Opportunity, development and empowerment, those are the three words that GoingPlaces Art Collective lives by. Founded in 2018, by two Hartford Art School alumni, Kimberly DiMilia and Alexander Ranniello, GoingPlaces is a collective that aims to build connections with and for all kinds of artists, arts communities and businesses throughout the CT, tri-state area.
Kimberly graduated from Hartford Art School in 2018 with a major in Visual Communications Design and a minor in Art History. Kim’s experience working in art stores and creating displays at her current place of work, has made her an expert in the creative mixing of medias and she serves as a great resource for collective members that have questions about supplies and other logistics. Alexander received his BFA in Painting from HAS in 2017 and his MA in Communication from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2020. Alex has experience working and interning for a variety of arts organizations, including the CT Office of the Arts and Stockman Gallery, and creating original paintings and murals.
Utilizing all of their “collective” experience and the network they have built, makes them a terrific pair to help other artists to “go places.”
Why a collective?
Alex and Kim described their experiences in and out of art school and how they have seen so much talent across the state of Connecticut, some in hidden places. They want to bring all of the talent from across the state together. They hope to create a bridge across the somewhat difficult path within the arts and to some more physically or theoretically remote places.
When asked what artists get from joining their collective, Alex and Kim explained, "It grants them access to our entire network that we’ve accrued over the past three years. Since 2018, when we first started, we’ve incorporated in business owners and organizations, members from the different cultural councils, arts organizations and commissions across Connecticut and the artists themselves. A lot of those accumulations are part of the benefit when people join us. It gives them immediate access to the opportunities we post on the monthly newsletters.” Part of having a collective, makes it so they can reach out to the collective community if anyone within the community has questions or opportunities that might be helpful within the community as a whole.
Even with active outreach, attempting to target all artists in the area, they still find themselves surprised by the places they are reaching. Doing more events and being approached by different members and social media followers has awakened them to the fact that they are reaching artists at every age range and with so many different backgrounds within the arts.
“I grew up in a very rural community… My parents, they did their best, but they didn’t know what they were doing when I told them I wanted to go to art school. It was a new experience for all of us…. It would be great to see more people from rural communities having the ability express themselves and their ideas …. really beautiful ideas can come from the places that you never expect them to.” – Kim DiMilia
They are also creating opportunities for business owners and artists to connect! Two open-ended opportunities are showcases at Glaze: An Innovative Salon in Hamden, and doing recurring showcases with the Max Deli in Hartford. They look to reach out to businesses that want to have culture and art in their business, providing a straight line to artists that want to be there, representing themselves. GoingPlaces also has a partnership with the Firm Art Gallery. The Firm Art Gallery, is a black female owned gallery in Bridgeport that opened in 2020, owned and operated by VanDaysha Taylor. GoingPlaces will be working with the gallery to put together exhibitions in the near future.
Kim spoke on her time at Hartford Art School, in a class with professor, Hiro Fukawa, a project based on minimalism and taking an art history class, learning about minimalist art, she learned something about herself. Minimalism wasn’t for her, “I like making the narrative, I like books, I like a start and end point which helped solidify myself and how I like to think about myself as an artist.” The Let’s Go Places initiative is a program where Alex and Kim go to high schools and community colleges in the area and talk and work with the students. In doing so they are guiding high school and community college students to find themselves as artists. They provide experience in showcasing work, putting forth projects and helping with events from beginning to end. It also allows them to get their work out there and get exposure. Some Colleges hold up an archetypal image of what the successful art student looks like:
“We want to pick away at that and break down some of the mythology to the community college and high school students, by showing them more than one way to do this. There is more than one way to be successful, it looks a lot different than what you may perceive it to be.” -Alexander Ranniello
Thorough their programming and messaging, they express the importance of hard work, meeting people, staying connected, and expressing oneself. Kim and Alex hope to give artists the maximum amount of opportunity that they can offer, and to partner with businesses and organizations that feel a disconnect, providing a way to broach the arts.
“We want to help develop relationships and drive commerce with our projects, and most importantly, empower artists.” – Alexander Ranniello
Kim DiMilia, GoingPlacesBelieving in yourself changes everything.