Artist Spotlight #11: NICOLE RADEMACHER
Each month we spotlight members of our Sustainability Network who are contributing to a better world and more sustainable practice for their peers. NICOLE RADEMACHER (nicolerademacher.com) makes a living as an artist and digital communications professional. She currently serves as Digital Communications Manager for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). Before working for the City she was Director of Communications & Outreach at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.
Nicole in the exhibition You Are a Perpetual Tourist (photo: Matías Muñoz-Rodriguez)
Hi Nicole! Tell US a little about what you do and who you are in the world.
I am a mother, wife, artist, and arts administrator. In my art practice, I mainly work with video, but I also incorporate photography and community engagement. In my imagery, I consider material such as gesture, space, and object as cultural artifacts of communication. In my current community engagement projects, I facilitate workshops for participants to explore their relationship to notions of belonging.
How do you support your peers or your community through your practice?
I love sharing and collaborating with resources, ideas, meals… I think I support my peers best by being there for them, helping when I can, and collaborating where appropriate.
How do you balance your identity as an artist with your job working for the department of cultural affairs? Do you see these as overlapping identities, or do you keep them separate?
I definitely see them as having overlapping parts. Recently, as a guest in an undergraduate professional practice class, one of the students' questions helped me realize that my work with the concept of belonging in my art practice is also employed with my work for DCA. Part of the mission of DCA is inclusivity and access for everyone--which in essence is making certain that the creative community in Los Angeles feels that are supported and have a sense of belonging.
What do you want to see in the world, 10 years from now? How might what you're doing contribute to that world?
Wow, 10 years. What do I really want? I want people to feel safe. I want to know that my son has an informed, aka “woke,” education. I want collaboration to be a way of life. It sounds so idealistic, but honestly I would love for bullying to be extinct.
I do think that the investigations I’m doing with psychology, belonging, adoption, culture, communication… that as long as I continue to engage in conversations around those topics that it helps us get to a place where more people can feel safe. I hope that through more community engagement in my work, I can contribute further to support my ideal, future world.
installation shot of Gate Pass by Nicole Rademacher at the Los Angeles Airport (LAX).
What's coming up next for you?
Well, my exhibition at LAX airport is finally finalized! The exhibition, Gate Pass, was originally installed in March 2016 before I started with DCA, but it was placed on hold due to unforeseen renovations at the airport. Los Angeles World Airports and DCA have graciously honored the original agreement to exhibit “Gate Pass” for six months without interruption. So go check it out in ticketing in Terminal 3.
In addition, I’m thrilled to be able to present a casual Social Media Workshop with Rhizomatic Arts on April 2 at LACE. Lots of my artsy friends ask me for tips on social, so this will be a fantastic opportunity to give back to many at the same time.
Lastly, I’ve been creating 2 workshops specifically designed to work with teen adoptees, foster youth, their families, and also adult adoptees. One focuses on creating imagined stories or reimagining secret ones (called Origin Stories) and the other provides a safe space to talk about identity construction for children growing up with parents who are not biologically related to them (called Safe Water Workshop). I am still looking for spaces to do both workshops... though with Origin Stories I have been collaborating with mental health professional Jeanette Yoffe and will go to University of Northern Iowa to present the workshop in several formats at the end of April 2017.
