Taylor Bythewood-Porter
Taylor Bythewood-Porter has served as assistant curator at California African American Museum (CAAM) since 2017. She is the curator of the museum’s current exhibition Rights and Rituals: The Making of African American Debutante Culture.
Bythewood-Porter co-curated the CAAM exhibitions Cross Colours: Black Fashion in the 20th Century (2020), The Liberator: Chronicling Black Los Angeles, 1900–1914 (2019), California Bound: Slavery on the New Frontier, 1848–1865 (2018), and Los Angeles Freedom Rally, 1963 (2018), and also contributed to How Sweet the Sound: The History of Gospel Music in Los Angeles (2018), Circles and Circuits 1: History and Art of the Chinese Caribbean Diaspora (2017), and Lezley Saar: Salon des Refúse (2017).
Prior to Bythewood-Porter’s appointment at CAAM she served as president and a founding member of SIA Curates, a curatorial organization run through Sotheby’s Institute of Art at Claremont Graduate University that connects aspiring curators with Claremont’s MFA students to develop yearly exhibitions. Bythewood-Porter is also the recipient of the 2018 Travel Scholarship to attend the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) conference and a participant in the Independent Curators International (ICI) Curatorial Intensive New Orleans 2019.
She holds a Master of Arts in art business with a concentration in contemporary art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art at Claremont Graduate University and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications with a focus on public relations and journalism and a minor in art history from Monmouth University.
Ten Things I Can’t Do Without
- My family and friends of course! Especially my dog and cat, Odette and Oliver Twist.
- Access to galleries and museums
- My cell phone
- Streaming services (Netflix, TCM, Pandora, etc.)
- Fresh air and sunshine
- Self-care Sunday
- Black Le Pen and Moleskin
- Learning new things
- Google (Maps, Calendar, Drive, etc.)
- Butternut squash ravioli from Trader Joe’s