An Artistic Education
New development director Ariel Saldivar dreams big for the Goss-MichaelFoundation
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Ariel Saldivar is the new director of development at the Goss-Michael Foundationin Dallas.Photo courtesy of Goss-Michael Foundation -
The Goss-Michael Foundation, founded by George Michael and his partner KennyGoss, was formed to share their personal collection of British contemporary artwith Dallas.Photo courtesy of Dallas Design District
No one could accuse Ariel Saldivar of being lazy. The Dallas-based art curator/musician/jewelry designer has barely been in her new post a week, and she’s already got big plans to share the Goss-Michael Foundation’s stellar collections of British contemporary art with international visitors as well as Dallasites of all ages and stripes.
“Dallas has a history of catering to specific type of art scene,” Saldivar says. “My plan is to make it more relevant and not as intimidating, starting with kids and young college students.
“We have an art collection nobody else has aside from [London’s] Saatchi Gallery, and we have this foundation to showcase it,” she says. “Because of this, we can bring in people nobody else can, and I want to highlight that and raise funds for things that matter.”
“Dallas has a history of catering to specific type of art scene,” Saldivar says. “My plan is to make it more relevant and not as intimidating.”
To achieve these goals, Saldivar will be developing a platform to connect with area schools, bringing art to kids through field trip sponsorships, as well as sourcing educational interns to work on what she calls a “game-changing curriculum.”
Adults will be able to get up close and personal with exhibits through events like a collage-making class held December 1 in conjunction with the foundation’s current Linder show.
After graduating from New York University with a degree in art history, Saldivar moved back to Dallas in 2006 to curate and manage post-war American and contemporary art collections for the Dallas-based Green Collection and Green Investment Trust. Delving into the local scene, she developed her fundraising chops by serving on the boards of the Oak Cliff Creative Arts Exchange and Friends of the Katy Trail.
When not touring the world’s art fairs, Saldivar spent the last few years on tour as a singer with bands such as Broken Social Scene and the Polyphonic Spree. On the side, she managed to launch a jewelry and handbag line under the moniker Olivia K. (The collection is sold at area boutiques such as Factory Girl, as well as Bergdorf Goodman and the Standard Hotels in LA, Miami and New York.)
With such a schedule, it’s no wonder that Saldivar reveals she sleeps only a few hours a night. Although she admits, “I go nuts if I don’t have a creative outlet,” her other enterprises will be taking a back seat to her role at Goss-Michael and the cultural impact she hopes to have on the city.
“Whether you know nothing or a lot about art, you can come out [of Goss-Michael] learning something and creating a dialogue. That’s the goal,” she says.
“I want people to be engaged and inspired. That’s what art should do, and that’s what this foundation should be about.”
