Dr. Kiara Hill

Join us for the opening of our Fall 2026 exhibition celebrating Dr. Kiara Hill, our curator-in-residence. Curated by fourth- and fifth-grade students participating in the Harriet Tubman Center for Expanded Curatorial Practice at MLK School, the exhibition highlights the students’ exploration of Black material culture through historical and cultural artifacts from the Ms. Valta Adger Collection.

The opening will also feature a brief panel discussion with Dr. Kiara Hill and members of the Harriet Tubman Center for Expanded Curatorial Practice at MLK School. Together, they will share insights into Black material culture and reflect on the students’ collaborative curatorial process and engagement with the collection.

Kiara Hill, PhD (she/they), is an historian of African American art and culture, archivist, curator, and artist working in social forms. She earned her B.A. in Mass Communications at Sacramento State University, completed her M.A. in Women’s Studies at the University of Alabama, and received her Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Through filmmaking, curation, and other collaborative projects, she researches, documents, and preserves the histories, lived experiences, and community-driven art practices of visual artists of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Kiara currently lives in SanFrancisco, and serves as a primary collaborator on the social practice project, KSMoCA (Dr Martin Luther King Jr. School Museum of Contemporary Art), where she also serves as the founder/director of the SanKofa x KSMoCA community lecture series. She is also the director of Black Arts PDX, a feature-length documentary film that sheds light on the history of the Black arts community in Portland, OR (release date: summer 2026).

The artist talk is in the library and is open to the public. Please stop by the Main Office to sign in and receive a “Visitor” badge.

About KSMoCA

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA) is a contemporary art museum and social practice art project inside and in partnership with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School, a Pre-K through 5th grade public school in NE Portland, OR. Founded in 2014 by Portland State University professors Lisa Jarrett and Harrell Fletcher, KSMoCA connects public school students with internationally renowned contemporary artists through collaborative workshops, exhibitions, artist lectures, and site-specific commissions. Students learn about museum practice and careers in the arts through hands-on experiences by participating as curators, preparators, artists, gallerists, writers, and docents.

KSMoCA reimagines the way museums, public schools, and universities can affect people, culture, and perspectives by creating radical intersections for sharing resources across organizations. Programs are developed collaboratively with the Dr. MLK Jr School community, PSU students, and a team of supporting artists.

ksmoca.com