THE REMIX
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PODCAST Batch 4

WELCOME TO THE REMIX PODCAST. 
We are on a search for new models in the art world. In accordance with values of transparency and community, we’ve decided to make our research public. Each interview is a conversation with someone we admire for doing something a little differently, tweaking “the system,” reframing the conversation, or trying something entirely new. The goal is to learn from these people so that we (listeners included!) have a better chance of creating art world 2.0 with a more inclusive and sustainable foundation.

Introducing The Remix Podcast BATCH 4
5:00 

Welcome to The Remix podcast Batch 4! This season, The Remix co-founders Courtney Colman and Heather Bhandari continue their research into new models in the art world by focusing on the sustainability of independent curators. Fortunately, the most perfect co-host agreed to join them: Eva Mayhabal Davis, an independent curator and organizer who cares deeply about the capacity of art to inspire empathy and understanding. In this introduction, they talk about common threads in the eleven interviews they recorded in the summer/fall of 2019 with a diverse array of curators who’ve forged their own paths and figured out ways to sustain their practices. You’ll meet founders, partners, and truly independent spirits who are breaking new ground in the art world.

 

Eva Mayhabal Davis, Independent Curator and Founder of eva Mayha Projects
42:50

In this exciting episode, we talk with our Season 4 co-host, Eva Mayhabal Davis. She takes us from the University of Washington to her first job in NYC at the Guggenheim Museum where she learned to spend significant time with art and facilitate conversations. We talk about her three partners in curating: the space, the artist, and the audience; how collaboration comes naturally to her; and how art is a path toward empathy and understanding. Does she have a secret white board full of artist names? Is she done with her education? Does her day job feed her curatorial work? Did she call her mom in advance of this conversation? You must listen to find out.

 

Andrea Valencia Aranda, Independent Curator
28:54

Andrea Valencia Aranda is able to cultivate an international perspective from Mexico City to NYC to Rotterdam thanks to digital communication. Regardless of where she lives, she has figured out a way to work on major exhibitions--such as Cecilia Vicuña’s world-travelling retrospective--while also continuing (and embodying) her research on immigration, memory, and empty space. Tune in for tips on sustaining an international practice as well as details on her amazing projects Open Doors and Se Habla Español--both of which emphasize community, inclusion, and understanding while working to subvert and deconstruct systems that divide and exclude audiences. How does she use soft power so powerfully?

 

George Scheer, Founder of Elsewhere and Executive Director at Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans
46:08

George Scheer speaks with The Remix about rediscovering his grandmother’s thrift store and transforming it into a living museum called Elsewhere. The conversation covers the nuts and bolts of starting and growing a nonprofit to the point of sustainability. We end the conversation with George’s next stop of New Orleans and how a health scare has him thinking long-term about how environment impacts patient agency and recovery. What are Elsewhere’s ties to the Guggenheim? Did George work for Obama? Listen to find out.

 

Kóan Jeff Baysa, Curator, Collector, and Physician
43:00

Koan Jeff Baysa takes The Remix from medical school to Mexico, collecting to curating, and commuting between Hawaii and NYC. Community, diversity, access, and inclusion are his mottos, with a goal of working in the area outside common thinking to inspire people to process geography and culture differently. Get prepared for his love of word play! The conversation turns to tech, medicine, and his work on Medical Avatar. We end on the importance of STEAM, Koan’s intense travel schedule, and where he finds artists. What would he have been if not a doctor or curator? You’ll never guess!

 

Elisa Jimenez, Interdisciplinary Artist
49:58

Elisa Jimenez works as a transdisciplinary artist and healer who surrounds herself with very talented people who believe in collaboration and conscientious capitalism. She traveled from TX to NYC to follow the dream and be herself. 25 years later, after working successfully as a solo entrepreneur, Elisa talks to The Remix about the influence of her family and friends (her tribe); her beginning as a mulit-disciplinary performance artist who spun webs throughout NYC to create a vortex of goodness; how a random passerby liked her dress and threw her into the world of fashion; artificial divisions; slow design; what happens when health issues change your perspective; how to calculate loss and acknowledge success; and how to find systems to work with your personality. She talks ups and downs, the challenges, and upholding her ethics.

 

Brian and Carolyn Jobe, Founders of the Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary ARt
36:00

Brian and Carolyn Jobe join The Remix to talk about their journey from Tennessee to Texas to New York and back again. Both artists are educators and arts administrators who saw an opportunity (and a need) to connect contemporary artists and arts organizations across the entire state of Tennessee through listings, a speaker series, and other events. We get into the nitty gritty of their funding and how the founding of Tri-State Arts relates to a long-term vision that will manifest in the 2021 Tennessee Triennial. They talk about generosity, mentors, kindness, and time management. They also give great advice for anyone planning to run a Kickstarter campaign.

 

Cara Ober, Founding Editor and Publisher at BmoreArt
42:28

Cara Ober was told print was dead and she created a luxurious, insightful, and deliberate print journal for the Baltimore art community. Creative collaboration is Cara’s passion and BmoreArt is a tool to capture her local art scene in a generous and generative way. She is doing the thing she looks for in institutions: to “seamlessly and elegantly represent the art from their place but put it into a global context.” Want to get Cara mad? Talk about exclusivity as an inevitable part of the art world, and do it in artspeak. Listen for details on exciting, newly formed and forming projects.

 

Katherine Gressel, Independent Curator, Artist, and Writer
57:16

During her conversation with The Remix, Katherine Gressel discusses her role at Old Stone House where she facilitates site-specific projects to make local history relevant to a contemporary and globally-minded general audience. She talks programming; community work; the challenges of working in a multi-purpose space; funding as an independent curator; how she loves to start every project with a space and a community rather than a specific topic; catalyst vs curator; grad school; and painting commissions. She talks about her deliberate effort to blur the lines between the different facets of her life and make them sustainable as a whole.

 

Francisco Correa Cordero
26:00

Francisco Correa Cordero started as an aspiring artist, working at many of our favorite institutions. He stopped making his own artwork in favor of creative collaboration and curating for love. An experiment and act of affection turned into a career, a gallery, and a devoted following. Francisco speaks frankly about day jobs; how he can handle projects concurrently in the US and abroad; the importance of old friends and collaboration; and an ongoing struggle with time management. Does he want Lubov gallery to grow and challenge Hauser and Wirth or Zwirner for art market share? Listen to find out his definitions of success.

 

Yulia Topchiy, Paola Gallio, and Natasha Becker, Founders of Assembly Room
52:28

The Remix welcomes Yulia Topchiy, Natasha Becker, and Paola Gallio, the co-founders of Assembly Room. They share their origin story—an arranged marriage—and how they fill a void for independent women curators. They didn’t think there was a need for another gallery so they created space and a home for independent curators: a commercial gallery with a nonprofit soul. The reasons why they made that choice includes finances as well as freedom, flexibility, and ownership over mission. They walk us through their Open Call platform, the gallery space vs the project space downstairs, what they’re looking for in a proposal, and their interest in mentorship, collaboration, and family. We end on day jobs and dreams for the future. Picture utopia on a beach.

 

Dexter Wimberly, Founder and CEO of Art World Conference
54:25

Dexter Wimberly tells The Remix the dramatic story of how he went from a car accident on New Year’s Eve to founding his own company to becoming an independent curator and the founder of Art World Conference. We delve into how each decision was conscious, yet a roadmap. From organically curating the artists he had admired over the years to curating Derrick Adams’s first solo museum show in New York City at the Museum of Art and Design (all in less than ten years), Dexter talks about the decisions he’s made, the artists with whom he’s worked, and the mentors he’s had along the way--from family and friends to historical figures. At the end it gets real: what does being an independent curator really mean? 

Batch 4 Music theme by Marina Murayama 

 

Marina Murayama’s musical writing explores themes of mixedness, decolonization, and accountability. Though Marina has roots in the classical tradition, their current music weaves together synthesized electronic textures and lush orchestral soundscapes. Follow them at www.murayamamusic.com