Strategic Engagement Program

Tayler Friar

Istanbul, February 2026

Dr. Tayler Ava Friar is a writer, TEDx speaker, curator, Fulbright Scholar, and art historian whose work explores Black voices in unexpected places through the lens of global art history, cultural memory, and creative exchange. She is the only Fulbright postdoctoral scholar elected to Turkey (2026), where her current research examines Istanbul as a historic yet underexplored site of Black diasporic creativity, with particular attention to James Baldwin’s transformative years in the city and his role as a beacon for Black writers and artists who followed.

As the first American to earn a PhD in Art History from the University of Cape Town, Dr. Friar brings a deeply transnational perspective shaped by more than 13 years of living, researching, and working across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. Her scholarship is rooted in decolonial inquiry and narrative recovery, centering overlooked artistic lineages and tracing how Black creatives have shaped and been shaped by places often excluded from dominant art historical canons.

She is currently writing a book that maps Black artistic and intellectual presence in unexpected geographies, blending archival research, lived experience, and storytelling. Moving between cities she has called home, the project reframes global art history through mobility, exile, and creative refuge, positioning Istanbul and Baldwin’s life there, as a crucial chapter in a wider diasporic story.

Dr. Friar is the founder of ART|unknown, a cultural platform and curatorial laboratory exploring the intersections of art, Black voices, and global futures. Through ART|unknown, she has led landmark projects, including the first West African art installation at Burning Man (2023) and Mexico City’s largest exhibition marking COP27, creating spaces where contemporary art, social imagination, and global dialogue meet.

Alongside her artistic and academic practice, Dr. Friar is an internationally sought-after public speaker whose work bridges art history, leadership, and cultural innovation. She previously served as Innovator and former Editor-in-Chief of Google’s global Women in Technology programming, and as a trusted crisis communications advisor to institutions including the United Nations and the World Bank; experiences that inform her broader inquiry into narrative power, creativity, and human connection.

She is the co-author of the #1 international bestselling book Radical Self Love: How to Ignite Your Light Through Creativity, and is currently developing a forthcoming AI-powered grantwriting tool for creatives, designed to connect artists, curators, and cultural workers with funding opportunities that help extend and sustain their practices. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Business Insider, and international media.

Through scholarship, exhibitions, technology, and the spoken word, Dr. Friar invites audiences to reconsider geography, history, and voice—positioning Black creativity as a defining force in places we least expect.

You can follow Tayler on all social media at @tayleravafriar.