlanta area young people and students each year.

On the other end of the spectrum, their dedication to the creative aging and lifelong learning communities has illuminated the lives of those who have traversed life’s many chapters.

Since COVID, their transformative work with Friday night programs has reshaped our museum’s appeal, captivating fresh new audiences and breathing new life into our already popular monthly offerings.

Moreover, their expertise in interpretation ensures that our exhibits resonate with the widest audience possible, forging meaningful connections that transcend backgrounds and experiences while still inviting our guests to feel welcome to bring their full selves and experiences with them as they encounter our collections and exhibits.

So, it is with immense gratitude that I dedicate this shoutout to my colleagues in the education department. Together we work with the rest of the entire museum staff to meet audiences at the intersection of culture and community.

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Image Credits
All photos are by Connor Barber Freelance, except the headshot, which is courtesy of the High Museum of art.