Sierra King is an artist, archivist, and curator currently based in Atlanta. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art from Valdosta State University. She is the founder of Build Your Archive, a memory work lab where Black women artists build their archives in real time.
She has presented her work about community archiving at the 2018 American Studies Association annual meeting in Atlanta; the 2021 Memory Work for Black Lives Plenary presented by the University of Oregon Library Archives for Black Lives: A Liberated Archives Exhibition; and the 2023 Art Libraries Society of North America’s 51st conference in Mexico City.
She made her curatorial debut in 2020 with MINT Gallery in Atlanta and was selected by the Georgia Committee of the National Museum of Women of Arts to curate “New Worlds—Georgia Women to Watch” alongside Co-Curator Melissa Messina. She has continued independently curating with cultural centers, academic libraries, and organizations including the Emory University Schwartz Performing Arts Center’s Chace Gallery in Decatur, Ga.; Westobou Gallery in Augusta, Ga.; and Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta.
King is a recipient of the 2020 Artist Project Fund through National Black Arts Festival (NBAF), 2021 Emory Arts and Social Justice Fellowship, and the 2022 Studio Residency of Remerge Atlanta.
Currently she is earning her master’s in Library Science and Information as a Social Justice for Archivist Scholar at University of Alabama and curating printmaker and muralist Jasmine Nicole Williams’ forthcoming solo exhibition, “kin to red dirt on white carpets.”
FUTURE FOCUS
Sierra King (she/her) is documenting artists, cultural workers, and organizers to build their archives in real time. Through ritual and record-keeping practices, she guides them through a data stewardship process that develops a holistic community and narrative-building ecosystem. She is excited to implement the TRHT framework to expand how narratives can be crafted to prioritize their stories and legacies alongside the art and work that they contribute to the world.
