Cultural Counsel is the official media partner of Artist Relief.

Artist Relief is an initiative organized by the Academy of American Poets, Artadia, Creative Capital, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MAP Fund, National YoungArts Foundation, and United States Artists—all small to mid-sized national arts grantmakers that have come together in this unprecedented moment guided by the understanding that the wellbeing of artists has financial, professional, social, and mental dimensions, and should be fostered with a holistic framework of support.

As such, Artist Relief will distribute $5,000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19; serve as an ongoing informational resource; and co-launch the COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers, designed by Americans for the Arts, to better identify and address the needs of artists moving forward. 

Artist Relief launched with a generous $5 million seed gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to match an initial $5 million in funding generously provided by the following foundations: 7|G Foundation, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Arison Arts Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Ford Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation COVID-19 Relief Effort, Jerome Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Kraus Family Foundation, LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, Metabolic Studio, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Richard Salomon Family Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Sue Hostetler and Beau Wrigley Family Foundation, Teiger Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, and The Willem de Kooning Foundation.

A month before Art Basel, Thom Browne engaged Cultural Counsel to develop his profile as an artist and unveil his first ever public artwork in Miami’s Design District. Tol bolster our traditional PR strategy, we  secured a high profile curator Deana Hagag, CEO Of United States Artists, for the installation, and programmed a panel with Thom Browne, Artforum Editor-in-Chief David Velasco, and Haggag, creating a strong foundation for the designer to build his art world credibility. Our VIP guests for the opening included Diplo, Jamian Juliano-Villani, and Kimberly Drew.

In the Spring of 2020, Cultural Counsel worked with Thom Browne to launch an international campaign around their Samsung cellphone, staging an event to unveil the collaboration at Sotheby’s in New York. Cultural Counsel handled guest list management, on-site support, and targeted media outreach that resulted in top-tier coverage in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vogue, GQ, and Vanity Fair.

Images courtesy of Thom Browne.

W Magazine – Thom Browne—Fashion Designer by Reputation—is Also an Artist

Vanity Fair – Thom Browne Trades Short Suits for Seersuckered Palm Trees

WWD – Art Basel Miami Beach 2019: Thom Browne Makes His Artist Debut

Artnet News – Thom Browne Is a Fashion Iconoclast. Now, He’s Making His Debut as an Artist, Too, Unveiling His First-Ever Sculpture in Miami 

Wall Street Journal – Samsung Galaxy by Thom Browne: Why ‘Designer’ Cell Phone Is No Longer a Punchline

New York Times – Thom Browne Got Techie for Fashion Week

Vanity Fair – The Debut of Thom Browne's Flip Phone was "More Art Performance Than Fashion"

Vogue – Thom Browne Reveals a Touch-Screen Flip Phone with Samsung

GQ – Thom Browne Wants to Bring Joy Back to the Cell Phone

Architectural Digest –Thom Browne Just Created a Mid-Century Office Space at Sotheby's for Fashion Week

Matthew Marks Los Angeles presents Katharina Fritsch's first solo show in LA. Conceived as an ensemble, the exhibition debuts three new sculptures, including a rooster sculpture “Hahn/Cock,” a smaller version of the one that once graced London’s Trafalgar Square.

While appearing industrially manufactured, they were in fact made by hand over a period of five years and painted by Fritsch in her studio.

Images courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery. 

T: The New York Times Style Magazine – A Sculptor of the Female Gaze

Los Angeles Times – Frieze LA 2020: A Curated Guide to the Week's Best Events

Los Angeles Times – Datebook: At age 99, painter Luchita Hurtado gets a survey at LACMA

Frieze – The Best Shows to See in LA

Artnet News – In LA for Frieze Week? Here Is Our Guide to 33 Inspiring Gallery Shows to See Beyond the Fairs

Cool Hunting – Beyong Frieze: Art Highlights in LA

The Hollywood Reporter – Frieze Los Angeles 2020: Guide to Exhibitions, Events and Parties

For the past two decades, designer Rachel Comey’s namesake brand has become synonymous with smart women in New York. During New York Fashion Week, Comey presented her Fall/Winter 2020 collection during a hybrid dinner and runway show for an intimate group of friends and collaborators at La Mercerie, located inside the Roman and Williams Guild in Soho. The dinner was hosted by RW Guild VP, Casey Legler, and singer Justin Vivian Bond, who performed interstitially as the collection was shown in between courses. 

Punctuating each round of looks, select special guests rose to speak to their particular field of expertise, creating a salon style conversation around the presentation. Lourdes Rivera, the Senior Vice President for the Center for Reproductive Rights, spoke to the upcoming battle to uphold Roe vs. Wade in the Supreme Court. Aminatou Sow, businesswoman and host of Call Your Girlfriend, spoke to friendship, racial divides, and diversity. The evening concluded with a surprise performance by artist and model Alex Auder, whose surprise comical performance commented on wellness and capitalism. 

“Rachel Comey didn’t mean to be a spokeswoman for her industry. (She has always been pretty committed to doing her own thing, whatever the vicissitudes of fashion.) She wanted to support a cause, but it was women’s reproductive rights, not the existential crisis of American fashion. It just so happened that in doing the one, she provided a panacea for the other,” wrote fashion critic Vanessa Friedman in The New York Times. Cultural Counsel garnered additional coverage in The Washington Post, Vogue, New York Magazine/The Cut, Business of Fashion, GQ, Vanity Fair, W Magazine, WWD, among others.

Images courtesy of Rachel Comey. 

The New York Times – Seeing the Oscar Challenge to Fashion Week and Raising It One

The Washington Post – Fashion Week begins, and so does an entire industry’s angst over its very existence

Business of Fashion – If New York Fashion Is Burning, Who Will Rise From the Ashes?

GQ – Rachel Comey’s Womenswear Might Be the Best-Kept Secret In Men’s Fashion

New York Magazine – Big Bites at Rachel Comey: The designer showcased her fall collection with a literary salon over dinner

Vanity Fair – Rachel Comey’s Dinner and a Fashion Show Returns With Even More to Chew On

Vogue Runway – FALL 2020 READY-TO-WEAR: Rachel Comey

W Magazine – Rachel Comey Turned a Fashion Show into a Political Gesture

The Bronx Museum is one of the only major NYC museums with free admission, making it a vital resource not just for residents in the Bronx, but thousands of residents from all five boroughs and tourists visiting NYC annually. The museum’s permanent collection of 2,000+ works by artists of African, Asian, and Latin American ancestry reflects the borough's dynamic communities.

For the past year, Cultural Counsel has worked closely with the museum to bring a new level of awareness across the museum’s unique exhibition program, leadership, and development. Notable examples include a critically acclaimed exhibition of work by street art pioneer Henry Chalfant, José Parlá’s first solo museum exhibition in New York City, the recent Visionary Duos Gala honoring Bronx natives Desus & Mero, and the appointment of Jasmine Wahi as the Holly Block Social Justice Curator. Cultural Counsel has garnered press in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Variety, Vogue, W Magazine, Artforum, ARTnews, among others.

Images courtesy of The Bronx Museum of the Arts. 

The New York Times – ‘I Have to Get That’: How Henry Chalfant Became a Graffiti Ambassador

The Wall Street Journal – Inside NYPD’s Fight to Stop Subway Graffiti

New York Post – Relive the subway’s graffiti-filled glory at this Bronx exhibit

Interview Magazine – How Henry Chalfant Captured the Striking Street Art of 1980s New York

The New York Times – What José Parlá, JR and Kunle Martins Learned from Graffiti

The New York Times – Spring Art Season Is Here

Variety – Desus and Mero Get Home Borough Salute From Bronx Museum

Vogue – Bronx Museum of the Arts Hosts Its Annual Visionary Duos Gala 

W Magazine – Desus and Mero on the New Bad Bunny Album and Following Lizzo to Denmark

Artforum – Bronx Museum hires Jasmine Wahi as Holly Block Social Justice Curator

Since 2015, Cultural Counsel has worked with United Talent Agency (UTA) to support the UTA Fine Arts division and UTA Artist Space on their communications and events. Milestones have included UTA Artist Space’s move to a new Ai Weiwei-designed Beverly Hills location in summer 2018, the appointment of Arthur Lewis as Creative Director in June 2019, and the hit exhibition Meet Me In The Bathroom: The Art Show at The Hole in September 2019.

Cultural Counsel has secured extensive national and international coverage for UTA in the form of leadership profiles, exhibition reviews, and news items in The New York Times, the BBC, Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, PAPER, i-D, and many more.

Images courtesy of United Talent Agency. 

The New York Times – When a Mentor Said Tear Down Your Collection and Start Over, They Did

The Hollywood Reporter – UTA Appoints Arthur Lewis as Creative Director of UTA Fine Arts and Artist Space

Los Angeles Times – UTA names Arthur Lewis to lead agency's fine arts programs

The New York Times – 'Meet Me in the Bathroom': An Art Show of Stuff From Under Musicians' Beds

Billboard – 'Meet Me in the Bathroom' Exhibit Transports Viewers to NYC's 'Manically Joyful' 2000s Rock Scene

New York Post – 'Meet Me in the Bathroom' exhibit is more than a filthy, graffiti'd stall

BBC – Meet Me in the Bathroom: New York was 'a safe space for debauchery' 

Paper Magazine – Lizzy Goodman On 11 Images That Capture '00s NYC Rock 'n' Roll

Ed Ruscha: Drum Skins, presented by the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas in Austin, debuts a new body of more than a dozen round paintings made between 2017 and 2019 by the pioneering American artist known for his use of language. The presentation features text Ruscha painted on found drumheads that he has collected over the past forty years. 

Informed by memories of the distinctive slang he grew up hearing in Oklahoma, the phrases consist of double and triple negatives such as “I Ain’t Telling You No Lie” and “I Never Done Nobody No Harm.” As Ruscha explains, “I grew up with people that spoke this way.…I was very acutely aware of it and amused by it. It seems like you’d run from incorrect English, but I embraced it. I like seeing it and exposing it.”

Images courtesy of Blanton Museum. 

The New York Times – Ed Ruscha: He Up and Went Home

Artnet News – Art Industry News: Philadelphia’s Mayor Says the City’s Biggest Art Museum Needs an HR Overhaul Following Harassment Scandal + Other Stories