2025 YNPN Professional Growth Grantee

A few words from our 2025 YNPN Professional Growth Grantee:

"Thanks to the generous support of the YNPN Chicago Professional Growth Grant, I’m proud to share that my first academic paper has been published! My article, Integrating Pan-African Art Music into U.S. Orchestral Programming: Insights from African Arts Administrators and the Àkójọpọ̀ Commissioning Project, appears in the Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2025 of the American Journal of Arts Management.

This research was developed during my time as the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Research Fellow with the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE). The grant made it possible for me to attend the AAAE Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, where I presented this work in person.

To stay within budget, I stayed with my friend Seyi, a Ph.D. student at the University of Pittsburgh, instead of booking a hotel or Airbnb. This allowed me to stretch the Professional Growth Grant to help cover a wide range of travel-related costs, including my roundtrip flight, ground transportation, and meals. 

Presenting at a national conference was a major milestone. It gave me the chance to refine my ideas through meaningful dialogue with peers and professionals across the country. The experience directly contributed to my ability to submit the paper for publication, and to my growth as a scholar and emerging voice in the field of arts administration. 

This moment also holds deeper meaning. As I’ve studied arts administration, I’ve noticed that most of the textbooks and scholarly articles I’ve encountered are written by white scholars, often from a U.S. or European perspective. Literature written by people of color, especially Africans working within their own cultural and administrative contexts, is incredibly rare. Many in the field may not fully understand the nuances of arts administration across the African continent, where funding structures, institutional priorities, and cultural dynamics can differ significantly from Western models.

Being able to contribute to this body of knowledge as an African researcher is both an honor and a responsibility. I hope my work helps expand the field’s understanding and encourages deeper engagement with African voices and perspectives in arts administration.

Presenting at the AAAE conference gave me the opportunity to grow as a researcher, connect with others working on equity in the arts, and take a major step forward in my professional journey.

Thank you so much YNPN for this opportunity!"

-Daniel Kumapayi