Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Laura Post, I am 28 years old and two years ago I started The Art Project, an initiative with which I want to create a platform for young and talented artists. The idea is to organise commercial exhibitions on different locations in order to connect young talent to a wide audience. I work with a group of artists that I help in shaping their artistic career, and that I always try to enlarge by adding inspiring new artists.
Besides that I work at Galerie Post & García, which is a gallery for contemporary art here in Maastricht, where I am involved in many different aspects of the gallery. We actually have three locations in the city. The main gallery is located in the Céramique are, where we now are showing an exhibition with the works of Dutch artist Sidi El Karchi. Five years ago we started Kunstuitleen Maastricht, which offers very flexible conditions for having contemporary art at home, and since March we also have Espacio Gallery, an active space where we try to organize between 10-12 exhibitions per year, at the Rechtstraat in Wyck.
What would you consider your distinctive achievement?
We just organised the exhibition ‘Unraveling’ at the Espacio gallery, with the works of three inspiring young artists. For this project we set up a very exciting collaboration with Young Poets. By working together we created something really special; the poetry provided a different and unique perspectives to the works shown.
And although there’s still so much to achieve, I’m extremely happy with the responses this exhibition got. The quality of the art in the show was very high, especially considering the fact that the artists are just starting their careers. I am very happy that the public responded so well to the art as well, and that the exhibition was commercially a big success. For the artists it’s a huge compliment that people love their works so much that they actually want to take them home.
What are you looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to continue working with a group of talented young artists and add new talents to The Art Project. I’m trying to find more innovative ways to bring the art to the public, and also to focus on creating a public of young art buyers. So I hope to bring more people in contact with art and help them in finding the pieces for them. To do so I would for example love to take The Art Project to international art fairs in the future.
Which advise will you give to other professionals?
No man is an island, so talk to as many people as possible, from all kinds of different creative disciplines, because it always gives me inspiration to improve every project or exhibition we’re doing. And often these inspiring conversations lead to the best collaborations.
What are the challenges that we need to overcome to make cultural entrepreneurship more accessible?
I think it is of vital importance to foster cooperation and to be open to dialogue. We need to try to break out of more traditional patterns and look for new ways to work, also in relation to the need of the audience. And to be active and do things, because by doing thing, you learn, you see what you can improve. It sounds as such a cliché, but if you don’t do it, you will never know. Every experience is a learning treasure.
