Legendary hip-hop producer Swizz Beatz is on a mission to revolutionize the way artists do business. In this glorious talk, he shares some of the ways he's helping fellow creatives thrive. "If we're not protecting the arts, we're not protecting our future," he says. After the talk, join our host Modupe in conversation with art world expert Alexandra Giniger as they discuss the importance of supporting living artists.

From changing the status quo, being named as top in their field, radical in the world of art, these next three guests are changing the world of art. Rujeko Hockley, Assistant Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Ashley James, Assistant Curator at the Brooklyn Museum and Alexandra Ginger, Director of Artist Relations at the Jack Shainman Gallery explore and discuss what museums and artists helped mold them and share their thoughts on the future of art for young African Americans.

Jack Shainman’s Artist Whisperer Alexandra Giniger on How She Went From an Intern in Awe of Barkley Hendricks to Working With His Estate

A born-and-raised New Yorker, Alexandra Giniger is an alumnus of the Studio Museum of Harlem, interning there in 2007 before working as the studio manager for the Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu. “It was exactly what I wanted to do: be an expert in this artist’s language and be able to support her. As tough as it was to leave Wangechi, I knew that what I was doing with her was what I wanted to accomplish with other artists, so that is when I moved into the gallery scene.” She ended up at Jack Shainman after being a fan for many years. “We work with more artists of color, more black artists, I would think, than any other gallery in New York.”

“After working in Wangechi’s studio for almost four years, I moved into the gallery world. I found that historically, galleries have been dominated by attention to white, male artists, so this was of course a huge shift. I would advocate for including Black artists in the gallery’s programming, but realized that in some ways, those artists were invisible to the people I was working with. It seemed like there were two parallel art worlds. I was trying to bring one into the other, which was critical to me — that all voices and practices be seen and heard. There’s so much talent out there that is just being ignored. Even though it was at times difficult to be doubted when trying to bring these voices to the table, it felt like there was almost no choice but to advocate for these underrepresented artists.”

When I think of the legacy of the current Brooklyn Museum exhibit, 'We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85', and who are the new millennial women of color shaping the art world, women like Alexandra Giniger come to mind.