Rashida Bumbray is a curator and choreographer. In 2022, she curated Loophole of Retreat: Venice, a transnational gathering focused on Black women’s intellectual and creative labor as part of Simone Leigh’s exhibition Sovereignty at the American Pavilion for the 59th Venice Biennale. As a Bessie-nominated choreographer whose practice draws from traditional African American vernacular and folk forms, Bumbray’s performances have been presented by Tate Modern, London; the New Museum, The Met, Harlem Stage, Dancing While Black, and SummerStage, all in New York; and Project Row Houses, Houston. Most recently, as Director of Culture and Art at the Open Society Foundations, Bumbray spearheaded the development of the foundations’ first global program dedicated to advancing diverse artistic practices and strengthening locally led cultural spaces around the world. In 2015, Bumbray was nominated for the Independent Curators International Curatorial Vision Award. And in 2018, she was honored among women leaders by The Met, and received the Alchemist Award for Socially Engaged Art from A Blade of Grass.

Rashida collaborated with the Artistic Research Initiative (sponsored by the Mellon Foundation) as a 2023-2024 Fellow and co-instructor Art of the MOOC: Colors, Bodies, Power.