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Performance spaces and support for artists are few and far between. When there are spaces, they are usually underfunded and are limited in access to resources, including space, quantity, and health and sanitation. Art is the key ingredient to a meaningful life for so many people, as well as a valuable tool for the expression of self-love. Thus, the lack of adequate spaces for creative and artistic freedom is unfortunate — Luckily, there are some spaces that have recently developed through innovation and ingenuity where artists can flourish.
The “Love Movement”
Many artists use the process of self-expression to help improve self-esteem, manage addictions, understand emotional conflicts, develop social skills and more. However, many people need a safe space to do these things — burdened by the lack of opportunity for free expression, some turn to self-destruction.
The Melange love movement is committed to branding art all over the world. Striving to bring together artists and entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds, they aim to be a global event in which guests from all over, including Peru, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Croatia, South Africa, New York, and more are welcome to participate in what is essentially a party that combines fashion, music, theater and dance. You could even compare their scene to a constantly traveling artist colony. The event boasts performers from top television shows, including America’s Got Talent, American Idol, RuPaul’s Drag Race and America’s Best Dance Crew.
The event is more than 7 years old, and has had past events in cities like San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro. The show has diverse artists, performers, models and designers: notable names include Igor Galas and Nicole Miller, as well as a special honoring of Jean-Paul Gaultier.
Melange was formed in 2011 in San Francisco with no more than a few local leaders, passionate and determined to create change in the artist industry, to bring forth greater diversity, solidarity, and a courage to declare their right to some agency in the goings-on in their own industry. They want change, and so they are making it happen. Seven years down the line Melange has landed a multi-year partnership deal with Sephora as the official makeup sponsor, and has held events all over the world with artists of all kinds representing nearly every inch of the world.
Takeaway
Artists and entrepreneurs, though different in many ways, have a very common source of oxygen without which they cannot thrive. This is community. Nick Navarro and Talia Romano founded the Melange Love Movement in 2011 and in doing so created not only a series of ongoing global events that brought artists of all backgrounds, mediums, and geographical locations together. They also stand as living proof that determination can go a very long way in achieving entrepreneurial goals. In an impressive display of self-starter-ship, Navarro and Romano Inspires belief in the idea that a movement of this size, or whatever our goal is, can potentially be within our reach.
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