Graves + Mallett Art Solutions celebrates our second year in business as art consultants. Yes, at the end of 2018 we launched and incorporated this business. We are humbled by the amount of support and enthusiasm we have received from the art community – this includes art collectors, gallery and art-related business owners, and our loyal Instagram and Facebook followers.
During year one, we experienced a whirlwind of excitement and opportunities. We provided consulting services for a major regional transportation hub, launched our podcast, Open Studio: Conversations on Art, and during the first season, we completed 15 interviews with artists and collectors, a gallery owner and the owner of a longstanding and respected art framing business. In-person interviews were conducted in studios, private homes, in gallery and business spaces – all resulting in our ability to share the synergy of these select surroundings.
Then came COVID-19. Our attentions turned inward as we witnessed this unforeseeable, nearly paralyzing menace that took away friends, co-workers and loved ones indiscriminately. It halted commerce and travel while ending social gatherings and organized worship services. We compiled with Gov. Whitmers’ Stay at Home order while clinging to our family members and consoling ourselves by phone, text – and later, by Zoom. We prayed for an end to the deadly coronavirus.
So, GMAS ceased blogging in early April as anxiety clouded our artistic pursuits, for a time. Now, seeing light on the horizon, we find ourselves on the cusp of the fall season and GMAS is recalibrating and repositioning. While these are trying times of COVID and quarantine, they are also times that have found us spending more moments in our homes than ever before. They are times that have made us rethink all of our personal spaces. They are times that beacon art consultancy as an avenue to comfort.
Therefore, we’ve planned for Season 2 of Open Studio: Conversations on Art to be conducted remotely. Launching later this month, we look forward to presenting a podcast with an exciting lineup which will include a 2020 Kresge Fellow, an art educator, a muralist, and other arts influencers. We’ll also check back in with an artist featured in Season 1 whose pandemic exhibition schedule has been on fire. GMAS is pleased to announce that we’ve engaged several podcast sponsors, many of whom will promote their businesses during their feature segments.
So, we have much to be grateful for during these uncertain times. We maintain our passion for and our commitment to the healing and inspiring power of the visual arts. We look forward to experiencing and sharing the extraordinary artistic expressions that will surely emerge from this time of social change, turmoil, economic and public health uncertainty.
We uphold our artists as they immortalize the movements of the hour.
Black lives matter.
Black art matters.
“An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Nina Simone
