Now Be Here
Now Be Here #1, Los Angeles
Now Be Here #2, NY
Now Be Here #3, South Florida
Now Be Here #4, DC/MD/VA
Now Be Here
“I had been thinking a lot about the challenges and rewards of being fully present in the different aspects of one’s life. After seeing ‘Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947-2016’, the inaugural show at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles and hearing the curators speak about all the other artists they could have included, I had a simple idea- let’s gather and photograph all these artists who were not in the show. This event was an opportunity to take a snapshot of all the women-identifying and non-binary identifying working artists in the LA contemporary art community. It was an opportunity for us to capture a moment where we stood together with each other in all of our diversity.”
-Kim Schoenstadt, August, 2016
Realization
On August 28, 2016, in the courtyard of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel in Los Angeles over 700 women-identifying and non-binary artists gathered and the resulting group photograph immediately went viral. To achieve this I collaborated with curator Aandrea Stang and photographers Isabel Avila and Carrie Yury, Ruben Diaz was our photo sponsor. The project traveled to the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York where Shinique Smith was the local artist collaborator, Paola Kudacki was the photographer and Carmen Hermo was our curator, and Perez Art Museum in Miami, Florida where Jane Heart was the local artist collaborator, Gesi Schilling was the photographer, and Diana Nawi and Sarah Michelle Rupert were the curators.
The following year the project was realized at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. with linn meyers as the local artist collaborator, Kim Johnson was the photographer and Melani Douglass was the curator, the event included artists from the DC/MD/VA areas. This iteration of the project expanded to include “Now Be Here: Now Let’s Talk,” a series of 17 programs and an Artist Resource Fair comprised of 21 non-profit organizations serving artists and their practices. All of this was made available to the artists in a casual reception setting, allowing them to easily get to know their support networks and connect with one another.
Following the first “Now Let’s Talk” event, founder Kim Schoenstadt circulated a survey to the LA artist pool gauging interest in continuing education and community conversation support and a website upgrade. Generating a 55% response rate, there was a clear need voiced for this kind of support of the creative community. Now Be Here established non-profit status in the summer of 2019. With Fulcrum Arts operating as fiscal sponsor. The first action was to respond to feedback about the usability of the website and redo the project website to shift it from passive support of listing the artists to become an interactive directory to promote this pool of artists. The website also will host lists of resources artists to help their practices thrive. The website does not charge the artists to promote their work and is funded entirely through donations.