Visual Collaborative is an American festival and publishing platform highlighting the intersections of people, commerce, and innovation. Acclaim for its social impact in humanities, it was featured by

VOA Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

, for advancing the cause of humanities and the creative economy. The platform organizes exhibitions that feature talks, art, technology, development, and live music performances. Over the years, the initiative has grown in scope and size, aligning with sustainable goals.

History

In 2006, Visual Collaborative was founded by

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

and technologist Ade Olufeko, to bridge the gap between creative professionals and their commercial value. Since originating in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, Visual Collaborative has showcased

collections Collection or Collections may refer to: * Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department * Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service * Collection agency, agency to collect cash * Collection ...

and talks in Minneapolis, Miami, New York City, ''The Mission'' San Francisco California, Columbia Maryland, and Washington D.C. In 2007, the group's inaugural event featured international artists Miko Simmons and Linda Zacks, which took place at the original Center for Independent Artists, inside ''Instituto de Cultura y Educacion'' located in a community of

South Minneapolis The U.S. city of Minneapolis is officially defined by the Minneapolis City Council as divided into eleven communities, each containing multiple official neighborhoods. Informally, there are city areas with colloquial labels. Residents may also ...

. In 2011, in Washington D.C., Visual Collaborative produced an exhibition featuring emerging and established artists with a collection described as vibrant new art. In 2015, the platform collaborated with the Arts District Hyattsville Master Association in Hyattsville, utilizing ''the Lustine Center'' to host a group exhibition themed Vanity.

Operating model

Up until 2015, the platform's exhibitions occurred as

disruptive innovation In business theory, disruptive innovation is innovation that creates a new market and value network or enters at the bottom of an existing market and eventually displaces established market-leading firms, products, and alliances. The concept was ...

in a traveling formatted pattern. They have been held in reputable galleries, lofts or donated spaces by private owners who include art enthusiasts and lifelong

patrons of the arts Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

. They are executed through

joint ventures A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with other arts and humanities organisations which have in the past included ''Arts District'' Hyattsville Master Association in Prince George's County and Voices for Children Miami. In April 2019, Visual Collaborative launched an

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

online

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

called Polaris, also documented as North Star by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, ISSN 2642-9780. Aerial View of 18th St

Visual Collaborative is a platform that represents artists and works of diverse backgrounds. Its past emerging and notable features include:

Aniekan Udofia Aniekan Udofia (born 1976) is a portrait artist known for his large-scale paintings and murals in the Washington, D.C. area. His art work familiar to the community of northwest D.C, came to prominence after a mural tribute to American icon Duk ...

, Tiphanie Brooke,

Dawn Okoro Dawn Okoro (born 1980, in Houston), is a Nigerian American artist who paints figurative art works, as well as practices photography and videography, all inspired by fashion and popular culture. She graduated from University of Texas-Austin in 2002 ...

, Danielle Eckhardt,

Eugene Ankomah Eugene Ankomah (born 8 June 1978) is a self-taught British contemporary visual artist of Ghanaian descent, with an art career that has spanned more than eighteen years. Early life Born and raised in the London Borough of Brent, northwest Lond ...

and music recording artist TolumiDE. In 2008, Visual Collaborative adopted an outreach model, partnering with Voices for Children Miami-Dade, a Children Foundation that raises funds for abused and neglected children in

Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...

—The organisation gave their proceeds to charity to help build the bridge between the community and the arts.

Exhibitions

Events held in U.S cities before publishing expansion: *2007,

, Minnesota, Center for Independent Artists *2008, Design District,

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, Florida, Undercurrent Arts Miami Gallery *2011, ''Queens Gambit'', Forest Hills and

Fresh Meadows Fresh Meadows is a neighborhood in the northeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. Fresh Meadows used to be part of the broader town of Flushing and is bordered to the north by the Horace Harding Expressway; to the west by Pomo ...

, Queens, NY Crepe N Tearia *2011, ''Black, White + Monochrome & Color'',

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, Wonderland SF Gallery *2011, ''Visual Grandeur'', Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C. *2012, 14th Street, Washington, D.C. *2013 ''VII, ENCORE'' Columbia, Maryland,

pop-up store Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to catch onto a fad or scheduled e ...

*2014,

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, Harvard University *2015, ''Vanity'', Gateway Arts District,

Hyattsville Hyattsville is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and also a close, urban suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 21,187 at the 2020 United States Census. History Before Europeans reached the area, the upper A ...

, Maryland, The LUSTINE Center

Publishing

In April 2019, Visual Collaborative launched an

online

called Polaris, also documented as North Star by the

, ISSN 2642-9780. The project commenced in the winter of 2019 for a period of three months. The

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

collective featured 26 practitioners from various disciplines from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n metropolitan cites such as

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

and

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. Articles from the catalog received coverage from various news media for highlighting the intersections of people, commerce and innovation. The Polaris catalogue explores creative disciplines, perspectives and intrinsic value of the featured practitioners and how they interact with society. Les Nubians 4

''Polaris'' features both established or emerging people in the creative industry, intersecting with anthropology and humanities. Its subtopics may include health and wellness, architecture, fashion, entertainment news and non-partisan political themes. In addition to covering professionals from regions around the globe, the content aims to boost literacy in various socioeconomic circles. In June 2019 bringing in the summer equinox, the second volume of the ''Polaris'' series featuring 25 people was released under the title ''Voyager''. Exploring life journeys of the invited participants in long form interview format, topics and subjects related to influence, economic disparities, pragmatism, self awareness and youth leadership among others were covered. Grammy-nominated music artist and performer

Seun Kuti Oluseun Anikulapo Kuti (born 11 January 1983), who is called by the name Seun Kuti, is a Nigerian musician, singer and the youngest son of the famous Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti. Seun leads his father's former band Egypt 80. Biography The y ...

, the youngest son of legendary afrobeat pioneer

Fela Kuti Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997), also known as Abami Eda, was a Nigerian musician, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is regarded as the p ...

appeared as one of the main features. Other features included Pan-African activist

Aya Chebbi Aya Chebbi ( ar, آية الشابي ; born 1988), is a Tunisian diplomat, and a pan-African and feminist activist. She became the first appointed African Union Envoy on Youth in November 2018. Appointed by the chairperson of the African Union Co ...

, the first ever

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

Youth Envoy, Marcie Rendon an Award-winning playwright, poet and writer of native American ''

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

'' ancestry and Minneapolis Civil Rights Commissioner, Anika Robbins. In the ''Voyager'' collective, some of the interviews are presented in both the French and English language, accommodating featured influencers from French speaking regions. In the same month, during pre-coverage of Voyager's release, forthcoming issues were announced. "It’s refreshing to see younger people interested in creating, contextualizing, re-defining, preserving, and chronicling art, culture, and history." said ''Kaia Black'', of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, who appeared in volume II of the collective.

2020 TwentyEightyFour

In May 2020, international news outlets announced the release of the TwentyEightyFour series. The 5th volume of the Polaris catalog consisted of conducted and transcribed interviews, among the 21 participants featured French music sisters

Les Nubians Les Nubians is a French musical duo, composed of sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart from Paris, France. In 1985, the sisters moved with their parents to Chad. Seven years later, they returned to Bordeaux, France, and began singing a cappella, p ...

Metal Gear is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operativ ...

music and soundtrack composer

Rika Muranaka Rika Muranaka is a Japanese composer and music producer renowned for her songs in Konami’s ''Metal Gear'' video game series. Some of her most notable works include "The Best Is Yet to Come" (''Metal Gear Solid''), "Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday" ...

, Global business strategist Busie Matsiko-Andan, Comedian

Chigul Chioma Omeruah (born 14 May 1976), better known as Chigul, is a Nigerian comedian, singer and actress who is known for her accents and comedic characters. Life and career Omeruah was born in Lagos to Igbo parents. She moved away whilst still ...

, Electronic music artist

Coppé Coppé (pronounced Co-pa'y, often also typed Coppe') is a Japanese electronic music singer-songwriter and music producer. She has affectionately gained the title of "The Legendary Godmother of Japanese Electronica". She has released fifteen so ...

and a reprised conversation of Nollywood actress

Dakore Akande Dakore Egbuson-Akande (born Dakore Omobola Egbuson; 14 October 1978) is a Nigerian actress. She is an ambassador for Amnesty International, Amstel Malta and Oxfam of America. Biography Dakore was born in Bayelsa State as the first child of her ...

. Themes of adaptability and empathy ran consistently across the collective, aiming as a reprieve and alternative to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

media barrage.

Polaris interviews

Selected features from over 150 guests from the Polaris catalogue Volumes 1–10. Credits from ''

The Punch ''The Punch'' is a Nigerian daily newspaper founded On August 8, 1970. Punch Nigeria Limited was registered under the Companies Act of 1968 to engage in the business of publishing newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. It was designed to i ...

'', ''

This Day ''This Day'' is a Nigerian national newspaper. It is the flagship newspaper of Leaders & Company Ltd and was first published on 22 January 1995. It has its headquarters in Apapa, Lagos State. Founded by Nduka Obaigbena, the Chairman & Editor-i ...

'', ''Vanguard'', ''The Guardian'' and ''Business Day'' news. * Cheri Beasley * Robert Greene (American author) * Bahia Shehab *

* Autumn Whitehurst * Tosin Oshinowo *

Jens Gad Jens Gad is a German producer, songwriter and guitarist of Danish parents. He started making music at young age. Gad produces music for many artists (Sandra Cretu / Sandra Gambino) and was previously co-producer for the musical project, Enigma. ...

* Joyce Adewumi * Bobby Yan * Polly Alakija * Irene Hernandez-Feiks * Theda Sandiford * Ayo Binitie II *

Remi Vaughan-Richards Remi Vaughan-Richards is a Nigerian filmmaker. Early life and education Remi was born in Nigeria, one of four children born to British architect Alan Richards (1925-1989) and Ayo Vaughan (1928-1993), a nurse educator who created the Lagos State ...

* TolumiDE * Valerie Alloix * Michael Elegbede * Tiphanie Brooke (Antigirl) * Indira Lindsay Roberts *

* Chris Uwaje *

* Fatima Al Ansar *

* Kate Worum * Fiona Tokple * Shannon Shiang * Kaia Black *

Berla Mundi Berlinda Addardey, popularly known as Berla Mundi, (born 1 April 1988) is a Ghanaian media personality, women's advocate and voice artist. She co-hosted the 20th VGMA with Kwami Sefa Kayi. Education Berla is an alumna of St. Theresa's School, ...

* Seun Kentebe * Funfere Koroye * Marcie Rendon * Aramide Abe *

* Anika Robbins * Jardena Kifle *

David Hayter David Hayter is a Canadian-American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is well known as the English-language voice actor for Solid Snake and Naked Snake in the ''Metal Gear'' video game series. He wrote the film ''X-Men'' and co-w ...

* Swaady Martin *

Kelli Ali Kelli Ali, also known as Kelli Dayton (born 30 June 1974), is a British vocalist, who was formerly the lead singer of the trip hop group Sneaker Pimps before going on to a solo career. Career Before Sneaker Pimps, Ali was part of a group called ...

* Kristy Jones-Cooper * Husani Oakley *

Adelaide Damoah Adelaide Damoah RWA FRSA (born ) is a British painter and performance artist of Ghanaian descent who uses her body as the starting point for much of her work. Themes of particular interest include feminism, colonialism, religion and spirituality ...

Nse Ikpe-Etim Nse Ikpe-Etim (born 21 October 1974) is a Nigerian actress. She came into prominence in 2008 for her role in ''Reloaded''. She was nominated for '' Best Actress in a Leading Role'' at the 5th and 8th Africa Movie Academy Awards for her role in ...

* Loubna Baker * Michelle Antoinette Nelson * Alec Huxley * Adegbe Ogbeh *

Desdamona Desdamona is a hip-hop and spoken word artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. She has won five Minnesota Music Awards for 'Best Spoken Word Artist' in the years 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 (the awards were not hosted in 2001 ...

* Uthman Wahaab * Kevin Chaja * Marcia Ashong * Dr. Sonita Singh * Tracy Alero Doyle * Melissa Trevino Berendzen * Nkwo Onwuka * Telesa Via * Jess Ellen Henderson * Ana Martins (Aheneah) * Bisila Bokoko * William Coupon *

Ade Adekola Ade Adekola (born 1966), is a Nigerian multidisciplinary conceptual artist. He is known as a photographer, painter, textile artist, digital artist, and writer. He lives in Lagos. Ade Adekola was born on March 3, 1966, in Nigeria. He graduated i ...

*Shannon Shiang *Busie Matsiko-Andan *Xárene Eskandar *

* David Carson *Ervin “EP” Pope *Naomi Assaraf *Nere Emiko Teriba *Dele Ajayi-Smith *

* Gülnara Khalilova *Michel Rothschild * Sarasara *Oliver Nakakande * Sahib Pashazadeh *Tan Haur *Carolyn Woodruff *Selamawit Worku * Yumiko Kayukawa *Seow Beng Lan * Lynn Vartan *

Chinedu Echeruo HopStop was an online Public transport, city transit guide offering detailed, door-to-door biking, bus, Rapid transit, subway, taxi, train, and walking directions in real time, as well as official transit maps for 600 cities around the world via ...

*Jack lawson *Aditi Patil

References

External links

* {{Visual Collaborative, state=collapsed American artist groups and collectives Conferences in the United States Community development Art exhibitions in the United States Contemporary art exhibitions Traveling exhibits List Recurring events established in 2007

collaborative projects Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...