“Shifting our gaze” to support inclusive art with Titus Kaphar’s NXTHVN
Share
NXTHVN, based in New Haven, Connecticut was co-founded by internationally renowned artist, Titus Kaphar and colleague Jason Price as an ecosystem that sustains and fosters art by underrepresented groups and a model for arts mentorship and local investment. NXTHVN is “the solution that mitigates current challenges in the current arts ecosystem and creates a future that is innovative, equitable, and just.”
It is both an ambitious nonprofit initiative and an economic development project in the heart of Kaphar’s adopted hometown, New Haven. For more than a century, AVANGRID and it’s companies United Illuminating and Southern Connecticut Gas have a legacy of giving back to New Haven.
NXTHVN’s main mission is to provide a new national model that accelerates the careers of emerging artists and curators of color through education and access in a cultural entrepreneurial incubator that promises to engage a neighborhood and become a hub of social innovation, one that is symbiotic with and elevates a vibrant arts community that has long been a backbone of New Haven’s identity.
Tying directly into NXTHVN’s work is a core tenant of the Avangrid Foundation, based in nearby Orange, Connecticut, which invests in partnerships that challenge norms and look at issues in a new light, inspired by the vibrant artists in the places in which we work. There’s a special focus on lifting up Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-lead art, culture and heritage initiatives. Through this, the Foundation brings communities together and creates a space for challenging discussions around identity, belonging, race and social injustice.
These partnerships help elevate voices of diverse creatives who may have been diminished, underrepresented or marginalized, while growing and making more equitable the strong creative economy that is often a backbone of sustainable communities across the United States. As part of this commitment, the Avangrid Foundation is proud to have been invited to work with flagship arts ecosystem, NXTHVN.
The Avangrid Foundation joins many leading national philanthropies to help NXTHVN redevelop a factory complex in Dixwell neighborhood. Located on the edge of the Yale University’s campus and home to generations of African American businesspeople, artists and entrepreneurs, Dixwell has suffered from chronic disinvestment in the post-industrial era.
NXTHVN and the Avangrid Foundation recognize that artists and curators of color continue to play a crucial role requires investment and training. Despite some progressive steps, there are still myriad challenges facing BIPOC, female, and LGBTQ artists, which include persistent discrimination and underrepresentation, lack of recognition, few opportunities for exhibiting work in major museums, and restricted sales.
In response, NXTHVN offers:
- Comprehensive year-long fellowships providing dedicated workspaces, financial support for free housing, and professional mentorship for nine diverse early-career artists and curators.
- Fellows also mentor nine local high school student apprentices to ensure the next generation of regional talent is given a chance to excel in the fine arts.
- The Apprenticeship Program is an integral part of NXTHVN’s mission and recruits, hire and trains students from New Haven high schools with predominantly African- American and Hispanic student bodies.
NXTHVN is training BIPOC artists in the business of the art world. Although the art world has become increasingly professionalized, a missing component especially for BIPOC artists is exposure to art entrepreneurship. NXTHVN provides the support and mentorship needed to maintain a sustainable business practice and navigate the complex art world, which is still largely an insular community of academics, museum curators, collectors, philanthropists and elite patrons.
They also host exhibitions that are free and open to the public, bringing art into the lives of the local community that are in the image of, produced, curated and lead by members of New Haven’s diverse community.
AVANGRID is also working to help NXTHVN achieve LEED-certified status, a leading seal of energy efficiency to bring greater energy equity and savings to underserved communities. Once certified, NXTHVN will be the first black-led LEED-certified, adaptive reuse arts organization in the world.
Titus Kaphar is an icon of the art world, known for his masterful painting and reimaging of the African American experience. His work includes the 2020 Times Magazine cover addressing the death of George Floyd, an event that was a touchstone for a reckoning around diversity, inclusion and racial injustice in the public and private spheres in the United States. His work reconfigures and regenerates art history to include the African-American subject and his paintings are held in the collections of museums around the country including the Yale University Art Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art. Kaphar is dedicated to leveraging his rise in the art world seed this unique arts and economic engine in New Haven, while and bringing national and international attention to this historic city. Listen to Titus’ TED Talks about if art can amend history and how art can help difficult conversations.
The Avangrid Foundation is committed to reducing inequalities and promoting empowerment and enfranchisement within our communities in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals:
