MEET ARTE NOIR'S NEW GALLERY MANAGER
- Hilary Northcraft
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
ARTE NOIR continues to grow, and we are thrilled to introduce you to Hasaan Kirkland, who has come aboard to assist in managing the gallery space. Hasaan brings to us a wealth of knowledge as a practicing artist, curator, and arts educator. Get to know a little more about Hasaan!
From where do you hail?
I hail from all over—smile. As a military child, I was born in Bitburg, Germany, and for the first fourteen years of my life, my family and I traveled the world. I was able to see and experience life from as far as Ankara, Turkey, Israel, Italy, Scotland, the Philippines, and Okuma Falls in Japan. Beyond these culturally diverse locations of rich history and wonderment of my formative years, I claim Sacramento, California, and my soul is from Youngstown, Ohio. These two locations are where my parents, Raymond Eugene and Paulette “Woody” Kirkland, were from. These places gave me the grounding to feel at home, even though I couldn't call out the names of streets, the mascots of high schools, or the names of the Big Mamas, OG’s, or known local church families who raised the neighborhood kids from the block. This quilted cultural experience, however, did not prevent me from being welcomed, rooted, and connected to places like Seattle, Washington, and Charlotte, North Carolina, which are the two locations that I have lived the most in one single experience.
Tell us a bit about your arts practice.
My art practice centers on education, art, and culture. The education of my practices is equally bonded to research, history, contemporary experiences, methods of educational praxis [pedagogy (teaching and learning)], and various ways of creativity and imagination that embody the well-being of learning and instruction. As a visual artist, my arts practice is revealed in my being a two-dimensional painter—encompassing acrylic on canvas, mural works, and graphic design— reflects my affection for figurative forms, representational imagery, abstract expressionism, surrealism, and collage compositions rooted in the African and African American experience. This space aptly narrates a didactic compositional interest in words and images, while visually framing a conversation that one can see and read.
Culture is elevated in my arts practice in the visceral expanse of human connection that permeates through curating Fine Art, Public art, and Art Consulting, developing curricula to empower learning, engaging in self-consciousness to accept the value of differences and similarities on how beings share space, either past, present, or future, and the immutable sound, sights, feels, touches, and memories of what encapsulates the moments of life that are the markers of when, where, and how cultures is found. This lens of culture becomes a portal of truth or fiction, imagination or evidence, faith or fascination, and most of all, experience and the evolution of ideas that construct the identities of who we all are.
How has Seattle nurtured your artistic practice?
Seattle has nurtured my artistic practice by providing me with the opportunity to evolve and achieve my creative destiny. Seattle has helped cultivate and guide my mind as a business professional in the Fine Art industry, including public art, gallery and museum curating, public art consulting, art education, and the professional development of visual and performing arts students in the non-profit sector. Seattle has affirmed my worth, expanded my network, fueled my passion, refined my practice, and shaped my mindset on achieving my career goals, living a fulfilling life, and ultimately, sustaining and transcending as an artist and a business to create and leave a legacy that will outlive me, while providing a path for my children’s children.
What is your relationship to Seattle's Black arts community?
My relationship with Seattle’s Black Arts Community has evolved, positioning me as one of the welcomed curatorial advocates for the brilliance and vibrancy of expression found in the Seattle arts community. I say welcome because I am not from Seattle, and to be an advocate, a curator, a cheerleader, a caretaker of Seattle's Black arts community puts you in an ilk of educators, activist, artists, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and home grown historians put me in a place to guard, guide, and give light and life to the multitude of Black artists who are sooooo dope, deserving of their iconic place in the world and the world of art.
What role do you think Black art plays in building community?
Black art plays an instrumental role in building community, as it documents history, narrates the evolution of messages within the community, and crafts the consciousness of how the culture within the community grows. Black art is vastly crucial beyond the context of Black culture, but to American culture, as it is a living and breathing organ of a community. Like expressions found on the face, Black art communicates messages about the mindset, spirit, and mentality of the being it is attached to. Black art is the rhythm, the style, the richness, or the culture found in the grit and the soul of a community.
What do you find are unique aspects of the Black arts community in the PNW?
I think the unique aspects of the Black art community are the range of expressions, crafts, and the stories from Black folks who hail from the South, or who are true to the Pacific Northwest.
In your role as Gallery Manager, what do you hope to accomplish for Black arts, artists, and collectors of Black art?
In my role as Gallery Manager, I aim to create an informed and celebratory experience, characterized by a high level of gallery exhibition excellence and an open-minded investor mindset that guides and educates the community and collectors. This anticipated and projected exposure, I hope, will provide education, familiarity with art and artists, and a standard of excellence that builds relationships between ARTE NOIR and its community. I hope that my contributions will aid in the trajectory of ARTE NOIR’s state-of-the-art premier national gallery to expand and grow with notable innovative programs and community engagement.
What does the current exhibit, Central District Legacy, bring up for you?
The Central District Legacy exhibition brings up the iconic history captured in the Harlem Renaissance on 125th Street in Harlem. Although Seattle, Washington, is not Harlem, New York, it shares a rich history in art, activism, education, business, and Black culture.
What are you most looking forward to in your new role at ARTE NOIR?
What I am most looking forward to in my role is the relationship with the Central District community, the legacy of the artists and narrators of the culture, and having the honor of being a part of the gallery's history and the many artists who will exhibit on its creative walls.
What is one thing you learned about ARTE NOIR that you did not know before?
I learned about the vision and intentional plan of ownership, as well as the cultural connoisseurship and iconic history of leading the Central District through fine art, retail, and programmatic impact, initiated by ARTE NOIR’s Co-Founders, Jazmyn Scott and Vivian Phillips.
Please share a recent favorite show/performance by a Seattle artist that you experienced.
Unfortunately, I do not have a favorite show or performance by a Seattle artist. However, I am most delighted when I see any works created by my good friend and college classmate (WSU), Damon Brown—Creative Lou (Seattle Artist). My affection for Damon's work is emblematic of two friends in the arts who followed their dreams to become accomplished, have fulfilling careers, and make history with our stories. When I see him emerge in the public art space, from buildings to the commercial world, to national and international brands, and into museums, it encourages me to believe in ourselves, our gifts, and our abilities, which reflect the dreams we shared that were—and are—often so big that they scared us to dream them; now we are living them.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hasaan Kirkland is a career Educator, Art Advocate, Art and Design Consultant, Curator, Gallery Designer, Speaker, Visual Artist, and Entrepreneur. Anchored in education and community engagement, my diverse contributions and cultural affinity have allowed me to contribute into the creative economy of various locations, Seattle, WA, Charlotte, NC, Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, Hempstead, NY, New Orleans, Louisiana, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, and Guangdon, China to name a few. Throughout my career, advocacy for Black and Brown creativity, social justice, and celebrating Black excellence in Art has been acute in my focus.
My doctorate in education (Ph.D.) and my terminal degree in fine arts (MFA) are centered on the impact and usefulness of Arts-based pedagogy (ABP) as a radical tool for teaching and learning. My concentration on ABP is rooted in the relationship it offers teachers and students (specifically students of color) an experience of learning that is centered on exploring creative critical thinking, critical consciousness, transformative learning, cultural sustainability, art as a source of experience, imagination and speculative design as a process of art and social justice.
In concert with my interest in curriculum, Studio art, and culture, I am also interested in curating art and experiences found in visual art. These forms of expression provide communities and viewers with a direct impact on their lives by way of learning, hearing, observing, and at times, feeling the experiences of the artist through their craft. As a curator, I have adored the opportunities to visit the imaginative minds of artists while collaboratively producing an experience of their creative soul. In my experience and belief, these methods of research, theory, studio, creativity, and instruction provide a path toward improving, contributing, and expanding the interactive, reciprocal, and immersive experience of teaching, creating, curating, and learning.