Today we’d like to introduce you to Bekah Kolbe.
Hi Bekah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story is about finding the labor that I love — supporting artists and helping them grow — by accident. I grew up in a creative family – my mother is a professional pianist and organist who accompanies high school theater programs and has played every church hymn under the sun in various brethren and methodist churches in rural Indiana. Music has always been her ultimate passion when she wasn’t raising my six brothers and me. She also enjoys writing poetry, often inspired by nature.
My father is an attorney, but an artist at heart, having dabbled in drawing, guitar, and writing personal essays since childhood. Most days of the week, one or two of my siblings and I would be caught filling our suburban home with experimental tunes from our family music room, which contained a Hammond organ, an upright piano, synths, flutes, guitars, a trumpet, and bookcases full of sheet music. I was constantly encouraged by my parents to pursue my creative passions, whether I was performing original music at local coffee houses, taking art classes, writing poetry on my walls, or rearranging my bedroom on a weekly basis.
By my senior year of high school, I had become dead set on becoming a fine artist. I applied to and was accepted into a competitive AP Studio Art program at my high school with the intention of building an art portfolio to apply for art school. The program was designed by several artists who made up the art faculty at my regional high school and was led by my favorite teacher to this day, Don Schwartzentruber.
Halfway through the year, it became abundantly apparent that I was spending the majority of my time coaching my peers rather than pursuing my own portfolio. I was most passionate about helping my classmates work through their creative blocks, brainstorm new techniques, and find ways to effectively transmute teenage angst and trauma into their works.
I finished out the program with gratitude for developing my studio art skills and for a newly founded sense of direction. I chose to pursue a Psychology degree at Earlham College, a private liberal arts school in podunk Indiana known for its international flair and progressive and Quaker ideologies.
After college, I went on to volunteer for WWOOF (Worldwide Organization of Organic Farms) in Puerto Rico, New Mexico, and Vermont. I settled into a management position at my aunt’s fine art and antique gallery, Blue Pearl, in Pierceton, IN where she mentored me on art galleries and planted the seed that would ultimately be the first step in my career, unbeknownst to me.
After some time at Blue Pearl and a few months in New York, I landed in Telluride where the arts community entranced me just as much as the mountains. I managed other smaller galleries and eventually met Beth McLaughlin, owner of Slate Gray Gallery, who would become another mentor. Together we led Slate Gray from its infancy to its establishment as a leading platform for emerging and regional artists in Southwest Colorado.
After several years in Telluride and 5 as Slate Gray’s Director, I made the move to Durango, CO in 2021. My time in Telluride was rich with arts immersion, having either collaborated professionally with other arts organizations or volunteered for most of them at one point or another. Since moving to Durango, I have taken a more entrepreneurial approach to arts professionalism, and I continue to explore my role in the arts community as an artist representative and arts consultant, board member at Durango Creative District, and executive at iAM Music.
At the heart of it all, I’m living out a 17-year-old me’s dream of nurturing my artist friends and helping them discover how to heal through their art. Artists are wrestling with massively complex concepts and emotions within their heads and hearts, just like we all do. Yet their brave calling is to transmute all of that tension, grief, and joy into something tangible, something universal, and something specific enough that someone will experience their work and think, “This is what I’ve been feeling all along too, and I need to be reminded of this more often.”
On top of that, they have to navigate a sometimes archaic gallery world and often teach themselves how to build best business practices in a constantly evolving digital landscape. It’s a daunting career to take on, and yet the calling persists. My job is to alleviate their stressors, coach them through creative blocks, and guide them confidently and consistently toward their career goals. Durango specifically needs so many tools for professional development and spaces cultivated to elevate the cultural dialogue. We are slowly but surely transforming the arts community here by collaborating with other like-minded arts professionals.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would say that the road has been smooth, but has required a lot of endurance and climbing. The most difficult aspects have been developing hard skills, putting in the work in the form of long hours, and being on the clock sometimes constantly. There were periods when my job, particularly as a Gallery Director, came first above all else.
Although that time is invaluable and the experience ultimately facilitated the success I was working towards, those sacrifices were difficult to make at the time. I was fortunate to start my career in my mid-twenties when I had the energy and enthusiasm to prioritize work over other aspects of my life for periods. Ultimately, this led me to a spot where I can now work with more flexibility and shift my priorities daily or week-to-week, ensuring that my passions and personal relationships are nurtured alongside my career goals.
An additional struggle I’ve faced is the lack of big-city opportunities living in small mountain towns. Often small towns require arts professionals to create the opportunities that they seek, which is equally challenging and rewarding, especially for ambitious types like myself.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work takes on many roles, depending on the needs of my creative community and my availability at the time. I am a curator, artist representative, and gallerist with an emphasis on professional and business development.
In Telluride, I curated over 50 exhibitions at Slate Gray, collaborated with and hosted events for various arts nonprofits such as Telluride Fire Festival and Telluride Art + Architecture, curated several luxury resorts and restaurants such as Cosmopolitan, Lumiere, Element 52 Auberge Resorts, Camp V, Pure Beauty Spa, Telluride Ski Resort Plaza, curated luxury homes in Telluride and Mountain Village, and assisted several emerging artists in the scary transition of quitting their day jobs and becoming a full-time fine artist.
Since moving to Durango, I have taken a more entrepreneurial approach to arts professionalism with an emphasis on professional development. I represent contemporary artists such as woodworker and painter, Ted Moore, and landscape painter, Joe Schafer, and founded the Incubator Program for Emerging Artists through the Durango Creative District with their Executive Director, Kathryn Waggener. The program recently launched on November 18th at our first satellite location at Stillwater Music for an exhibition entitled ‘natura fabricata’ which features the woodworks and paintings of previously mentioned Ted Moore. The program continues now with local artist Heather Freeman’s first solo exhibition ‘Revel in Play: seize the moment’.
I’ve also recently joined Durango Creative District’s board and become chair of the Grants & Placemaking Committee. We have big plans for expanding Durango’s creative opportunities, public art engagement, and professional development opportunities.
Lastly, I am on the executive team for iAM Music, a nonprofit with the mission to empower and engage local musicians and stimulate the local creative economy. Through local music festivals featuring independent musicians, outreach programs for youth, and networking opportunities for local musicians, we provide a platform for songwriters and bands to connect and deepen their creative voices.
So, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you before we go? How can they support you?
Artists can work with me by reaching me to set up a free 30-minute consultation phone call to assess their needs and goals and see if a working partnership would benefit both of us. Other arts professionals can collaborate with me in various ways.
I’m always open to opportunities to collaborate in exhibition curation and planning, connecting artists with galleries or interior designers, and building regional networks. As far as support, sharing what I’m doing in the art communities I engage in as well as sharing the works of the artists I represent is always hugely helpful.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bekahkolbe.com
- Instagram: @curatingthesouthwest
Image Credits
Latitude 38 Vacation Rentals, Cabins by Vacasa, Kristen Kula, and Candace Cross Photography
