Mariane Ibrahim

and important figures, but they were a little bit older.

They were not more of the contemporaries.

The tech cities are always a strange space, you know, because I think there is a part of them that really feel and think that they are creatives.

I think the tech people often associate themselves to be creatives.

And therefore, the part of the art doesn't really come in the same way as an art enthusiastic.

You know, it's almost like there might be even competition, you know.

So it wasn't really a fertile environment at every level in terms of, you know, the people curiosity.

I was often alone in the space.

And what is really ironic is that I haven't changed much of the program.

You know, I just changed the location.

Yeah, I was such an enigma in that sort of a space.

People really didn't understand why I'm bringing this topic.

And then the level of representation that I'm part of, being a woman of color, being a black gallerist, was also something that really disturbed them a little bit, you know?

And then Seattle is not the most diverse city.

So where are my community was really a bit of an isolation.

But you know what this has done to me for seven years?

I was able to observe, observe the world.

I was able to see what was going on.

I was able to take more risk.

I was able to experiment and sort of create the team that I wanted to work with in the next decade.