The Fearless Artist Founder and CEO Kiki Somerville Begins Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business Program
WASHINGTON, DC, February 16 – The Fearless Artist Founder and CEO Kiki Somerville heads to New York City next week to begin her participation in the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women: Black in Business program. The Fearless Artist (TFA) empowers mission-driven artists to get their work seen, shared, and sold by providing access to coaching, to a community, and to art buyers who care about social change.
An entertainment industry veteran, speaker, lawyer, and author with 20 years of media experience, Kiki Somerville is the founder and CEO of The Fearless Artist and the Executive Producer of TFAPOPUP, one of the most popular popup galleries in the country. Somerville joins the 3rd cohort of the program, which aims to reach “Black women sole proprietors with the tools necessary to turn their business potential into business growth.” Fifty organizations were selected from over 800 applicants based on their established efforts to deliver innovative and transformative solutions to narrow opportunity gaps faced by Black women.
“I am excited about the One Million Black Women in Business Initiative as it provides crucial support to ventures that are often not supported,” said Somerville. “I am proud to lead The Fearless Artist as one of very few Black woman-led companies to have received venture capital funding, and especially as one at the exciting and unique intersection of art and technology. Less than 1% of venture capital funding goes to Black female founders, and I am proud to be in a place where I can contribute to normalizing Black female leadership for all people.”
About Kiki Somerville
A lawyer and event producer by training, Somerville always had a passion for supporting artists. In observing galleries and art events across the U.S. and the world, Kiki quickly discovered that today's artists were lacking the business knowledge to get their work seen, shared, and sold, and that she could push back against art world gatekeepers by teaching artists how to connect and tell their stories.
In 2009, Kiki produced her first art exhibition “Spirits of Haiti” with renowned artist Jude Papaloko “Thegenius.” In 2011, she created Fearless Artist Media/The Fearless Artist and began providing business services to major artists, writers and media personalities like Kerry Lutz, Danny Simmons, David Sena and Kenji Jasper. In 2014, Fearless Artist Media produced the first TFAPOPUP (The Fearless Artist Pop Up Gallery) to serve emerging and undiscovered contemporary artists who wanted access to exhibit during Art Basel Miami/Miami Art Week. In 2021, Kiki launched The Fearless Artist Young Curators Program, which teaches artists and creatives the business side of the art world and how to produce a successful event.
About The Fearless Artist
The Fearless Artist (TFA) was born as a community for knowledge and skill-building, making connections, and opportunities for diverse, mission-driven artists. Since its founding in 2011, TFA has expanded to produce widely acclaimed popup galleries (TFAPOPUP) during Art Basel Miami (with over 12,000 visitors in 2019), while serving 300+ artists and hundreds of thousands of fans in-person and at Thefearlessartist.com by providing educational programs for young artists, and private coaching on the art business with clients. For TFA’s first TFAPOPUP in New York in June 2022, Olay Body was the title sponsor and committed $100,000 in scholarship funding to The Fearless Artist Young Curators Program. Additional company information can be found by visiting the company website and by following @Tfa_the_fearless_artist.
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Investor Contact:
Maggie Walsh, maggie@tfapopup2021.com
Media Contact:
Deja Nycole, deja@tfapopup2021.com
