The Artful Life Questionnaire: Katryna Carter

What we know for sure: We all have a story, and engaging with the arts helps all of us to tell our own stories on our own terms. We also know that there are ways to engage with the arts other than in formal cultural venues, and that sometimes it is more about the process of art making than it is about the end product. We also know that living an artful life, which is to say, living a life in which the arts and arts engagement are a priority means different things to different people based on their own interests, their communities, and many other factors, including equitable access. The Artful Life Questionnaire celebrates the diversity of ways we can make the arts a part of our lives, and, hopefully, inspires and encourages us to live our own unique versions of an artful life. In today’s edition of the questionnaire, we’re speaking with Katryna Carter, who is the NEA Presenting, Multidisciplinary Works and Artist Communities specialist.

NEA: Please introduce yourself.

KATRYNA CARTER: Hi, I’m Katryna Carter, I was born and raised in New Jersey, in the same tight-knit Black community where my parents, grandparents, and whole extended family also grew up. There my grandmothers, Dess and Kappy, found joy in their incredible taste and grace and passed those gifts on to me. They taught me everyday life is art. Where we live, what we surround ourselves with, what we wear, how we love, is all an art. To my grandmothers, art was found on a neighbor’s porch, at a local flea market, the style of signature hairdo, or a beloved pair of earrings.

Currently, I am a Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works & Artist Communities Specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts. I’ve been in this role at the NEA for a little over two years, and I previously spent two years at the NEA between 2015-2017 as well. Back then, I worked on the NEA 50th anniversary initiatives including co-editing the How to Do Creative Placemaking book, an action-oriented guide to arts in community development. These days, my primary role as a specialist is to support arts organizations through the process of applying for NEA grants that are multidisciplinary in nature for projects including and crossing multiple arts disciplines, such as dance, theater, music, visual arts, media arts, literary arts, and design.

In addition to my role at the NEA, I am also a socially responsible designer, artisan, and writer based in Washington, D.C and committed to holistic approaches to community development. With my background in interior architecture, product design, and craft traditions, I have developed a unique perspective for social justice work in spatial design influenced by my grandmothers’ impeccable style and formal training in design. I graduated with a Bachelors of Architecture from Howard University and Masters of Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design.

NEA: Do you have a current art practice or a way of regularly engaging with the arts?

CARTER: These days, my art practice mostly consists of quilting and other sewing. I learned to sew, and later quilt, as a kid and young adult from my mom and Cousin Jean, my grandfather’s first cousin. I took a break in sewing and quilting for many years, but was inspired to pick it all back up over the past few years. As elders in my family began to pass away, I felt called to these ways of making that my family originally shared with me. Continuing my sewing and quilting practice feels like a meditation on inheritance and family lineage, traditions passed down from one generation to the next.

NEA: What are five words that come to mind when you think about the idea of living an artful life?

CARTER: Soul, healing, joy, connection, and awe.

NEA: Pick just one of those words and expand on how you see it as part of living an artful life.

CARTER: Joy is such a huge part of living an artful life for me. In addition to my art practice, I spend a lot of time engaged in all sorts of collective arts activities. I’m a live music and DJ show junkie! There’s something about being a part of a crowd and connecting with everyone just as excited about singing and dancing and loving to the same music that brings me so much joy. The shared joy and excitement around a common experience compounds and gives me so much life. One of the things I love about where I live is the ease with which I can attend a play, art show opening, and dance or music performance that will almost certainly make my day.

NEA: What are some of the ways that your community tells its story through the arts or through creative expression?

CARTER: I love so many art spaces in my community. STABLE Arts is a wonderful local space for artists to think and create, fostering an arts ecosystem in D.C. through their studios, residencies, projects, and collaborations. Their gallery space serves as an amazing space for community engagement and connection through the arts. Over the past year, they have hosted art installations such as, the Reading Room and the New Saddle Creek Saloon, that welcome in Black queer and women-identifying folks to feel seen in the artwork surrounding them and connected to those around them also enjoying the work and each other. One of the last events I attended there was hosted by Black Girls in Arts Spaces, a local and national organization that gathers Black women together to experience arts activities together that reflect our history and experience. Myself and about 20 other women came together for a tour of the Reading Room by its founder Amarie Gipson, STABLE director Maleke Glee, and curator Mia Matthias. They each shared their roles and perspectives on this traveling show devoted to the importance of the Black Archive and what this looks like in DC, highlighting local artists such as Nekisha Durrett and Alanna Fields whose work is heavily influenced by archival work. The space also includes a library full of books and archival materials devoted to critical conversations around DC, national, and internationally based Black artists.

NEA: How do you think that living an artful life can improve the well-being of your community?

CARTER: This is such a big question. It’s largely what I’ve built my whole career around. I would say the conversations at our recent Healing, Bridging, Thriving summit sum up so many of the ways this is true.

NEA: Is there a particular place in your neighborhood that is a creative touchstone for you?

CARTER: I’m based in SW DC, and there are so many arts institutions surrounding me from the museums on the mall to the venues at the Wharf. Arena Stage is one of the oldest and one of my favorites. They bring delightful and relevant theater performances to my neighborhood and the city overall. They make a strong effort to bring our community into the space through special performances just for local residents and making their space available for other local organizations to host events. In addition to the numerous plays I’ve seen there, I have also attended a yoga class, lecture, and have seen a number of wedding parties!

NEA: What’s your favorite informal way or space to engage with arts and culture?

CARTER: I don’t believe in a distinction between formal and informal arts and culture experiences. It’s all just art for me.

NEA: Can you share an arts experience or moment of arts engagement that has had an identifiable impact on your life?

CARTER: The first that comes to mind is probably one of the earliest. I always, always loved my art classes growing up. In middle school, I had a teacher who looked at my drawing and collage work and suggested I think about a career in design. Something about my aesthetic and interests connected those dots for her, and it was probably a fleeting thought, but it completely changed the course of my life. No one in my family had ever made a living in the arts, so it was not an idea that would have even crossed my mind until then. But she planted a seed that has taken me all over the world, through multiple degrees, and across several careers, all with art and its social impact at the center.