When we heard word of this years MacArthur Fellows this week, we were particularly thrilled to see the name of curator, art historian and professor Dr. Kellie Jones among the list of recognized geniuses .

At 57 years old, Jones has devoted her life to challenging the oversimplified and whitewashed mainstream narratives of art history, incorporating artists of color into the canon and the conversation. In addition to serving as an associate professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, Jones has curated groundbreaking exhibitions including Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 19641980 (2006), Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 19601980 (2011), and Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties (2014).

Through her tireless dedication and work, Jones ushered many pivotal yet under-acknowledged artists into their rightful places in the contemporary art dialogue, and changed the way the African diaspora is seen, taught and remembered. Basically, she is a true queen.

We reached out to Jones to speak more about her past accomplishments and what she plans on doing with her $625,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation: