The weekend wasn’t over year 1 when people started to ask about BUTTER traveling to other cities. I remember Cora asking, “when are we taking this show on the road?” and attendees asking if Chicago would be next. That was year 1.
6 years later, we’ve been working on BUTTER. Heads down, working to sustain the art fair that centers care and economic power for African diasporic artists. We weren’t exactly planning for an expansion – we barely have capacity to fulfill Indy’s fair. Other than our talks with Eduardo Luna on what we might do together to support Black and Brown artists in Chicago and hearing from other visionaries in the South about challenges in their ecosystem, we have been focused on the mission. When LA showed up to BUTTER 2024 in droves, it seemed like we were catching up to BUTTER’s plans.
From Nakeyta Moore to Jonathan Coleman to Mike and Kyra Epps – the west coast has seen BUTTER and invited our fair to the nation’s second largest art market. And they followed through! Jonathan hosted us in LA and introduced us to Kris Simms and DJ Qwess Coast right away, telling us this would be the core operations team to make a BUTTER LA come alive. Mike Epps told us about Leimert Park and the incredible Black art community in Los Angeles and suddenly, we were planning a fair. Kia Davis curated BUTTER 3 and introduced us to LA-based Jac Forbes who has been an unstoppable force for all things BUTTER. This has happened before our eyes. It has taught me about BUTTER’s personality and her confidence. Truly, we are working to keep up with the growth of the fair that set out to change everything.
As exciting as it’s been, the road to expansion has felt a little bumpy. Beyond more work hours than ever, I’m not sure Indianapolis knows how to feel exactly, and people wonder if GANGGANG has spread its footprint to Los Angeles. It has. Our mission spread a long time ago when other markets asked us to create murals and connect our artists with theirs back in 2021. I’m not sure why this feels different. Is Indy afraid larger cities are going to “take” something from us? Are we afraid we’ll lose the talent we just began to retain? If we believe BUTTER, we should share in her confidence to center beauty, economic power and culture without fear of scarcity. LA wants what we made!
My 2-year-old niece saw butter in the refrigerator and said, “Auntie Mali is butter.” And, weekly I receive a text of a pillow or an ornament as butter is now trending. I know we have something special. Something that Indianapolis supported, groomed and celebrated and something that made the world look differently at the circle city. Now, they’re wanting more from our artists and curious about our cultural power. For as long I’ve wanted a career, it has been to promote the goodness of Indianapolis’ artists. It’s hard to believe that we get to do that in a major way – literally bringing Indianapolis’ talent to a more visible world stage and saying yes, creative innovation happens where we live. And the mission to center artists should happen everywhere.
Kudos to Nap’s BUTTER.
