Kamal Sinclair is an artist, cultural strategist, and creative foresight practitioner whose work spans more than three decades at the convergence of the arts, media, and technology.

Artist

  • Kamal Sinclair's identity as an artist is the root from which everything else grows. Her creative practice began in the body as a cast member of the Off-Broadway hit STOMP. She then founded Universal Arts, serving as writer, director, and choreographer for four original works: The Beat, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Streams of the Unconscious, and Race of Time & Space. These productions ran across ten major theatrical engagements in New York, San Francisco, and southern Africa, and several appear in her performance history as far back as 1998.

    Her most significant artistic breakthrough in emerging media came as co-creator of Question Bridge: Black Males, developed alongside Chris Johnson, Hank Willis Thomas, and Bayeté Ross Smith. The project used video-mediated dialogue to represent the complexity of Black male identity in America.

    It exhibited in over sixty museums and festivals, won the International Center for Photography's 2015 Infinity Award for New Media, Sheffield International Documentary Festival’s 2012 Innovation Award - Special Mention, and was archived at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, and reached millions people.

    She is now extending that method into Question Bridge: America, a video-mediated dialogue among Americans launching as an exhibition in fall 2026, alongside collaborators Hank Willis Thomas, Bayeté Ross Smith, Chris Johnson, Rosa White, Will Sylvester, Delroy Lindo, and Jesse Williams. Its companion project, 250 Dreams, asks what a collectively designed future might look like if built from the most intimate aspirations of 250 Americans.

    And in Unmade, she is building a creative home for ideas not yet made, as a public accounting of her commitment to make art.

  • Selected Exhibitions & Performances

    • Black Star Film Festival (Philadelphia, PA)

    • Utah MOCA (Salt Lake City, UT), 2022

    • Sundance Film Festival (Online Festival), 2021

    • Asheville Art Museum (Asheville, NC), 2021

    • Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (Sonoma, CA), 2021

    • For Freedoms Billboard, 2020

    • The Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), 2020

    • University of Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA), 2019

    • Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, 2016-Current 

    • The Phillips Collection (Washington, DC), 2016

    • Chaffey College (Rancho Cucamonga, CA), 2016

    • UMASS University Museum of Contemporary Art (Amherst, MA), 2016

    • The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at Duke University (Durham, NC), 2015

    • Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York, NY), 2014-2015

    • Papillion Gallery

    • The Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia, PA), 2014

    • Winthrop University (Rock Hill, SC), 2014

    • Rochester Contemporary Art Center (Rochester, NY), 2014

    • San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art (San Diego, CA), 2014

    • Community Folk Art Center at Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY), 2014

    • Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art & Culture (Charlotte, NC), 2014

    • California African American Museum (Los Angeles, CA), 2014

    • DuSable Museum of African American Culture (Chicago, IL), 2014

    • Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), 2014

    • Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH), 2014

    • Photo Center Northwest (Seattle, WA), 2014

    • Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, VA), 2014

    • The Exploratorium Museum (San Francisco, CA), 2013 

    • Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL), 2013

    • Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI), 2013

    • Jack Shainman Gallery (New York, NY), 2013 

    • Juxtaposition Arts (Minneapolis, MN), 2013

    • Sumter County Gallery of Art (Sumter, SC), 2013

    • Missouri History Museum (St. Louis, MO), 2013

    • Catharine Clark Gallery (San Francisco, CA), 2013

    • Zora Neale Hurston Foundation (Eatonville, FL), 2013

    • Project Row Houses (Houston, TX), 2013

    • Bloomfield College (Bloomfield, NJ), 2013

    • Los Angeles Film Festival (Los Angeles, CA), 2013

    • YMCA (Hartford, Stamford, Bridgeport,  New Haven, CT), 2013

    • Sundance Film Festival New Frontiers (Park City, UT), 2012

    • Brooklyn Museum of Art (Brooklyn, NY), 2012

    • Oakland Museum of California (Oakland, CA), 2012

    • Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, The Institute of the Arts and Sciences (Salt Lake City, UT), 2012

    • Atlanta’s Chastain Art Gallery (Atlanta, GA), 2012

    • The Beat (San Francisco, NY), 2004

    • The Beat (Harare International Arts Festival, Zimbabwe), 2001

    • Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (Henry Street Settlement, NYC), 2001

    • The Beat (Contact Studios, NY), 1998-1999

    • Race of Time & Space (New York University, NY), 1998

    • Streams of Conscious  (New York University, NY), 1998

Institutional Leader

  • Sinclair has held two significant senior leadership roles inside major cultural institutions, each demonstrating her ability to translate visionary thinking into operational reality at scale. Before either of those roles, she sharpened her production instincts at 42 Entertainment in 2012, working as a Transmedia Producer on alternate reality games for J.J. Abrams' Alcatraz, Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man, and Ford's 2013 Fusion campaign with Ryan Seacrest. These projects introduced her to the mechanics of networked, participatory storytelling at commercial scale and gave her a producer's fluency in the gap between creative vision and execution.

    That fluency carried directly into her seven years at Sundance Institute from 2012 to 2019, where she served as Director of New Frontier Lab Programs, mentored by Michelle Satter and Shari Frilot, helping to expand New Frontier from exhibition to artist project development as well. Working in close collaboration with Chief Curator Shari Frilot, she expanded the program to include Story Labs, public sessions, intensives, and artist residencies, supporting over a thousand artists working at the convergence of film, art, performance and technology. She forged partnerships with MIT, Oculus, ILMxLab, the National Film Board of Canada, Google, HTC Vive, and others, helping position Sundance Institute as the defining institution for the first wave of serious VR, AR, and immersive storytelling.

    At The Music Center in Los Angeles, she served as Senior Director of Digital Innovation for one of the country's premier cultural campuses and the home to LA Phil, LA Opera, Center Theatre Group, and LA Master Chorale.

    She launched over twenty digital experiences reaching 50,000 in-person and 1.4 million virtual participants, curated immersive installations and public programs, and developed field leadership programs in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, MIT's Open Documentary Lab, Stanford Arts, and ASU.

  • Director, New Frontier Lab Programs | 2012-2019

    Transformed and expanded Sundance's emerging media program, New Frontier, supporting 1000+ artists working at the intersection of film, art, and technology. New Frontier existed to identify and foster independent artists innovating the art and form of storytelling at the convergence of film, art, media, performance, music, literature, and technology and to build a community of collaborators across diverse disciplines to push the boundaries of the implicit and explicit story.

    Key Achievements:

    • Facilitated a robust evaluation and strategic planning process that resulted in a significant strengthening of the annual Story Lab, alumni support, partnership, grantmaking support, and the expansion of the program to include: Public Sessions, Intensives and Artist Residencies. 

    • Partnered with Chief Curator Shari Frilot to develop and platform landmark projects in the evolution of story, including experimentation with virtual reality, augmented reality, data intelligence, transmedia, haptic technology, projection mapping, and smart objects as storytelling mediums. 

    • Developed and facilitated partnerships and collaborations with leaders in the field, such as MIT, Jaunt VR, National Film Board of Canada, Fox Innovation Lab, Oculus, ILMxLab, TimeWarner, HTC Vive, Madison Wells Media, IMAX, New York Times, Annapurna/With.In, Google, Samsung, USC, Sony, and more.

  • The Music Center, Los Angeles
    Senior Director of Digital Innovation | 2022 – 2025

    Leading digital transformation for Los Angeles’ premier cultural campus, home to TMC Arts, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Master Chorale, LA Opera, and LA Phil. The campus includes the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and outdoor spaces such as Jerry Moss Plaza, The Blue Ribbon Garden, and Gloria Molina Grand Park.

    Key Achievements:

    • Launched 20+ groundbreaking digital experiences reaching 50,000+ in-person and 1.4M+ virtual participants.

    • Forged cross-institutional partnerships with leading academic and cultural organizations.

    • Developed Field Leadership Programs to support and train artists and cultural workers.

    • Designed and curated immersive installations, exhibitions, and public programs blending technology, performance, and community engagement.

    Selected Projects & Credits:

    • BLKNWS® in Residence (by Kahlil Joseph) – Multi-platform digital arts residency. BLKNWS® Broadcasts (Jerry Moss Plaza). The Garvey Garden. BLKNWS® LibraryCafé. BLKNWS® Comedy Night (Alzo Sade, Amberia Allen, Peter Kim, Zainab Johnson, Shapel Lacey, Aida Rodriguez). Read the Garden (with Reparations Club)

    • A More Than Human Tongue Exhibition with One Who Looks at the Cup (Mashinka Firunts Hakopian with Atlas Acopian & Lara Sarkissian); and Voice In My Head (Kyle McDonald & Lauren Lee McCarthy)

    • Black Bar Social Provocateur Series:Artificial Intelligence & The Rasquache Realm (Alex Rivera); A TEC Leimert Prospective (TEC Leimert / Ben Caldwell); Dancing with the Ancestors (Sultan Sharrief); One Who Looks at the Cup (Mashinka Firunts Hakopian); HOST (Lauren Lee McCarthy)

    • Music off the Wall: An EyeJack Experience (Prosthetic Reality Vol. 1 & 2)

    • Night Games & IndieCade in Residence (2023–2024)

    • Cosmogony (Cie Gilles Jobin, Geneva)

    • Our Common Home (with Iregular Digital Art Studio)

    • Run+Skip+Play: An Augmented Reality Chalk Game (Melissa Painter, Sydney Skybetter, Heidi Boisvert)

    • We ARe Here: A Celebration of Legacy (Kinfolk & For Freedoms; artists Alfredo Salazar-Caro, Samantha Morales-Johnson, Autumn Breon)

    Field Leadership Programs:

    • Royal Shakespeare Company Interdisciplinary Fellowship – Collaboration with RSC, BAM, MIT Open Documentary Lab, Stanford Arts, Oxford TORCH, Watershed, and The Music Center

    • HOME: A Storytelling Lab (with Agog: The Immersive Media Institute)

    • Prospective Design Lab (with ASU Narrative & Emerging Media Program)

Researcher & Author

  • Some of Sinclair's most lasting impact has come not from projects she made, but from knowledge she generated and shared. Beginning in 2016, she led an eighteen-month research initiative for the Ford Foundation's JustFilms program, investigating the emerging media landscape through the lens of equity and representation. She conducted over a hundred stakeholder interviews and analyzed more than a thousand industry articles and academic papers, working with collaborator Jessica Clark to synthesize the findings into Making a New Reality, a landmark series of articles published on Immerse.news and subsequently as a book. The work named the structural barriers facing underrepresented creators in immersive media and proposed frameworks for philanthropic and institutional response.

    It was downloaded over 25,000 times, published in derivative form on the World Economic Forum's blog, and incorporated into curricula at USC, NYU, and Johns Hopkins. It sparked a four-year speaking tour reaching over 100,000 industry professionals at convenings ranging from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions to CPH:DOX, the i-Docs Symposium, Cannes Lions, and Facebook's Women@Oculus Speaker Series. Her thinking has been cited in Dr. Ruha Benjamin's Captivating Technology, Henry Jenkins' Participatory Culture, and the NEA's Tech as Art.

    Beyond Making a New Reality, she has published in Routledge, the Omidyar Network, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and contributed to the Question Bridge: Black Males book published under Aperture.

    She was recognized as an YBCA 100 honoree in 2020, and her work appears in over twenty additional academic and trade publications.

    • Future World-building Depends on Artists and Collaborative Networks - Jun 29, 2021, National Endowment for the Arts

    • Portals to Beautiful Futures: Trends to Watch in 2021 & Beyond - Apr 13, 2021, Omidyar Network

    • Making a New Reality with coauthor Jessica Clar - Aug 1, 2020, GoFA Press

    • Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Technology as a Creative Medium by National Endowment for the Arts  

    • Tech as Art: Commissioned Essays from Arts Practitioners by Kamal Sinclair (National Endowment for the Arts)

    • On Public Imagination - A New Operating System For Humanity - Dec 20, 2019, Routledge

    • We have the power to code a new operating system for humanity - Jun 26, 2017, World Economic Forum

    • Question Bridge: Black Males in America - Oct 27, 2015, Aperture

    Publications with interviews, contributions, or references to Kamal Sinclair:

    • Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life by Dr. Ruha Benjamin

    • Participatory Culture by Henry Jenkins

    • Democratizing the Imagination of the Future by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

    • I-Docs: The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary edited by Judith Aston, Sandra Gaudenzi, Mandy Rose

    • Transmedia Marketing: From Film and TV to Games and Digital Media by Anne Zeiser

    • The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature: I-N edited by Hans A. Ostrom, J. David Macey

    • Art as Social Practice: Technologies for Change by xtine burrough, ‎Judy Walgren

    • Controlled chaos: As journalism and documentary film converge in digital, what lessons can they share? By Liam Andrew (Nieman Lab)

    • Who Reads Poetry: 50 Views from “Poetry” Magazine edited by Don Share, Fred Sasaki

    • Digital Storytelling 4e: A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment by Carolyn Handler Miller

    • The Focal Press Companion to the Constructed Image in Contemporary Photography edited by Anne Leighton Massoni, Marni Shindelman

    • The Art Museum Redefined: Power, Opportunity, and Community Engagement by Johanna K. Taylor

    • Code as Creative Medium: A Handbook for Computational Art by Golan Levin and Tega Brain

    • What We Want Is Free, Second Edition: Critical Exchanges in Recent Art edited by Shane Aslan Selzer, Ted Purves

    • DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media 

    • Crafting Stories for Virtual Reality by Melissa Bosworth, Lakshmi Sarah

    • Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon by Cheryl Finley

    • Caryl’s Closet: A journey of faith and love that started in a village in Guyana and went around the world by June Wood Agamah

    • The Cult of True Victimhood: From the War on Welfare to the War on Terror by Alyson Manda Cole

    • The Visual Made Verbal: A Comprehensive Training Manual and Guide to the History and Applications of Audio Description by Joel Snyder

    • Media Labs: What You Need to Know by James Clarke

    • Art and Public History: Approaches, Opportunities, and Challenges edited by K. Tawny Paul, Rebecca Bush

    • The New Yorker Volume 76, Issues 7-13

    • Theatre World edited by John Willis

    • John Willis' Theatre World

    • Theatre World 1996-1997 edited by John Willis

    • Theatre World 1997-1998 edited by John Willis

    • Theatre World: The Most Complete Record of the American Theatre, 2005-2006 edited by Ben Hodges, John Willis

    • Are the Arts Essential? Edited by Alberta Arthurs, Michael DiNiscia

    • New York Magazine Company, Volume 35, Issues 1-6

    • The New York Times, Theater Review September 14, 2001

  • Speaking:

    • CPH:DOX (March 2026)

    • Insān Film Family Short Program (March2026)

    • Sundance Film Festival’s Future Models Salon Jan 2026

    • Disney’s Black History Program Launch: From Story To Screen, Feb 2023

    • 2022 GIA Conference: Converge Transform, Oct 2022

    • Digital Futurism @ MLK Library for the Smithsonian National History Museum, June 2022

    • SOCAP - Creativity Is Becoming More Important as the Way We Work Changes, May 2021

    • Skoll World Forum -Illuminations, Apr 2021

    • 109th CAA Annual Conference - New Media Caucus: Art, Techne, and Cultural Change, Feb 2021

    • Media Impact Funders (Speaker) - How can philanthropy invest in a more equitable technology sector?, Jan 2021

    • Electric South - (Our) New Realities  (Speaker), Nov 2020

    • Association of Baha’i Studies Conference (Keynote Speaker), Nov 2020

    • Media Impact Funders - J-Funders: The 2020 Journalism Funders Gathering (Panelist), Oct 2020

    • Gray Area's Expanded Cinema Series w/ Gene Youngblood & Barry Threw (Panelist), May 2020

    • For Freedoms Congress, Feb 2020

    • Constellation 2020 Convening (Panelist), Jan 2020

    • ARRAY Inaugural Ascend Summit (Panelist & Advisor), Dec 2019

    • Afrotectopia Conference (Opening Keynote), Sep 2019

    • The Neurodiversity Project (Keynote Speaker), Jul 2019

    • Caanes Film Festival - DOC DAY  (Keynote Speaker), May 2019

    • 2019 NYU Tisch Gala (Speaker), 2019

    • An[0]ther {AI} in Art Summit (Panelist), Apr 2019

    • Femmebit - Scared Clowns and Foolish Resistance, 2019

    • Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at MASS MoCA (Advisor), Dec 2018

    • International Documentary Association 2018 Getting Real Conference (Facilitator), Sep 2018

    • Unlimited Symposium - Does new technology enable or create more barriers? (Panelist), Aug 2018

    • Women@Oculus Speaker Series - Facebook HQ (Speaker), Jul 2018

    • XR For Change @ Games For Change Festival (Keynote Speaker), Jun 2018

    • 2018 Cannes Lions  (Panelist), Jun 2018

    • The 2018 Media Impact Forum (Speaker), May 2018

    • HotDocs - Canadian International Documentary Festival (Moderator), Apr 2018 

    • LA Times Festival of Books (Panelist), Apr 2018

    • Women in VR @ Altspace   (Keynote Speaker), Apr 2018

    • CPH:DOX (Keynote Speaker), Mar 2018

    • The i-Docs Symposium (Keynote Speaker), Mar 2018

    • Watershed - Pervasive Media Studios (Keynote Speaker), Mar 2018

    • Mozilla’s VR the People (Moderator), Jan 2018

    • 21CF Global Inclusion Diversity Day  (Panelist), 2018

    • Electric South's 2018 NEW DIMENSIONS VR/AR LAB (Advisor), 2018

    • Vatican Art & Technology Council Meeting, Vatican City (Speaker & Panelist), Dec 2017

    • Thoughtworks ParadigmShift - Beyond Imagination: Building for a New Reality (Speaker), Oct 2017

    • The Afrofuturist Podcast w/ Ahmed Best (Guest), Aug 2017

    • World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions (Panelist), Jun 2017

    • Omi Gallery & AE Creative Impact Hub Oakland Art & Race Conference (Presentation), Jun 2017

    • 2017 Unity’s VISION VR/AR Summit  (Moderator), May 2017

    • 2017 SXSW Interactive Festival (Panelist), Mar 2017

    • 67th Berlin International Film Festival - Berlinale Talents (Advisor), Feb 2017

    • Allies in Arts Intersectional Feminism Panel (Panelist), Feb 2017

    • MPAC Illuminating Muslim Narratives (Panelist), Jan 2017

    • Muslim Public Affairs Council - Mentoring and Making a Way in Hollywood (Panelist), Oct 2016

    • Women Moving Millions - 2016 Annual Summit: The Power of Innovation (Panelist), Sep 2016

    • International Documentary Association (IDA) - Getting Real Conference (Presenter), Sep 2016

    • VR for Good Bootcamp Facebook HQ (Advisor/Presenter), Jul 2016

    • NALIP Media Summit (Panelist), Jun 2016

    • Eyeo Festival (Panelist), Jun 2016

    • 2016 Gray Area Festival (Presenter), Apr 2016

    • 2016 SXSW Interactive Festival - Samsung Studio (Panelist), Mar 2016

    • Allied Media Conference (Speaker/Workshop Producer), Jun 2015

    • Transforming Hollywood 6 (Panelist), May 2015

    • Skoll World Forum - Stories of Change (Mentor), Apr 2015

    • WarnerBrother Studios - New Frontier Flash Lab (Speaker/Producer of Lab), Mar 2015

    • Oculus Connect 1 - 360 Filmmaking Panel   (Moderator), Sept 2014

    • MIT Open Documentary Lab Docubase (Playlist Curation), Apr 2014

    • 57th APAP - Association of Performing Arts Presenter (Panelist), Jan 2014

    • New World Symphony - New Frontier Flash Lab  (Speaker/Producer of Lab), Jan 2014

    • YouTube on Main - Women in Film (Panelist), Jan 2014

    • The New Digital Storytelling Series: Kamal Sinclair. (Filmmaker Magazine), Mar 2013

    • Leadership Conference  & Black Males Re-imagined, 2011/2012

    Media:

    • Brown University’s Choreographic Research Interfaces Podcast: Dancing with Robots, April 2023

    • CRUX Cast - Reimagining Reality: Reshaping the Inclusive Future of Media, Mar 2021

    • Our Body Politic w/ Farai Chideya (Guest) Nov 13, 2020 & Jan 8, 2021, Jan 2021

    • The Jim Rutt Show EP77 (Guest), Sep 2020

    • Voices of VR Podcast #919 (Guest), Jun 2020

    • Culture and Leadership Connections Podcast (Guest), Feb 2020

    • Shift Management Podcast Episode 18 (Guest), Feb 2020

    • Black Girls Nerd Podcast - BGN #172 (Guest), Jan 2020

    • Baha’i Blogcast with Rainn Wilson – Episode 36 (Guest), Jul 2019

    • USA TBD w/ Dave Bernth Podcast Episode 7 & 8 (Guest), Oct 2018

    • FORBES The Limit Does Not Exist podcast (Guest), Feb 2018

    • Hollywood 2.0 Podcast  (Guest), May 2015

    • Film Disruptors Podcast - Season 2: Episode 9

Consultant & Strategic Advisor

  • Through her consultancy Sinclair Futures, Kamal Sinclair built a practice that sits at an unusual intersection: rigorous enough to serve major philanthropic and academic institutions, imaginative enough to help them think beyond their own inherited frameworks. The foundation for this work was laid at Strategic Arts Consulting from 2008 to 2011, where as Principal she served the Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art, Young Audiences, the Alliance Theater, and others. There she developed expertise in market analysis, strategic planning, business development, and program launch that gave her a practitioner's vocabulary before she became an advisor to larger institutions.

    Sinclair Futures extended that practice into new terrain. For the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she contributed to the "Democratizing the Imagination of our Future" report as one of seventeen featured grantees. For the MacArthur Foundation, she served as External Advisor on investments in independent journalism and media as tools for strengthening democracy. She consulted Johns Hopkins University's Immersive Storytelling & Emerging Technology Center on applying the recommendations of Making a New Reality, and advised NYU Tisch on strategic planning for the Future Imagination Collaboratory. She served as Senior Consultant to Sundance Institute's partnership with Stanford University's Institute for Diversity in the Arts on their Future of Culture Initiative.

    Additional clients have included the Rockefeller Foundation's Food System Vision Prize, For Freedoms' 50 State Initiative, Hunter College's Global Storytelling Initiative, and the University of Florida's College of the Arts.

    What connects all of it is not subject matter but method: an artist's attentiveness to systems, a researcher's rigor to diagnosis, and a strategist's discipline to execution.

  • Sinclair Futures (2019-2025)

    Co-Founder & Creative Strategist

    Sinclair Futures is a multidisciplinary creative consultancy that bridges the gap between imagination and impact. As a family creative practice, Kamal and Robert Sinclair served as strategic partners to foundations, universities, and cultural institutions, helping organizations envision and build more equitable, innovative futures.

    Sinclair Futures operated at the intersection of creativity and social change, offering a holistic approach that encompasses:

    • Making: Developing tangible creative solutions and prototypes

    • Writing: Crafting narratives and strategic communication

    • Movement: Facilitating embodied experiences and community engagement

    • Ideation: Generating visionary concepts for collective futures

    Their work spans several key domains where technology, culture, and social impact converge:

    • Emerging Technologies & Media: Consulting on immersive storytelling, AI applications in the arts, and digital transformation strategies for cultural institutions.

    • Democratic Engagement & Social Justice: Supporting initiatives that strengthen democratic participation and advance social equity through creative interventions.

    • Arts & Culture Strategy: Advising on digital initiatives, community engagement, and innovative programming for major cultural organizations.

    • Educational Innovation: Partnering with universities to develop forward-thinking curricula and collaborative learning environments.

    • Inclusive Futures Planning: Helping organizations imagine and implement more inclusive approaches to technology, media, and cultural programming.

    Through their diverse client relationships, Sinclair Futures demonstrates a unique ability to translate visionary thinking into practical strategies that serve the public good, making them a vital connector between the worlds of art, technology, education, and social change.

    Distinguished Client Portfolio

    • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, contributor to the Democratizing the Imagination of our Future report. 

    • The Music Center, Los Angeles, Digital Initiative Consultant. 

    • MacArthur Foundation, External Advisor. Working to strengthen American democracy by informing, engaging, and activating Americans through deep investments in independent journalism and media

    • New York University, Emerging Media Consultant. Consultant to the Dean of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts on the strategic planning for the Future Imagination Collaboratory and Fund.

    • Johns Hopkins University,  Emerging Media Consultant. Consulted the Immersive Storytelling & Emerging Technology Center on applying the recommendations of MakingANewReality.org

    • For Freedoms, Community Engagement & Website Strategy Consultant. Advised the For Freedoms team on community engagement strategies and website design for 50 State Initiative

    • Future of Culture Initiative, Senior Consultant to Sundance Institute for their partnership with Stanford University & Johns Hopkins University to support artists pushing the boundaries of technology and culture. 

    • University of Florida (College of the Arts), AI & Art Symposium - Program Designer & Facilitator

    • Hunter College, Consultant - Global Storytelling Initiative

    • Georgia State University (CMII) Inclusive Media Futures 

    • Culture Source, Curriculum development and design consultant. Workshop presenter - Adapting to Digital Tech in the Arts course.

    • Dot Connector, research and publication advisor, outreach consultant.

  • Strategic Arts Consulting (2008 –2011)

    Principal Consultant. Served a number of clients, including The Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, The High Museum of Arts, Young Audiences, Alliance Theater, Savannah College of Art and Design, Fractured Atlas, Hank Willis Thomas, One Mann Entertainment, Southern K Ranch and more. Areas of focus include entrepreneurship/management training, market analysis, competitive analysis, industry analysis, strategic planning, business plan development, and program launch management. National Black Arts Festival Gala 2009 & 2008 (Artistic Director)

  • Ford Foundation

    Emerging Media Consultant, JustFilms Program | 2016-2018

    Led landmark 18-month research initiative investigating the definition, scope, and scale of the emerging media through the lens of equity and representation in emerging media. Conducted 100+ stakeholder interviews and analyzed 1,000+ industry articles and academic papers.

    Key Outcomes:

    • Published a landmark series of articles, with collaborator Jessica Clark, called Making a New Reality. 

    • 25,000+ downloads across multiple platforms

    • Published derivative and supplemental articles on platforms such as the World Economic Forum’s blog weforum.org. 

    • Sparked 4-year speaking tour reaching 100,000+ industry professionals

    • Presented research as a speaker and panelist at convenings such as the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions, Ford Foundation’s Emerging Media Summit, The i-Docs Symposium, MIF’s Media Impact Forum, Women Moving Millions, CPH:Dox, Facebook’s Women@Oculus Speakers Series, Women in VR @ Altspace, XR for Change and more. 

    • Influenced policy at major tech companies and cultural institutions

Cultural Steward

  • Sinclair has long understood that artists need ecosystems, not just opportunities, and her stewardship work is the sustained expression of that belief. Earlier in her career she served as Artistic Director for the National Black Arts Festival Gala in 2008 and 2009, producing major public celebrations of Black creative life.

    Her stewardship work is most visible today in Understory Arts, a land-rooted creative initiative she is developing in Altadena, California, built in direct response to the fires that have devastated that community. Grounded in principles of wellness, ecological stewardship, and intergenerational exchange, Understory Arts offers artists space, time, and resources. The aim is to create genuine support for the slow, necessary work of making.

    The name signals her philosophy: the understory is what grows beneath the canopy, often overlooked, always essential.

    This impulse has also expressed itself through an extensive history of board and advisory service. She has served on the boards of Eyebeam, Hammonds House, Fractured Atlas, and the Children's Theater Company of NYC, and as an advisor to MIT's Center for Advanced Virtuality, For Freedoms, Civic Signals, the New Museum's ONX Studio, Dark Laboratory at Cornell, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.

    She served as a juror for the Peabody Awards Interactive Board and for grant panels at the NEA and the NSF, the Knight Foundation, Black Public Media, and the Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award.

    • MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality - Advisory Board, 2018 - Current

    • Children’s Mental Health Resource Center, 2022 - Current

    • Afrofuturist Resource Group (PopCulture Collaborative Initiative), 2022 - 2024

    • Advisor to the Dean of the University of Florida’s College of Arts, 2022 - 2023

    • Civic Signals - Advisor, 2019 - 2023

    • Starfish Accelerator - Advisor, 2019 - 2023

    • Eyebeam Board of Directors, 2021 - 2023

    • New Museum of Contemporary Art (ONX Initiative) - Advisor, 2019 - 2023

    • Dark Laboratory @ Cornell University - Advisor, 2020 - 2022

    • Immerse News Editorial Board, 2016 - 2019

    • University of Nebraska-Lincoln Advisory Board - The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts’, 2016 - 2018

    • Hammonds House - Board of Directors, 2011 - 2012

    • Atlanta Celebrates Photography, 2011

    • Alvin Ailey Ambassador (Atlanta), 2008 - 2011

    • Collective Renaissance Guild (Executive Committee Member), 2008 - 2009

    • National Black Arts Festival Gala (Artistic Director), 2006 - 2007

    • Fractured Atlas, 2000 - 2006

    • Children’s Theater Company of NYC, 1999 - 2001

    • The Gallery Group, 1998 - 1999

    • Immersive Arts UK, 2025

    • National Science Foundation, panelist for the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) grants program. Dec 2024

    • The Peabody Award Interactive Juror, 2019 - 2024

    • 2019 The Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award (Juror), Oct 2019

    • National Endowment for the Arts, Media Arts: FY 2020 Grants Panelist, Jun 2019

    • Black Public Media's PITCH Black (Juror), Apr 2019

    • The Knight Foundation immersive technology in the arts fund (Juror), 2019

    • 2016 MCKNIGHT MEDIA ARTIST FELLOWS (Selection Committee), 2016

    • Future of Storytelling Summit (Juror), Oct 2015

    • NEA Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works: FY 2016 (Grants Panelist), Jun 2015

Educator

  • Teaching has never been peripheral to Sinclair's practice, it has been the place where her ideas get tested against the next generation. Her earliest formal teaching came as a teaching artist through the Henry Street Settlement in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, but her higher learning work began at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she developed and taught courses in entrepreneurship in the arts.

    In 2022 she joined USC's School of Cinematic Arts Media Arts + Practice as an Adjunct Professor, developing and teaching an original graduate and postgraduate course titled "Making the Future: The Art & Practice of Creative Foresight." The course drew on her decades of work at the intersection of emerging technology, cultural strategy, and artistic practice, offering students methodologies for imagining and navigating futures.

    Previously, she developed a curriculum for Questions Bridge: Black Males that was utilized by the Brooklyn Museum’s Education Program,

    Beyond formal appointments, her influence in academic spaces has been substantial and sustained. She has delivered guest lectures and participated in residencies at Brown University, Stanford, MIT's Open Documentary Lab, the USC Worldbuilding Institute, Indiana University, Carnegie Mellon's Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Barnard College's Athena Center for Leadership, and the Chicago Theological Seminary.

    She served as a consultant to NYU Tisch on strategic planning for the Future Imagination Collaboratory and to Georgia State University's CMII on inclusive media futures.

    Her research has been incorporated into curricula at USC and NYU without her direct involvement, a measure of the kind of intellectual influence that travels further than any single classroom.

  • USC School of Cinematic Arts | Adjunct Professor (2022)

    Course: "Making the Future: The Art & Practice of Creative Foresight" Graduate and Postgraduate students

    Savannah College of Art and Design  | Community Outreach Program Instructor  (2009)

    Courses:  Entrepreneurship in the Arts; The Art of Self-Promotion 

    • Brown University - Choreographic Research Interfaces, 2018

    • Stanford HAI Congressional Boot Camp on Artificial Intelligence, August 2022

    • Indiana University O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs - Center for Cultural Affairs AEI Lab Symposium, July 2022

    • MIT’s Open Documentary Lab The New Reality Convening  (Panelist), Oct 2014

    • USC Worldbuilding Institute - Future Cities (Invited Participant), Feb 2017

    • MIT Co-Creation Studios Collective Wisdom Symposium (Panelist), Sep 2018

    • Sylvia and David Steiner Speaker Series and the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, Mar 2019

    • AI & The Creative Industries CMII Georgia State University (Keynote Speaker), Dec 2019

    • Frank @ University of Florida Center for Public Interest Communications, Feb 2022

    • Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard College, Jan 2021

    • Chicago Theological Seminary - Annual Public Square Lecture, Mar 2021

  • Master of Business Administration | Georgia State University, 2008
    Concentration: Entrepreneurship & Organizational Management | Cum Laude, GPA 3.96

    Bachelor of Fine Arts, Theatre | New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, 1999
    Concentration: Experimental Theater | Cum Laude

    High School Diploma | Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, 1994
    Graduated with Honors