Karen Gillenwater first started working at the Speed Art Museum in the early 2000s. After some time away from the museum, she came back to further the Speed’s mission: “to invite everyone to celebrate art forever.”

“I really felt a draw to move back to focusing on education and connecting with communities, and saw the positive changes happening at the Speed through a lot of the transparency and community work and just reinvention of a lot of programming,” she said.

In her role as director of Learning, Engagement and Belonging (LEB) over the past three years, Gillenwater and her team served nearly 20,000 people across programming for marginalized communities, Kentuckiana schools of all levels and adult artists.

All their programming came to an abrupt halt this month when the Speed announ

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