In parallel with its year-long project Not all speed is movement, The Luminary, with support from STLMade, announces a storefront project space by Aaron Fowler known as N2EXISTENCE at 2834 Cherokee Street. Set to open the series on Saturday, October 10 from 12 to 5pm, N2EXISTENCE is focused on manifesting the dreams of Fowler's family, friends and communities throughout the St. Louis region. The name is a nod to words of encouragement—almost a mantra—that the artist’s grandmother has uttered his entire life: "You need to speak it into existence."
N2EXISTENCE is the first part of the acclaimed artist’s largest series of projects to date and the first solo presentation in his hometown of St. Louis. Fowler is picking up the practice of speaking a new future into existence, as an aspiration of hope, for himself, his family and his city in this moment of traumatic change. The storefront will be a space in which a growing group of participants from around the region can present their work to the public and collaborate directly with the artist to create new works to share. For Fowler, N2EXISTENCE is "a movement to create cultural change, inspiring people to use their passions to manifest new realities of freedom.”
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The storefront's first participant is fashion designer Traci Petty, a lifelong friend of Fowler's, who will present a popup retail project for her company Sexy Salvage. She will also be working on a new nonprofit concept called Adriene’s Angels, dedicated to her mother who passed away from breast cancer when she was young. For the opening, Petty will use the storefront to provide clothes and food to unhoused neighbors and school clothes and supplies to children, and will looking for additional ways to support these communities through the storefront. Participants will continue to rotate every few weeks through March 2021, ranging from shoe designers, podcasters, visual artists, recording artists and entrepreneurs in its six-month run.
Details about participants and programs will continue to be updated at http://theluminaryarts.com/exhibitions/n2existence throughout the project.
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This project will be open to the public for socially distanced viewing on Saturdays, 10-5pm and by appointment. Masks are required for entry. Limited 2 people in the space at one time