Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsletter​Taking Chances and Making Chances / Newsletters digest

​Taking Chances and Making Chances / Newsletters digest

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” -Seneca

There are moments when we find ourselves in the right place at the right time. Often we attribute this to luck, the random swirling of the universe placing us where we might meet with a golden chance. Perhaps there is more to it than that. Perhaps, as Seneca suggests, it is our own influence combined with fortunate circumstances that allows doors to open. Just as we must always strive to own our actions, we must not be too quick to dismiss the power we all hold to create opportunities for ourselves.

Christine Kuan is “shaping the future of culture and the future of art” through her work as CEO of Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York. The institute prepares its graduate students to work in multiple capacities within the art world. The program encompasses art history as well as object handling and includes a business component to set students up to participate in the practical aspects of the art world. While the primary focus is on visual arts, instructors at the institute come from all areas of the art world, from art fair directors to auction house specialists, those in the publishing world and those with expertise in sponsorship and patronage of the arts. The institute offers three master’s degrees at the New York program, Contemporary Art, The Business of Art, and Fine and Decorative Art. Within these degree programs, the courses are highly specialized. Kuan herself is a strong advocate of liberal arts education which allows students to think critically and analytically. She holds an MFA in Poetry which has given her a profound understanding of the importance of language and how language works. The art world, much like the rest of the world, is based on relationships and Kuan says an understanding of language and communication, and the ability to think qualitatively rather than quantitatively, is key to building strong relationships.

Nicole Awai is a Brooklyn-based artist. She is presently exhibiting works at Lesley Heller Workspace. The exhibition is titled Vistas and it involves pieces that are a hybrid between painting and sculptures. Awai is a multi-media artist though her background is in painting. The works in Vistas are relief works that sit on the wall but that come from “painting gestures.” Often Awai works with nail polish which has led her to study the naming of colors as they have evolved over the years. She finds that some of the names themselves sometimes speak to the spaces in which she is exhibiting. She notes a color called “I am not a tourist” which is suited in a way to the Chelsea art scene. Her interest in nail polish colors was at first incidental but she then began to pursue this avenue as it relates to the evolution of social context. Awai received an Art Matters Grant which she used to travel to her native Trinidad where she investigated lakes of asphaltum and their potential influence within her body of work.

Additional interviews include: Dan Piepenbring, Linda Weintraub, and Britt Salvesen

Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a sharable format are here. The full archive of interviews here.

Books to Read

What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. User Trish is tapping into American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and Susy Zelaya has been reading Tex and Molly in the Afterlife by Richard Grant.

Opportunities / Open Calls

Awesome Foundation offers monthly micro-grants of $1000 to fund “awesome ideas” areas ranging from the arts to technology. There are chapters all over the world to which grant seekers can submit. Deadline is rolling.

A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket

It is said we should leave nothing to chance. Perhaps rather, we should rely on our own good intuition and trust the mechanisms of the universe.

Deadlines

Weekly Edited Grant and Residency Deadlines – review the list here.

More Resources – For Artists Only – (weekly articles)

The Art World is a Mafia, You Can’t Break in unless… – Read More here

Real Artists Case History: Stacey Kirby – Read More here

Popular Writings –

Non-profit spaces to know –

London, UK Non-Profit Spaces – read about some of the best.

Los Angeles, CA Non-Profit Spaces- read about some of the best.

New York City Non-Profit Spaces – read about some of the best.

Self Illumination –

Conquering Fear – read about methods and Pema Chodron.

The Trap of Self-Esteem and How to Break Free- read more here.

F*ck the Art World, F*ck Consumerism! – read more here.

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here