# nikhil trivedi

> nikhil trivedi is the Director of Web Engineering at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he has spent nearly two decades building open-source museum technology while simultaneously championing anti-oppression frameworks in cultural institutions. His tagline - 'Museums. Technology. Social Justice.' - is not a brand, it is a practice: he co-created Visitors of Color, contributed to the MASS Action Toolkit, received a UN Women Gender Equality Award, and built a public data API that connects AIC's collection to historical records of the transatlantic slave trade. A Desi Chicagoan, sitar player, and former high school band member, he codes in PHP by day and runs his own Mastodon instance by night.

- **Role:** Director of Web Engineering at Art Institute of Chicago
- **Organizations:** Art Institute of Chicago, MASS Action (Museum As Site for Social Action), The Incluseum, Museums & Race, Rape Victim Advocates (Resilience), Chicago Desi Youth Rising, Getty Publications (GitHub org)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Human-Computer Interaction, DePaul University
- **Known for:** Inaugural Gender Equality Award, UN Women Chicago Chapter (2016), Education & Training Volunteer of the Year, Rape Victim Advocates (2016) - for 75+ hours of sexual assault training, Jeff Citation Award for Original Incidental Music - sitar composition 'Masrayana' (2006)

## Career timeline

- **1994-1998** — Graphic Designer at Ty, Inc.
- **2000-2005** — Senior Systems Analyst at Globalcom
- **2006** — Joined the Art Institute of Chicago as Senior System Analyst / Web Architect
- **2006** — Won Jeff Citation Award for Original Incidental Music (sitar composition 'Masrayana')
- **2013** — Built 'Where My Clothes Were Made' - interactive garment supply chain map in response to Bangladesh factory collapse
- **2015** — Co-created 'Visitors of Color' Tumblr with Dr. Porchia Moore, documenting perspectives of marginalized museum visitors
- **2015** — Delivered Ignite talk 'Towards an Anti-Oppression Museum Manifesto' at MCN 2015
- **2016** — Built D3.js visualization correlating AIC African collections with transatlantic slave trade records
- **2016** — Received inaugural Gender Equality Award from UN Women Chicago Chapter
- **2016** — Received Education & Training Volunteer of the Year from Rape Victim Advocates
- **2017** — Contributed collections chapter to MASS Action Toolkit
- **2018** — Major AIC website redesign - consolidated 8 systems, archived 100+ microsites
- **2018** — Co-authored 'Facing Sexual Harassment and Abuse in the Feminizing Museum' in Journal of Museum Education
- **2019** — Promoted to Director of Web Engineering at Art Institute of Chicago
- **2019** — Presented AIC Data Hub Public API at MCN 2019 and 4DMethod community

## Achievements

- Inaugural Gender Equality Award, UN Women Chicago Chapter (2016)
- Education & Training Volunteer of the Year, Rape Victim Advocates (2016) - for 75+ hours of sexual assault training
- Jeff Citation Award for Original Incidental Music - sitar composition 'Masrayana' (2006)
- Built AIC's open-source Data Hub API (data-aggregator repo, 86+ GitHub stars) - now the backbone of artic.edu
- Co-created Visitors of Color with Dr. Porchia Moore (2015) - seminal museum diversity project
- Contributed to MASS Action Toolkit (2017) - national museum equity resource
- Built visualization connecting AIC African art collections to transatlantic slave trade data (2016)
- Led AIC website consolidation from 8 systems to one unified platform (2018)
- Speaker at MCN, AlterConf, American Institute for Conservation, Pratt Institute
- MASS Action Project Advisor
- Regular contributor to The Incluseum and Museums & Race

## Latest updates

- **2021-03** — Delivered 'Breaking Barriers' talk at Pratt Institute on racial justice through open data and museum access
- **2019-12** — Promoted to Director of Web Engineering at Art Institute of Chicago
- **2019-11** — Presented AIC Data Hub Public API at MCN 2019 and 4DMethod community with Illya Moskvin

## Links

- Website: https://nikhiltrivedi.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhil-trivedi/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/nikhiltri
- GitHub: https://github.com/nikhiltri
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhiltri/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/nikhil-trivedi
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-25