Amidst his signature verdant backdrops, Kehinde Wiley (previously) situates his subjects in the center of the composition, chins tilted up with regal gazes, enveloped in the grandeur of colorful patterns. The artist is known for monumental portraits in oil that reframe European painting traditions, especially referencing court portraiture in which royal or noble families—almost exclusively white—were portrayed in extravagant dress symbolizing wealth and power. Wiley flips the narrative by positioning historically marginalized Black and Brown figures front and center.

Wiley’s latest body of work titled HAVANA, on view now at Sean Kelly in New York, continues the artist’s interest in the cultures and traditions of the African diaspora. He draws on two separate visits to Cuba, first in 2015 and again in 2022, exploring the carnivalesque phenomenon in Western culture, which manifests in numerous colorful, celebratory events around the world, such as Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Wearing layers of vivid fabric and carrying juggling sticks or instruments, Wiley captures the individuality and creative focus of each person. He says:

The performers are each different—there’s so many different points of view, so many different life experiences, but one thing that unites them all is the very sense that America dominates the economic fortune of Cuba. The relationship between America and Cuba is one that has been fraught with a fascination, a suspicion, an intrigue, and a cultural weight.

Wiley references notable artists like Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, and Alexander Calder, who around the turn of the 20th century explored similar themes. Through portraits of acrobats, dancers, and musicians, Wiley examines the political history, economic hardship, and thirst for artistic freedom in Cuba, focusing on circuses and carnivals as sites of celebration, disruption, and self-expression.

“Portrait of Erika Gray Ferro” (2023), oil on linen, 48 x 36 inches. Photo by Max Yawney

On his first visit to Cuba, Wiley stopped by the Escuela Nacional de Circo, or the National Circus School, to learn about the history of the medium in the country and its national circus, Circuba. Prior to the Cuban Revolution, the nation was home to numerous family-run companies, but today, there is only one. During his second visit, he met with members of Raices Profundas, a group regarded as one of the world’s most authentic performing ensembles in the Yoruba tradition.

Like in many parts of the world, numerous cultural histories intersect in Cuba due to the period of European colonization, which resulted in the forced migration of Indigenous populations and centuries of enslavement of African peoples. Over time, circuses and elaborate street parties became “opportunities for the formerly enslaved to engage in moments of freedom and grace that were generally forbidden,” reads an exhibition statement. “The carnival, Mardi Gras, and street processions were events in which chaos could arise, love could be expressed, and a spiritual embrace of religious traditions could be manifest.”

HAVANA continues at Sean Kelly through June 17, which includes a three-channel film featuring some of the performers. See more from the artist on his website or Instagram, and you might also want to check out Big Chief Demond Melancon’s elaborately beaded Mardi Gras costumes.

“Portrait of Rassiel Alfonso Leonard & Nairobys C. Placeres Riviero” (2023), oil on linen, 108 x 72 inches. Photo by Max Yawney

Left: “Evel Antonio Study” (2023), oil on paper, 44 x 30 inches. Right: “Jorge Gonzales Acosta Study” (2023), oil on paper, 44 x 30 inches. Photos by Adam Reich

“Portrait of Yadiel Arrozaceno Dorticós” (2023), oil on linen, 72 x 60 inches

“Portrait of Anet Arias” (2023), oil on linen, 48 x 36 inches. Photo by Max Yawney

“Portrait of Daniel Paiol López” (2023), oil on linen, 96 x 72 inches. Photo by Max Yawney

Left: “Juan Cabrera Pulido Study” (2023), oil on paper, 45 x 31 inches. Right: “Misahel Hernández Study” (2023), oil on paper, 44 x 30 inches. Photos by Adam Reich

“Portrait of Tony di heon Gonzales & Armando Leon Aquirre” (2023), oil on linen, 108 x 72 inches

“Portrait of Juan Cabrera Pulido & Emilio Hernandez Gonzalez” (2023), oil on linen, 108 x 72 inches

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Cuba and the Carnivalesque Takes Center Stage in Kehinde Wiley’s New Portrait Series ‘HAVANA’ appeared first on Colossal.

By Leila Ugincius

Kennedi Woods used to joke that her favorite holiday was the Met Gala.

She loved shopping and clothes, and TV programs such as “America’s Next Top Model” and red-carpet coverage of award shows offered a look at the latest trends. The annual Met Gala in New York City is considered “fashion’s biggest night out.”

So as Woods embarked on her college journey in 2019, her mother had advised her to pursue a passion so she could build a career, not just “hold jobs.” The choice was clear, and Woods is now graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a fashion degree with a concentration in fashion merchandising, with minors in marketing and art history as well as a certificate in human-centered design from the da Vinci Center for Innovation.

A native of Gainesville in Northern Virginia, Woods was introduced to VCU as a high school sophomore, living in a dorm for three weeks during a summer intensive program at the School of the Arts. She got to work in the studios and with VCUarts professors who uphold the school’s national reputation.

“That experience solidified that VCU and the department here was the right place for me,” said Woods, but “I knew I wanted to go to a bigger university that had more to offer than art programs. When I was comparing cost to value, especially as an in-state resident, VCU was the leader.”

She noted that Rudy Lopez, an assistant professor of fashion design and merchandising who taught the summer intensive program, was later her professor on multiple occasions and made a big impact.

“He is so knowledgeable about the industry and taught the soft skills you need to survive in it. His classes were challenging, but they prepared me for the real world,” Woods said, noting Lopez’s willingness to mentor students outside of class. “He gave me some of the best advice because he has an amazing way of imparting his wisdom in a way that is relatable.”

She also cited the impact of Charles Ajemian, a Richmond-area innovation technologist who taught her Conscious Capitalism course at the da Vinci Center. Woods said she learned how passion can be molded into profit that can then be turned into impact.

“He is one of the kindest, most warm-hearted and brilliant people I’ve ever met,” Woods said. “The course brings everything I’ve learned in undergrad thus far full circle. He is so integrated and invested in the health and well-being of the Richmond community.”

She praised Lopez and Ajemian, both VCU alums, for sharing their passion with new students. “Their commitment and energy both in and out the classroom is something that they can’t ‘teach’ me how to have, but I have been able to learn from through their example.”

Like all of her peers, Woods endured highs and lows related to the pandemic – and in her case, one led to the other.

As part of a fashion class that visited Italy, Woods looked forward to attending Milan Fashion Week, only to have COVID scuttle the plan. So she turned her sights closer to home: New York Fashion Week – and participating in it, not just attending.

She searched LinkedIn for people with ties to NYFW, messaging them for advice to find a production assistant role – it would build on her interest in event or experiential production. Leslie Russo, the president of fashion events and properties for IMG, responded and asked Woods to share her résumé and her availability. Less than two weeks from the start of NYFW, she secured the role.

“During the week, I worked on events such as the Tiffany Brown Foundation brunch and Ella Emhoff Likes to Knit pop-up activation, brand activations for Core Hydration water and Tresemmé, and fashion shows for designers such as Sergio Hudson, Christian Siriano and The Blonds,” Woods said.

New York is beckoning again. After graduating, Woods has an internship there working in production at Anomaly, which was Adweek’s 2022 U.S. Agency of the Year. She hopes it will develop into a full-time position, supporting her long-term plans of becoming an experiential producer.

Even amid her dedicated pursuits, Woods is proud of doing the wide array of things she wanted to do in college while graduating on time.

“I look at the vision boards I’ve created over the years and see the dreams and ideas I had that turned into realities,” she said. “I took classes, like glassblowing, out of pure interest. I was able to use the pandemic as a springboard for exponential growth and perseverance. I met my best friends. I had an article published in the Richmond Times Dispatch. I was able to travel for leisure, school and work. I made connections in New York City — [it was] one of the biggest things I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to do by choosing to go to school in Richmond.

“I learned so much about myself, the fields I’m interested in and life in general while at VCU.”

NEW YORK, May 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) Marketing Cloud’s PRophet, the first and only generative and predictive AI SaaS platform built by and for modern PR professionals, today announced an alliance with LexisNexis®, one of the world’s leading providers of news and business data, information and insights. This strategic alliance with LexisNexis® will further power PRophet’s industry leading AI platform, which collectively boasts access to upwards of 200,000 global news sources from high authority outlets and journalists, including hyper local media, newsletters, trade publications and blogs. The PRophet platform ingests and analyzes millions of news articles daily, using AI-techniques to predict journalist interest and sentiment. Its latest generative AI writing tool, Taylor, then drafts personalized pitches to journalists demonstrating the highest interest in the pitch.

“The current media landscape is complex, fragmented, contracting and dynamically evolving – and client-side expectations are higher than ever. Outdated PR practices are no longer working, and communications pros and clients alike are tired of low open rates, frustrated journalists, wasted time, mis-managed expectations and poor results,” said Aaron Kwittken, founder and CEO of PRophet and CEO of Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s Comms Tech Unit. “Our alliance with LexisNexis furthers our mission to help PR pros become more performative, predictive, and productive Communications Engineers©.”

PRophet also announced the launch of “Powered by PRophet,” a white-labeling option for PR agencies of all sizes. Customers can now customize the PRophet platform to their own specifications and go to market with a unique and differentiated agency-branded platform that combines their own unique value proposition alongside the powerful capabilities of PRophet’s predictive and generative AI capabilities.

“We’re happy to offer this white-labeling option to agencies,” added Kwittken.” As a former agency leader and owner myself, I understand how important it can be to brand, customize and integrate proprietary technology into an agency’s capabilities and bring a new level of innovation and differentiation to clients.”

About PRophet
PRophet is the first-ever generative and predictive AI SaaS platform designed by and for the PR community. The platform uses AI to help modern PR professionals become more performative, productive and predictive by generating, analyzing and testing content that predicts earned media interest and sentiment. PRophet was founded in 2020 by PR and marketing industry thought leader and entrepreneur Aaron Kwittken and is part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, a suite of SaaS solutions that powers research, communications, and media activation for in-house marketers. To learn more, visit prprophet.ai.

About Stagwell Marketing Cloud
Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC) is a suite of data-driven SaaS solutions built for the modern in-house marketer. Born out of Stagwell’s network of award-winning marketing agencies, SMC’s technology empowers marketers to drive business impact by giving them intuitive tools equipped with proprietary, actionable data. SMC’s portfolio of solutions powers strategic customer research, communications, and media activation for brands worldwide by leveraging technology such as generative artificial intelligence, shared augmented reality, and more. Get your head in the cloud at www.stagwellmarketingcloud.com.

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

About LexisNexis Legal & Professional
LexisNexis Legal & Professional® provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers increase their productivity, improve decision-making, achieve better outcomes, and advance the rule of law around the world. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis® and Nexis® services. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 150 countries with 10,500 employees worldwide, is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

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KWT Global
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By Tina Meketa, University Communications and Marketing

As the construction dust clears from the Judy Genshaft Honors College building, its
immaculate design symbolizes the hundreds of talented individuals who brought the
state-of-the-art facility to life. 

Since its groundbreaking in late 2020, nearly 80 businesses have worked on the five story, 85,000-square-foot
building – about half are diverse-owned with an estimated spend on contracts exceeding
$11 million. 

“Our goal was to have 30 percent utilization of diverse-owned firms on the Judy Genshaft
Honors College building. So, the fact that we far exceeded that goal is a great example
of if we work together of what can be done together,” said Terrie Daniel, assistant
vice president of the USF Office of Supplier Diversity.

Woman-owned Level Line Interiors installed the metal framing and drywall, the ensemble
acoustic lobby ceiling – which optimizes sound absorption – and the fiber-reinforced
concrete panels on the building’s interior walls.

“The Honors College was like no other job we have worked on – beautiful and unique
and filled with challenges, which our company thrives on,” said Stephanie Schoenberg,
who owns Level Line Interiors with her husband, Don. “The building’s design, with
all the curved walls, glass openings and multiple wall finishes brought a new challenge
every day, and that was very fulling to see it all come together.”

Founded in 1994, Level Line Interiors has about 20 employees and has secured contracts
to work on other USF projects, such as the Marshall Student Center and Osprey Suites on the USF St. Petersburg campus. 

Diverse-owned Evolve Mechanical Services also worked on Osprey Suites and its dining
hall and installed the HVAC system in the Judy Genshaft Honors College building. Founder
Reggie Clark employs 14 technicians, including a Vietnam War veteran.

Several USF alums are at the core of construction of the new Judy Genshaft Honors
College building, which is funded in part by a $20 million gift from USF President
Emerita and Professor Judy Genshaft and her husband Steve Greenbaum. 

Woman-owned Ceco Concrete Construction poured the concrete foundation, columns, walls,
beams and slabs. District manager Chad Anast has been with the company for more than
15 years and earned his executive Master of Business Administration degree from USF
in 2021. 

“I was very excited to be back on campus working on an iconic project with some of
my former classmates right next to where we went to class,” Anast said.

Cableytics owner Floyd Freeman is also an alum, graduating in 1996 with a degree in
electrical engineering. His team installed public safety Distributed Antenna Systems
throughout the Judy Genshaft Honors College building, which boosts police and fire
radios. The diverse-owned business landed the contract while participating in the
USF Mentor Protégé Program – developed in partnership with Skanska to support the Tampa Bay region’s diverse-owned
small businesses in the construction industry. 

The USF Office of Supplier Diversity will soon welcome its third cohort for the mentor
program. Participants will be selected based on recommendations from community partners,
such as the Hillsborough County NAACP, Prospera, the Women’s Business Enterprise Council
Florida, Inclusive St. Pete and the Manasota Black Chamber of Commerce. 

Applications will be accepted May 15-June 16 with the next class beginning in August.
You can register here to learn more about how to sign up for the program and receive notifications about
future Office of Supplier Diversity events or USF purchasing opportunities.

The Gist

• Market limitations. Focusing solely on demand generation leaves businesses open to a smaller portion of the market, neglecting the importance of building brand awareness.
• Gumball mentality. The dangerous mindset of expecting immediate leads from marketing campaigns overlooks the value of long-term brand building and awareness efforts.
• Brand revival. To achieve a balance between brand and demand, marketers must invest in comprehensive branding strategies, appeal to buyers’ emotions, and modernize content and measurement approaches.

Recently, most of the marketers I’ve spoken with feel like none of their tactics are working like they used to. There are multiple reasons for this, including the macroeconomy and buyer indifference to traditional tactics, but I believe one of the main reasons is that the demand gen model we’ve collectively built over the last 15 years has been prioritized at the expense of (more traditional) brand building. 

When you look at it from an aerial perspective, it’s clear how this happened. Marketers were told to drive revenue, then held accountable to their performance (or lack thereof). This was a good thing, but as a side effect the industry became hell-bent on leads measurement above all else and, as a result, lost the art of building the larger brand. 

This might not seem like a big deal, but I assure you it is. In fact, every aspect of your go-to-market, from pipeline creation to win rates to retention and more, will either be strengthened or weakened based on the caliber of your brand. So, how do you get back to the right balance of brand and demand? Here’s my take.

Realize That Demand-Only Limits Your Market 

A significant part of the problem with the demand-only approach is that it leaves you open to a very small portion of the market. When you’re not building brand awareness about the problem in your category, you’ll forever be stuck with the small pool of your market that happens to be actively in-market for your solution right now. But guess what? That’s the exact same pool of accounts that your competitors are also fighting over. 

Instead, think about expanding your market. By speaking to accounts that aren’t in-market at the moment, and then educating them about the problems you solve, you open up a much broader pool of prospects. This is especially important given the fact that today is the age of the anonymous self-service buyer. When potential customers aren’t downloading your e-books like they used to or flocking to other highly measurable tactics that were previously popular, you need to rely on more of the softer, less easy-to-measure brand activities to bolster your progress. 

Related Article: 3 Ways to Generate Millions of Free Brand Awareness Impressions

Get Rid of the Gumball Machine Mentality

Over time, executives from CEOs to CFOs and beyond have come to think of marketing like a gumball machine. You put a quarter in, you get a gumball. You put a campaign in, you get pipeline. This is a dangerous mindset to have since it prioritizes marketing that is measurable over marketing that is hard(er) to measure but more effective in the long-run.

If your entire focus is on executing the campaigns that will result in immediate leads, you’re going to miss the ancillary factors that amplify the results of your lead-gen efforts, namely, brand building and awareness. In other words, without good brand support, even the greatest demand gen programs will struggle to hit their goals. For example, a study from Comscore showed US Internet users are 49% more likely to visit an advertiser’s site if they have previously been exposed to display ads, and research at University of California, San Diego by Hoban and Bucklin found that exposure to advertising increased visits to the firm’s website up to 74.7% for previous nonvisitors. Put simply, investing in your brand equals better demand gen ROI. 

Related Article: 3 Ways to Generate Millions of Free Brand Awareness Impressions

Bringing Brand Back

The next logical question is how to get back to building your brand and awareness while not losing ground with your demand activities. But first, what is a brand? There are many definitions but my favorite is the one that says, “brand is what people say about your company when you’re not in the room.” And brands are built by the sum of every interaction a consumer has with your company.

With this in mind, here are the steps I recommend for making brand once again a focal point:

• Recognize the scope of “brand.” It’s more than your logos, messaging and position. It’s also not a “set and forget” activity. It’s an always-on, comprehensive strategy that requires intentional action and investment. 
• Appeal to buyers’ reptilian brains. B2B buyers are people. People are emotional. And the fact that B2B buyers have emotions means that no matter how disciplined a buying process is, they will use emotionally driven heuristics to simplify complex decisions. In fact, whether the buyer realizes it or not, the decision is often made long before the buying process is completed. And when this happens, even subconsciously, much of the buying process ends up being an effort to justify the initial emotional decision. This is where branding comes in because brands inherently operate on an emotional level by stimulating the amygdala portion of the brain (part of the reptilian limbic system). 
• Make the investments. 
  • You and your executive team must commit marketing program dollars to messaging and positioning in the marketplace, even though it’s harder to measure. If you’re struggling to get buy-in, learn about how to set and defend your marketing budget and ROI with this updated mindset. 
  • It’s also essential to invest in your customers and advocates. They’re the ones who can go out into the world (even into “dark,” private communities where users are anonymous) and evangelize on your brand’s behalf. 
• Modernize your content strategy. Yes, you need content marketing but no, you can’t just gate e-books like we used to. Today, compelling thought leadership requires sharing insights that help your buyers perform better in their roles through accessible reports and guidance, not held behind gates. If you want to see masterful execution of this, take a look at Gong Labs. 
• Change how you think about measurement. Branding works by creating patterns of associations that have emotional force and, therefore, influence purchasing behavior, often unconsciously. This means that a large part of the impact is unconscious, making it harder to explain and measure how and why it works. The goal is not about getting a person to click, or download your e-book, or any of the traditional calls to action. Success means dropping traditional B2B demand generation metrics such as cost-per-click and cost-per-lead. The goal is better engagement over time, which can be measured using “test and control” groups (accounts exposed to your ads versus accounts not exposed).

When you realize that brand is just as important as demand, you’re already on your way to improving your initiatives and bolstering your results. Getting this right is crucial to your success. It’s a balancing act, but it’ll be worth the time and effort it will take to get others on board.

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About the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts has been a leader in the education of artists, designers, and creative professionals for seven decades. With a faculty of distinguished working professionals, a dynamic curriculum, and an emphasis on critical thinking, SVA is a catalyst for innovation and social responsibility. Comprising 6,000 students at its Manhattan campus and 35,000 alumni in 100 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. For information about the college, please visit sva.edu.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article SVA Continuing Education Offers Summer Courses, Workshops, and Artist Residencies appeared first on Colossal.

London’s art-fair scene has suffered some high-profile casualties this year, but Nazy Vassegh, founder of the up-and-coming Eye of the Collector event, believes she has a recipe for reinvention. While the fallout from Brexit and reduced global travel during the pandemic prompted both Masterpiece and the summer Olympia Art & Antiques Fair to call it a day, Vassegh, a former chief executive of Masterpiece, believes there is still plenty of appetite for a more intimate event in the city.

“I started with the concept of enjoyment, discovery and rediscovery, but it was time to move away from aisles, booths and tents,” she says, revealing a flair for the soft sell. Her event — which she has never called a fair but seems comfortable that everyone else does — instead puts the art directly on the wood-panelled walls and floors of the 19th-century Two Temple Place in central London. “It is an imagined collector’s house. Art collectors don’t have an Old Masters room and a contemporary room. They mix it up. They have some serious works and they have some eclectic pieces,” she says. Among the established and emerging artists on view in this year’s Eye of the Collector, whose third edition runs May 18-20, are Barbara Hepworth (Alan Wheatley Art), Henri Cartier-Bresson (Peter Fetterman Gallery) and Antony Micallef (Dellasposa Gallery).

Vassegh works with a relatively small number of galleries who supply their art for her to hang — just 21 bringing about 160 works this year. The smaller size protects Vassegh from some of the variables that the larger fairs face, especially now that exhibitors are less committed to doing the same events every year. “Brexit is a problem for all of us involved in art. There’s more red tape, it’s complicated and costly to ship things. We have fewer international galleries this year, but we have a waiting list because we’re small. We are very nimble. I don’t need 150 galleries to sustain this model,” she says.

The size of the event makes choosing its works more manageable for Vassegh, an experienced adviser who personally picks each artist, supported by a curatorial committee. When it comes to vetting works for authenticity and origin, “We work closely with our select galleries to ensure all works are accompanied with full provenance and cataloguing from an early stage.”

Vassegh still champions the bigger fairs. “They are incredibly important in educating, especially in new markets,” she says. But she adds, “London isn’t a new market. The days when locals would go to a fair to learn a bit about art and have fun are gone.”

A determined self-starter, Tehran-born Vassegh attributes her focus and adaptability to her upbringing. “I left Iran when I was nine, the year before the [1979] revolution. My father could see that the country was changing and also thought I should have more exposure than just him and my grandmother [she lived with them]. So he took me to Los Angeles — we called it Tehrangeles — to live with my uncle and his family for a year.”

Vassegh then went to boarding school in the UK, at which point her father gave her the choice of going back to Iran or moving to London to live with her mother. “Not many 10-year old girls with Iranian fathers get to make that sort of decision. And once I did decide to stay in the UK, I was 100 per cent into it because it was my choice. That taught me a lot.”

Before setting up as an art adviser in 2010, Vassegh was at Sotheby’s for 19 years, latterly as managing director of its Impressionist and Modern art department. The idea for Eye of the Collector came to her when visiting the Venice Biennale in 2019, she says, and reflects her ambitious instincts. “I knew that collectors were suffering from fair fatigue and had been thinking about how to do something different. Then I went into a palazzo and realised, ‘I want this.’”

The gallerist Tanya Baxter says that Vassegh has hit the spot. “Some art fairs can be too overwhelming to focus, but I saw some serious collectors there last year, with the intention of buying something extraordinary. Nazy’s curation allows them to have a closer relationship with the art.” Baxter brings work by several established artists, including Bridget Riley, William Scott and Antony Gormley, to Eye of the Collector this year.

The event has faced some criticism — that it is too light, too easy on the eye for the high-minded art crowd. Vassegh’s marketing style, which makes good use of Instagram and her own glamorous appearance, adds to a sense of superficiality among some.

She counters with conviction. “I don’t need to apologise for presenting art in a beautiful setting,” she says. “It’s not fluff. There is still connoisseurship. Collectors and art lovers enjoy Eye and the most important thing is that it is a commercial success [for the galleries].”

Another measure of success, she says, is that about 60 works are being made especially for the fair this year, including by the textile artist Anya Paintsil (Ed Cross gallery), the painter Pippa Young (Arusha Gallery) and several pieces of contemporary design through Sarah Myerscough Gallery.

Gallerists appreciate her vision. Kristin Hjellegjerde joins the fair for the first time this year with work by six artists, including rising stars Sara Berman and Richard Stone. She says, “It was Nazy who won me over.” Vassegh’s event has also won praise for being an enjoyable experience. “It’s not a circus, like so many other fairs. I find it a refreshingly gentle way to see works,” says the art adviser Helen Macintyre, who recently joined the fair’s 18-person strong advisory council.

Having the fair in London is, Vassegh says, a no-brainer: “It had to be here, my whole career has been in London.” The city, she says, “is core to the concept and will continue to be part of the journey”, though she hints that Eye of the Collector could have a future elsewhere too. “I wouldn’t have dared to say so before now, but the platform could go anywhere.” Mindful of her forthcoming fair, though, she quickly stops this line of questioning and instead delivers a characteristically determined imperative: “Let’s make this edition as successful as possible first.”

eyeofthecollector.com

CHS SPRING SUBSCRIBER DRIVE
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Malika Bennett knows Capitol Hill, and after a Howard education and ten years in the other Washington, it’s time for this Capitol Hill to know her. Growing up on the Eastside and in the Central District, Bennett took off with the Running Start program at Seattle Central during high school and got to know the neighborhood well.

Her Black Arts Love — “a welcoming community space that is inclusive to all that support our mission of amplifying and uplifting black artists” — is now open in the 400 block of E Pike.

While in her masters program in D.C., Bennett found community in arts spaces. Busboys and Poets, a local restaurant with a bookstore, gift shop, and open mic, inspired Bennet with how they represent local creatives. “You have got to find something outside of work to keep up the balance, and for me, it was going to open mics.”

Eventually, Bennett got involved with the Emergence Community Art Collective, found a mentor, and grew her inspiration into action by producing her own events. “It was just wonderful how it all came together. Everybody was having such a good time. I mean, it just warmed my heart, it was really healing. Just the collaboration, the connection, the positivity, the creators and seeing all of their beautiful art and creations and products that they handmade, or even just businesses that are popping up and they were there to promote their business. It was incredible.”

Bennett moved back to Seattle in 2014, finding work as an administrative assistant at Harborview. Becoming frustrated with the helplessness she felt in the face of police violence and other issues facing the black community, she felt called to build community through art. The creation of Black Arts Love, which aimed to support black artists and creators in the community, helped focus their energy.

“I had this dream”, Bennett told CHS. “It was this blueprint of a whole bunch of black leaders that were all top of their field. They were using their talents to come together. And there was this blueprint of what we could do to help our community. And so I woke up and I said, Malika, what are your talents? And I realized, well, I’m good at event planning and good at PR. I’m good at marketing. I love art. I love creativity. I find the arts to be very healing at the same time.”

Coming from D.C. where she was surrounded by a Black arts community, she questioned where the representation was in the Seattle arts scene.

“I know there has to be black artists in Seattle. Yo, where is it? Even in South Seattle in 2014 and 2015, we would go to the Columbia City Market and stuff and I loved it. I loved the market, but I didn’t see any black artists, or if there was, maybe one, out of all these vendors, I think there should be a little more representation,” she said. “And I was like, I’m going to create that space. I just decided, you know, that year when I created Black Arts Love after that dream.”

Giving a shout out to her friend Tim Shaw and his use of the word “Love” at the end of certain words and phrases, Bennett recounts how she decided on the name. “I noticed how much people got energized behind that, just saying ‘love’. That’s a powerful word. Love is such a powerful word, it resonates. So I say Black Arts Love as well, because it’s kind of like a call to action, but a positive action and that’s to be loving and you know, to love each other and to love black arts and black artists.”

CHS reported here on the opening of Black Arts Love making space for black art and community on Capitol Hill in the overhaul of Pagliacci’s Pike/Pine pizza headquarters.

Using COVID-19 Pandemic Relief funds to get the storefront started, Bennett is still looking for additional funding. Thanks to a unique partnership with Pagliacci, an old storage room that was unused now serves as the home to a new community space.

“They put it up for lease…we came in at the right time with the right mission,” explained Bennett. The grant funding they received helped to cut through the red tape that often plagues new ventures, allowing them to focus on their vision for the space.

The owners of Pagliacci were quick to support the group’s mission, offering up the space and their expertise to make the project a reality. “Matt and his wife, Michelle heard the vision, and they were like, I think this would be great for this space. And Matt was super supportive,” said Bennett. “So we leased from them. The space is cool and the whole Pagliacci staff are incredible. They’re super supportive of what we’re doing here in the community.”

The new art space is filling a void in the community, providing a platform for black artists to showcase their work and bringing people together through the arts. “A lot of people are excited for us to be here and they saw the void in the Capitol Hill area in terms of representation of black art,” said Bennett. “We’re filling that void, And we plan to do events and community events to try and keep them affordable and accessible and have some public benefit to them, so that we can bring people together, connect through the arts and hopefully achieve our goal of uplifting and amplifying black artists but also bringing community together.”

With the grand opening behind them, Bennett is focused on marketing and getting people into the store. “Now that we’re open, it’s like, okay, how to get people in here,” they said. “And it’s super exciting because the energy has been so incredible. I’ve had like about at least a dozen artists come in, wanting to know how do I get my work in the store? And that’s so dope.” They hope to fill Black Arts Love with art from Seattle’s BIPOC artists, giving emerging artists a place to call home that doesn’t rely on the market circuit.

“If you’re an artist, Keep creating, mastering your skill, and if there’s a way we can be supportive of that, we’re here.” Bennetts gratitude for the opportunity to bring their vision to life was palpable, “I just feel so blessed.” With the support of the community and partners like Pagliacci, the art space is poised to become a hub for creativity and connection on Capitol Hill. They will be open Wednesday through Sunday 12-7pm.

You can find updates and pop up market announcements on their Instagram, @blackartslove. For more information, visit blackartslove.com.

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