Dr. Raymond Codrington is the new chief executive officer of Weeksville Heritage Center (WHC) in Brooklyn, the board of trustees announced last week.
Codrington will lead WHC’s management, programs, and partnerships and steward the institution in its strategic vision to promote Black history and culture while advancing self-determination, creativity, activism, and entrepreneurship in communities across the country. He succeeds Rob Fields and began his position at WHC on April 19.
Codrington joins WHC from Hi-ARTS in East Harlem, an organization within the urban arts movement, where he has served as executive director since 2015. At Hi-ARTS, he expanded the organization, diversified its donor community, and oversaw notable partnerships with local and national cultural organizations.
Weeksville is a historic site in Central Brooklyn that was once one of the largest free-African American pre-Civil War communities in the U.S. Weeksville engages a community of residents, artists, and activists through exhibitions, tours, and educational programs developed to highlight the often-excluded histories of post-Civil War Black life.