Approaching the galleries for The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, one may hear the exhibition before seeing any art at all. It could be the thump of J Dilla’s loose beats or McCoy Tyner’s twinkling melodies cascading like mist upon East Building. These sounds and many more are featured on a playlist designed to enhance the environmental experience of the exhibition, reflecting the themes of the show’s works in sonic form. So, who gets to decide what The Time Is Always Now sounds like? Meet Kiahana Toomer, the NCMA’s Exhibition Lighting Designer and AV Tech.
Early in April I spoke with Toomer about her work on the playlist and the impact music has on our interactions with the visual arts.
Music has always played a formative role in Toomer’s professional development and personal identity. Trained in the theater, she honed her craft by lighting the elaborate sets and expressive performers of musicals. On her resume she lists, “Can make a party playlist in under 30 seconds” as one of her special skills. At any given time, she can be found carrying around “a Bluetooth speaker and a dream.”
When Mary Wolff, chief exhibition designer, began fielding ideas for an audio component of The Time Is Always Now, Toomer was quick to suggest a playlist. She cobbled together a four-hour set of tracks and excitedly pitched it to Linda Dougherty and Maya Brooks, the exhibition’s curators at the NCMA. They loved the concept and commissioned Toomer to make a playlist long enough to loop in the galleries during public Museum hours.
Toomer took her time with this second draft. Despite her aversion to Excel, she created a spreadsheet of the artists included in The Time Is Always Now, noting the guiding principles of their practices. Although all of the artists included in the exhibition are based in the US or UK, Toomer researched their pre-Diasporic heritages and used her findings to highlight the diversity of genres represented in contemporary and traditional African music.
“Yes, [Black people] are American and British,” Toomer said, “but we also come from these other places. There’s no way for us to forget that.”
The playlist spans genres, decades, and national borders, demonstrating the powerful experiential links across the African Diaspora reinforced throughout The Time Is Always Now.
“There’s stuff on there from Ghana,” she said. “There’s stuff from Detroit, LA, Zimbabwe … I utilized the resources at my disposal, like music-streaming services, books, and social media, to explore a breadth of global and regional sounds.”
Toomer also selected songs to coincide with the three central themes of the exhibition—explained in a video featuring guest curator Ekow Eshun—offering visitors another way to spark discussion around the artworks.
“You’re thinking about what you’re seeing and what you’re hearing in relation to one another,” she said. “The music adds a sort of patience back to the process of looking. If you like the music, you may linger longer. And if you linger longer, you may end up looking at the work longer.”
This hoped-for response embodies the aim of what Toomer calls “decoration,” or the final touches of an exhibition that inspire meaningful engagement with artworks. “As lighting decorates space,” she said, “music decorates time. So, why not decorate the time we spend in the gallery?”
Most of all, Toomer hopes to decorate an atmosphere that “the average Black American can find home in,” no matter their taste in music.
“Black people are not a monolith,” she said. “So, I included stuff for the old heads, the new heads, the weirdos, the pop girlies, and everyone in between.”
When asked whether she would be interested in creating playlists for future exhibitions, Toomer said she remains open to the idea but realizes that not all shows will benefit from the presence of music. Nevertheless, she has already thought about what the next three exhibitions would sound like.
Be sure to experience the interplay of music and visual art for yourself by visiting The Time Is Always Now, on view through June 29, 2025.
Decorating Time: Music and The Time Is Always Now
Kiahana Toomer, the NCMA's Exhibition Lighting Designer, discusses how her playlist for The Time is Always Now embodies the exhibition's ...
The Time Is Always Now at the NCMA
This exhibition, on view through June 29, 2025, celebrates the breathtaking figurative work of contemporary Black artists.
What an Egyptologist Learned by Curating a Samurai Exhibition
Hear from Caroline Rocheleau, the NCMA's Curator of Ancient Collections, on what inspired her research of Japan's warrior class. ...