Aki Carpenter
Vice President and Chief Creative Officer
Ralph Appelbaum Associates
Aki Carpenter is vice president and chief creative officer at Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), a multidisciplinary firm specialising in the planning and design of museums, exhibits, educational environments and visitor attractions. Carpenter has opened more than 10 award-winning museums and cultural institutions across the world.
Her work at RAA includes leading the exhibition design for the museum at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Museum of Chinese in America in New York City, the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and the first phase of the Museum of Civil Rights in Harlem, New York.
Carpenter’s projects include the creative direction for the exhibition design for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. She is looking to advance social justice within the museum sector and believes that a visitor experience is most memorable when the design is inspired by the story. Her work aims to tell some of the most important stories throughout history and addresses topics of social justice, activism and community.
Many of the firm’s projects deal with difficult subject matter. Speaking to blooloop in 2025 about how this makes it even more important to ensure authenticity, she said:
“One of the only ways to do that is by empowering communities to be part of the process, sharing their voices, and ensuring we tell their stories in ways that are not only dynamic but also honest."
She collaborates with curators, scholars, directors, and executives to create experiences that inspire and connect audiences. Carpenter has previously provided art direction for Hawaii’s Bishop Museum, the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Mandela Day installation at New York’s Grand Central Terminal. All of these have won major design awards.
Carpenter is the co-founder of the BIPOC Directors Collective, an initiative by directors of colour for fellow and future directors of colour. She strives to develop young designers of colour and female-identifying leaders. She is also a founding member and the creative director for Ripple Effect, a New Orleans-based environmental education start-up company dedicated to K-12 education on socio-ecological issues of climate change.
