The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) Celebrates Ten Years of the Emerging Artists Program and Announces the Awardees for 2025-2026

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(MoAD) is pleased to announce Bay Area artists Jasmine Ross, Demetri Broxton, Dorian Reid, and Tahirah Rasheed as the 10th cohort of MoAD’s annual Emerging Artists Program (EAP) for 2025-2026. The 2025-2026 awardees were selected from hundreds of applicants, who will present single artist shows at MoAD from spring 2026 through early 2027. Each of these exhibitions are centered in MoAD’s continued mission to place art of the African Diaspora at the center of the global cultural conversation.

The EAP reflects MoAD’s commitment to supporting, exhibiting, and amplifying the work of Black artists living and working in the Bay Area. As a leading contemporary art museum focused on the global African Diaspora, MoAD is proud to incubate innovative practices and foster long-term artistic growth.

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Generous Support Provided By Bernard Osher Foundation, Karen Jenkins-Johnson and Kevin Johnson, Robina Riccitiello and the Westridge Foundation

First Exhibition Opens March 18th: Jasmine Ross, Beauty Plus

Jasmine Ross is a multi-media artist based in Oakland, California, and a recent graduate ofYale College, where she earned a B.A. in Ethics,Politics, and Economics, and Art. Her fine-arts documentary photography explores themes of identity politics, intergenerational memory, and fictive kinship, reflecting her perspective as a bi-racial Black woman. Working primarily with large format cameras,Ross embraces the slow, deliberate nature of analog image-making. Her practice grounds itself in honoring community-builders, and ensuring their contributions are acknowledged within their lifetimes. Her work has been featured in the L.A. Times and exhibitions such as Tell It Slant at the Yale School of Art.

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About the Exhibition

Beauty Plus commemorates the closure of the 31 year-old, second Black-owned beauty supply in New Haven, Connecticut. Over three months, Ross documented the store?s final days with her 4 x 5 film camera, honoring owner Mel, while revealing a layered narrative of small business ownership, communal care, and Black survival. Though these spaces provide empowerment and access, they also reflect the commodification of Black bodies, highlighting the tension between liberation and dependency. Brands like Motions and Posner, though not Black-owned, similarly shaped Black beauty rituals, demonstrating the complicated economics of cultural identity: affirmed, yet often monetized and challenged by outsiders.

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Tickets to visit MoAD and view the exhibitions:

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