Ashley Blakeney (born 1990)

ablakeney23@gmail.com | www.ashleyblakeney.com | 203-675-4372

Education

2012    University of Southern California, BA Creative Writing; Photography   

2015   UCLArts and Healing Initiative, Social Emotional Arts Facilitation Certificate

                                                    

Certifications + Leadership Experience

2024 The Heart of Black Leadership, Rockwood Leadership Institute

2022 Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM) Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Certification

2018 National Guild Community Arts Education Leadership Institute

2015 UCLArts & Healing Social Emotional Arts Certified Facilitator

Presentations + Talks 

2024 Schools Not Prisons Podcast - Prototyping the Abolitionist Imagination with Crenshaw Dairy Mart Executive Director, Ashley Blakeney

2024 Abolitionist Sanctuary Podcast - Art and Abolition: Crenshaw Dairy Mart’s Creative Path to Liberation

2023 Visions2030 Armchair Talk: On Abolition and Healing with Crenshaw Dairy Mart at Cal Arts

2023 Southern California Grantmakers 2023 Policy Conference: Freedom Dreaming: How to Change Narratives and Culture for Reparations

2023 Art as Abolition: Ashley Blakeney & Autumn Breon - Firs Things First with Dominque Diprima KBLA 1580

2023 Liberation Ventures Panel - Reparations, Abolition, Liberations: What We Need in this Moment to Win

2022, 2023, 2024 The Getty Foundation Internship Arts Summit - Featured Panelist 

2019 Agents of Change: How Youth Living with Cancer Utilize Photography for Healing and Advocacy,  presentation for National Art Education Association Conference, Boston, MA. March 2019.  

Selected Exhibitions and Performances

2024 Sanctuaries of Self: Protection as Healing, co-choreographer and performer alongside Patrisse Cullors, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Los Angeles, CA 

2023    Yes on R! Yes on J! Shut Down MCJ, Long Beach, CA, Group Exhibition by Crenshaw Dairy Mart 

2023 Ori Whispers, performer in Patrisse Cullors performance in partnership with The House Was Too Small Exibtion, Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2014 Disparate: An Exploration of Black as Other, Pieter Performance Space, Los Angeles, CA, Solo Installation


Residencies

2023 Denniston Hill Residency alongside Crenshaw Dairy Mart co-founders 


Selected Press

The Good Trade

KCRW

Hyperallergic Film Festival

LA2050 Fab Five

TimeOut 

KBLA Art & Abolition Radio Interview 

Hyperallergic Fellowship Article



Employment

2021 - Present   Executive Director, Crenshaw Dairy Mart (Los Angeles, CA)

2016 - 2021       Senior Program Manager, The Pablove Foundation (Los Angeles, CA)

2015 - 2016 Foundations of Leadership Teacher, 10th Grade, Achievement First Amistad High School    (New Haven, CT)