Celeste C. Smith is a cultural strategist, thought leader, and community-rooted creative with her finger firmly on the pulse of racial justice and cultural transformation. A celebrated nonprofit leader, artist, and co-founder of 1Hood Media, she has spent her career building infrastructure where Black art, voice, and resistance are not only valued — they are centered.
A 2018 SXSW Community Service Award honoree, Celeste brings decades of experience across the nonprofit, arts, and philanthropic sectors. She has held leadership roles, including Senior Program Manager for Arts and Culture at The Pittsburgh Foundation, where she advanced racial equity in funding practices and co-designed systems to support individual artists and grassroots collectives. She also managed the career of Pittsburgh-based hip hop artist Jasiri X, extending her impact into artist development and music as movement work.
Celeste’s leadership has shaped regional and national conversations on equity in the arts. She has served on the Heinz Endowments’ Transformative Arts Process Advisory Board, the Pittsburgh Symphony Community Advisory Council, and the Equity in Arts Funding Research Committee for the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. She was appointed co-chair of Grantmakers in the Arts’ Support for Individual Artists Committee and served on the Americans for the Arts Education Network Advisory Council. Her insight has been regularly sought after by conferences, panels, and arts organizations across the country.
A graduate of Chatham University, Celeste continues to uplift her creative voice through writing and performance. She recently appeared in Tender, a nationally recognized Black literary anthology edited by Vanessa German and Deesha Philyaw. Whether through grantmaking, grassroots organizing, or art-making, Celeste moves with a clear intention: to build liberated communities through truth, culture, and collective power.
