WAITSFIELD, Vt. (WCAX) – An art gallery in Waitsfield is thinking outside of the box to highlight underrepresented creators.
From Florida to California to New York to Massachusetts — Tina Picz says she has now found a home with her 14-year-old daughter in Vermont.
She opened her Firefolk Arts gallery in the Mad River Valley in May.
“To be able to have these artists and makers come in and tell their own stories through their own mouths and lenses and through their own art rather than someone telling the story for them has been really important for us. So, it’s sort of about passing the mic to those people,” Picz said.
The Asian-American, woman-owned gallery highlights underrepresented artists and creators in rural communities. Picz admits the challenges of being an Asian woman in a primarily white state and that is why she is focusing on being a diverse artist. “It became really important to me to represent artists that are underrepresented in our state, because I found out that there are very few BIPOC-owned galleries in our state, and that really inspired me to want to represent these people more widely here,” she said. Her last four exhibits have focused on women as well as people in the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities.
Her daughter, Harmony, says it’s a joy to be working with her mother and learn a thing or two from her. “It’s been really nice to be able to be in a space with a lot of different kinds of people,” she said
In addition to more exhibits, Picz hopes to incorporate workshops to build a sense of community.
Copyright 2023 WCAX. All rights reserved.
Read the full article here