Angela Agard Solomon is joining the Clemson Area African American Museum after spending two decades at the New York Transit Museum, one of the largest urban transportation museums in North America. In her role as a Senior Museum Administrator, she managed human resources and strategic planning, provided comprehensive budget oversight and was involved in fundraising activities.

 

Angela is passionate about the African American Cultural Heritage and the significant role it plays in our society. Becoming the founding Director of the Clemson Area African American Museum will allow her to combine her museum management and community development skills with her love for African American Culture.

 

Reared on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Angela was privileged to experience the rich and diverse neighborhoods and cultures that living in NYC provided. At an early age she had a profound interest in learning more about her Caribbean African American heritage. She spent time in St. Lucia, the home of her paternal family and learned about St. Lucian history, culture, food and language. A visit to the African American Museum in Hempstead, NY sparked a desire to explore and understand her maternal South Carolinian roots. This commitment to learning and understanding the past has been a hallmark of her adult life and the African American Museum in Hempstead became a second home. In fact, just recently, she volunteered to collect oral histories of African Americans experiences on Long Island during the Covid-19 pandemic to preserve their stories for future generations.

 

As a member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, she has been managing the food pantry to provide nutritional assistance to food insecure families on Long Island. She served eleven years on the Board of Directors of the Amityville Public Library. And in 2001, she was instrumental in a renovation of the library that helped usher in the digital age.

 

Angela received her master's in Public Policy and Administration from The Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and her undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Black Studies from the State University of New York College at New Paltz. She is certified by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM-SCP).

 

She has been married to her best friend Ovril Solomon for more than twenty years. They have three children Amire, Seitu and Tunisia. Ovril and their children are all musicians who incorporate the steelpan in their work.