Ayana Loyd is the 2024 Curatorial Research Intern at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in partnership with the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Equity at Washington University. Ayana is a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies with minors in History and Spanish. She is interested in transnational histories especially the decolonization era in Africa and the Americas and is currently working on an AFAS honors thesis using ska and rocksteady music to understand nation building in independent Jamaica. Ayana is also passionate about language learning and is currently studying Spanish, Swahili, and Portuguese. At the Kemper Art Museum, she will focus on researching the socio-political context of the late 19th century founding of the Museum, then the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, part of Washington University. This historical examination, which looks at such critical issues as racism and settler colonialism, includes archival research on the Museum’s first building and its collections. Ayana also aims to explore the built environment surrounding the Museum in its original downtown location to understand the institution’s physical and symbolic place in the racial dynamics of the city.