Timothy anne burnside

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With over twenty years of experience, I work at the intersection of history, cultural heritage, and the performing arts, shaping collections and advancing public understanding. My work engages the relationships among history, culture, music, and performance. My research and curatorial practice emphasize the acquisition, study, and interpretation of material culture, with a sustained commitment to building collections that capture the diversity and significance of music and the performing arts. I curate exhibitions, public programs, publications, and digital media that interpret history and creative expression with both innovation and scholarly rigor. Central to my approach is fostering collaborative relationships with artists, families, estates, and communities to ensure their stories are authentically represented.

My scholarship and public history work foreground the achievements and influence of artists, performers, and creative leaders within broader historical frameworks. I seek to ensure these contributions are recognized in national memory and to further understanding of the performing arts and music as forces that shape identity, foster community, and deepen cultural engagement.

My museum career began at the National Museum of American History in 2003, where I interned with the Archives Center, served as a Curatorial Assistant in the Division of Cultural History, and worked as a Project Assistant/Co-Producer for Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM). In 2006, I launched the Smithsonian’s first hip-hop initiative and its foundational collection. Since 2009, I have collaborated with the curatorial team at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to develop collections and exhibitions. I currently co-lead Musical Crossroads and Taking the Stage and have contributed to other exhibitions, including Cultural Expressions, Sports: Leveling the Playing Field, Power of Place, Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment, Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture, and Represent: Hip-Hop Photography.

My portfolio includes a range of nationally recognized projects, including the NMAAHC’s grand opening festival, Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration; the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap; and the podcast All Music is Black Music. Recent projects include the NMAAHC Hip-Hop Block Party, the exhibition Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, which received the Smithsonian Award for Excellence in Exhibitions (2024), and the publication Musical Crossroads: Stories Behind the Objects of African American Music, honored with the Secretary’s Research Prize (2025).

My work is grounded in the belief that material culture has the power to illuminate and critically analyze history. I regularly present research at national and international conferences, deliver guest lectures in academic settings from high school through graduate school, and mentor students interested in museum studies, music, the performing arts, and cultural history. For me, museum practice is essential—not only for preserving artifacts but also for safeguarding artistic heritage, fostering creative innovation, and providing interpretive frameworks that help us understand the evolution of cultural expression. By exploring new methodologies of museum practice within contemporary cultural narratives, I aim to reinforce the critical role museums play in fostering cultural understanding and shaping collective historical consciousness.