The Gantt Center’s new CEO is a chemical engineer with an affinity for the arts
In December, as the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture prepared to celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, president and CEO David Taylor announced he was retiring after 14 years. The museum board selected COO Bonita Buford—a chemical engineer and arts enthusiast in her second career—to succeed him.
The Gantt, founded in 1974 as the Afro-American Cultural Center, has grown from a small, grassroots cultural center to a regional fixture for Black art, history, and culture. Buford says she wants to expand its range. “We want to remind people that we’re not just a museum, we’re not just visual art,” Buford tells me over Zoom in late January, having just met with the Gantt’s board.
She not only wants to expand the center’s art collections and exhibitions and regional artist residency program, but she also plans to host events with other organizations; invest in digital programming; and increase involvement in community social justice initiatives. The varied 50th-anniversary events this year—including performances by the Dance Theatre of Harlem and forums with Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 Project—will serve as a model for future programming, she says.
Buford earned math and chemical engineering degrees through a dual-degree program at Spelman College and Georgia Tech. After graduation, she spent two decades working in chemical engineering across the country and abroad. In 2000, a business development job with Hoechst Celanese (now Celanese)—the world’s largest producer of acetic acid, a raw material used by all kinds of industries—brought her to Charlotte. The following year, she was part of a mass layoff as the company moved plants to Asia. But she was relieved. “I was ready to do something different,” she says, “but I hadn’t had the courage.”
She spent the next several years as a project management and travel consultant for numerous nonprofits and churches, like MeckEd and Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. In 2005, she joined the Afro-American Cultural Center as a volunteer, then a marketing consultant; the center, rebranded as the Gantt, hired her as director of communications and operations in 2011 and COO in 2015. Her first day as president and CEO was Jan. 1.
Her words have been edited for length and clarity.
I was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the oldest of five girls. I had a fabulous public-school education back when public schools, in St. Louis anyway, were great. And I had the opportunity to play violin in the school orchestra, and visual arts lessons and language lessons starting in the fifth grade.
I come from working-class parents. When we were very young, my mother was a homemaker—you know, where we’d go home for lunch and have Campbell’s soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. But then my parents divorced. My mother worked as a teacher’s aide, and my father worked at the post office.
I hadn’t really thought about this before, but after my parents’ divorce—I think I was in eighth grade—of course, money was scarce, but my mother actually paid to take us girls to see the play Little Women. She also paid for us to have piano lessons and dance lessons. And my mother is very creative—like interior-design kind of creative.
My father was a huge music fan, a huge jazz fan. I’m named—my middle name—after Charlie Parker’s daughter, Pree. So I grew up with jazz music playing all the time and then a mother who was creative. And so that’s probably part of my love of the arts.
I graduated (high school) at 16. I didn’t know where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do. I was an undecided major (at Spelman College), and there was a lot of scholarship money for engineering with the dual-degree program with Georgia Tech, and so that’s kind of how I got into chemical engineering.
I worked most of the jobs that you can do as an engineer: research, production, process engineering, sales. I worked in the Midwest, Germany, and then in Southeast Asia. It was a great experience and opened my eyes to, “Hey, there’s a whole world out there.” We tend to think everything’s all about the U.S. It was amazing to me that, when I would go to hotels (in Asia), the bellmen would be able to talk about everything that was happening in the U.S., and I wouldn’t even know who the leader of their country was. So it did definitely broaden my horizons. But it was also known as a burnout job. I did it for two years, and then came to the Carolinas working with Hoechst Celanese.
In 2001, there was this huge layoff of about 200 people, and I was one of them. Of course, then the whole textile industry in this area pretty much shut down. But I was ready to do something different. My sister was like, “You’re the happiest laid-off person I’ve ever met.” (laughs)
One of my first experiences (at the Afro-American Cultural Center) was helping organize a visit for Archbishop Desmond Tutu. You know, us engineers can be somewhat rigid, so I was like, “We have to practice this!” I led two days of dry runs. Most people were artists and were like, “Ugh,” but afterward, the program director thanked me because it was flawless.
When the Gantt Center was getting ready to open in 2009, I partnered with another woman to help organize the grand-opening gala. That reengaged me with the center and with David Taylor. He brought me in as a consultant to do audience development. Then in 2011, I officially joined the staff.
I used to say, “I have the luxury of not worrying about the money.” But now, every time someone brings something up, I say, “How much is that going to cost?” (laughs) I’ve always liked doing the work, and now I’m not doing so much of the literal work. But it’s exciting to be able to lead and to determine direction.
I always say I’m not an artist just because I don’t have the talent, but if I did, I’d probably try to be an artist. Part of the beauty of this position is being able to make sure that the people who are artists can have thriving careers and can live as artists and not have to have another job to do what they are gifted in doing.
When interacting with the arts, people let their guard down, and you can change perspectives or at least open people’s minds because they’re not expecting it.
People don’t always go to the Vietnam Memorial because they knew someone who was in Vietnam. They go because they want to know or learn more. When I lived in Germany, everyone who visited me went to Dachau concentration camp because they wanted to understand that experience. At the Gantt, everything we do, of course, is about African American narratives and artists. However, we’re also for people who want to understand the culture better or experience the culture.
There are many people who are intimidated by the arts and think, I’m going to get there, and I’m not going to understand. I want to find ways to make everyone feel comfortable, from the person who has had no interactions with the arts at all and was really hesitant to come through the doors, to art scholars.
We can help to build a stronger, more equitable Charlotte. When the Leading On Opportunity report was issued, there was a section that talked about how arts and cultural institutions can help. We can use the arts to change lives. Or hopefully we can, at least, kind of nudge people along the continuum of change.
One of my goals is to remind people that the Gantt is multidisciplinary. Some people just think of us as a museum because we’re on Museum Row. And our goal is to bring world-class exhibitions to Charlotte and to employ local artists. The diversity of our anniversary programming is like a model of what you’ll see in the future.
I feel the weight of ensuring that, 50 years from now, we’ll have grown—and I think we will. Before, we had a footprint limited to uptown, but we’re focusing now on creating a big digital presence, too. We’re also doing more collaboration with other organizations so we all share expertise, capacity, and resources.
I brought my 89-year-old father here a couple of years ago. He’d had a massive stroke, and while he was in rehab, my stepmother died of COVID. So a lot of my life now is taking care of him.
Outside of work, because I am a big arts lover, you’ll see me at music performances. I love jazz. I go to JazzArts concerts. But the one ticket that I will always pay full price for is Charlotte Ballet. I walk out exhilarated every time. So much so that I pay full price.
I have been completely overwhelmed with kind wishes and encouragement and support from people. People I don’t even know have written me notes congratulating me and sent texts and phone calls. It’s been a great feeling, but it’s really a testament to what the Gantt Center means to the community.
Tess Allen is the associate editor.
Tess Allen
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