Vivian Phillips is much more than a fabulous podcast co-host. She's been a driving force in Seattle's cultural community for decades. Now Vivian has turned her energy to the launch of a new cultural enterprise: ARTE NOIR, a gallery and shop that will showcase art and artists from the African diaspora.
ARTE NOIR will be a vital part of Midtown Square, a new development in the heart of Seattle's Central District, one of the neighborhoods we're featuring this season on the podcast.
Get a taste of what's in store!
ABOUT THIS EPISODE'S GUEST
Vivian Phillips is a veteran communications professional and arts leader. Known for her collaborative style in building partnerships and engaging diverse communities, her body of work spans radio and television broadcast, independent theater and television producing, teaching, arts, and communications management and consulting, performance art curating, and arts policy advocacy.
Vivian has served in numerous leadership roles in government and non-profit. She served as Director of Communications for Mayor Paul Schell and led the information unit for WTO, worked as a member of the restoration team for the Paramount Theatre, as Director of Marketing and Communications for the Seattle Theatre Group, and has been a strategic advisor and consultant on many projects across Washington and Oregon, and served on the Seattle Arts Commission for 6 years, 3 years as chair, and on the 4Culture board, serving one year as board chair.
Her recent consultancy work has included the development of an arts and culture expansion plan for the City of Olympia, a marketing and PR training program for Oregon Community Fund grantees, an art plan for the Midtown Square project in Seattle’s Central Area, co-authorship of A Community Centered Roadmap Towards an Equitable and Inclusive Creative Economy in Seattle, the Seattle Waterfront’s first Artist in Residency program.
Vivian’s decades of arts leadership experience, her commitment to a healthy and equitable arts ecosystem, and her passion for arts advocacy on behalf of Seattle’s arts community led to the founding of ARTE NOIR. It is an expression of her desire to create a sustainable Black arts and culture legacy for the Black community of Seattle, where Vivian’s parents migrated from the south in the early 1950s, and called it home for more than 50 years. Vivian is a Garfield High alum and was raised in and nurtured by the Central District community, where she currently resides. Vivian is the mother of three (2 of whom are also Garfield grads), and the grandmother of two.
Vivian originally founded ARTE NOIR as an online publication dedicated to showcasing and uplifting Black art, artists, and culture. The publication launched in late May 2021, and the non-profit was incorporated on June 1, 2021. The brick-and-mortar and online presence will function in a complementary manner.
More on ARTE NOIR here
Comentários