We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ciera Alyse McKissick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ciera Alyse below.
Ciera Alyse , appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
Being an artist and creative, and working with them is such a gift and it inspires me everyday. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, except maybe being a chef! Being a creative it is not for the faint of heart though. It’s a commitment and if you are on this journey, it’s a long one. You have to show up for yourself and your work everyday — sometimes when you are uninspired, or even after a long day of working your day job that makes ends meet, and sometimes when you question whether or not it’s all worth it. I think that the work itself is not daunting or hard and comes and feels very natural to me. What is hard is balancing it all. I work a full time job (which I love and is also in the creative field), but my creative practice is also a full time job, and sometimes I wish that I could work on that all day and have the freedom to go home after a long day visioning and planning for my personal practice and be a regular person and not burn the midnight oil trying to make my dreams come true. But all in all I am happy as an artist and creative.
Ciera Alyse , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am an independent writer, curator, cultural producer, and the founder of AMFM, an organization whose mission is to provide a platform for emerging artists in creative disciplines, primarily in art, music and fashion. I created AMFM, as an independent study project in 2009 at my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During my time there, I studied Journalism and Mass Communications, and got into arts and culture through writing reviews and articles of concerts, albums, and exhibitions and found myself frustrated writing about people who were already famous, and wanted to uplift artists and creatives like my peers who were just emerging in their careers on on the cusp of their practice. In order to have more autonomy over the artists I wanted to cover, and the stories that I wanted to uplift and tell, I launched AMFM, which initially which was a web magazine. The content ranges from long form articles to Q&A’s with creatives.
I also really try to center emerging artists, many of them BIPOC, and find new and fresh voices. I love exposing people to artists they may have never heard of, or thinking about how to expose people to art in untraditional ways and in unconventional spaces, and shake up the traditional white cube.
As the platform grew, I also began to host gallery pop ups at different locations throughout Milwaukee and Chicago, and it became what AMFM was known for. I opened a brick and mortar in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago in 2016, and it was housed there for about two years. The space operated as an exhibition and performance space and had a small music production studio with a producer in residence, had a small shop with items and clothing by local makers, and a shared studio space for resident artists. Just before the pandemic, the physical gallery closed, and we returned back to hosting pop ups and have been partnering with different galleries, venues, organizations, and institutions like Saatchi Art/The Other Art Fair, Red Bull, Bronzeville Winery, EXPO Chicago, which is an international art fair, and more!
I just launched a live talk show with The Hoxton Hotel’s Working From_ space in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago that’s inspired by The Tonight Show, but with a Chicago flair where we are interviewing local artists in front of a live audience. I’m also very excited about a new personal curatorial venuture called cam contemporarie, which is a small micro gallery that will operate as a showroom, exhibition space, and space to pilot projects with mid career and established visual artists.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
A lot of artists and creatives aspire to reach a point in their career and practice where they want to dive in and be a full time artist or creative. The freedom and ability to have control over your own time, and solely be able to dedicate yourself to your practice is goals, right? For about two years when I had my gallery, AMFM, I was living the dream. I rolled out of bed and got to go to work for myself, answer to myself, and then rely on myself to make things happen. It’s the best feeling, and comes with the added hard work of actually doing the work. We were a successful space — we were constantly booked, we were getting recognition from artists outside of Chicago, were just starting to work with brands, and were on the trajectory to really continue this positive cycle of growth. So when we unfortunately lost our lease and were forced to close, initially I was scrambling to find a new gallery space right away and determined to open up shop again.
After some attempts at viewing places and not quite finding the right fit, and sitting with myself and some of the goals I had for AMFM, I decided to take a step back and pause. I had been reeling for the past two years. AMFM grew so quickly that I didn’t have time to process what it meant to run an actual business, manage a team, manage artists, and the day to day operations and admin — I was just in a survival production mode. I felt like this was a necessary moment to figure out what the next phase of my work and AMFM could and would be, and be able to take the necessary steps towards professional development to implement that vision and be ready for it. I decided to get a 9-5 again after having worked for myself for two years. I wanted to be strategic though in the type of work I sought out, so that whatever I learned I could apply to my business later on. I decided to work at a non profit art institution, because ultimately that’s what I would like for AMFM to become and thought it would be a great way to learn from the inside. I had never worked in the arts sphere before outside of my own endeavors, but my experience running AMFM were great skills that applied to the job that I was applying for. I am still at that art institution, and I have learned a ton and am so glad that I took the time and space to let myself further develop. Looking back on the space, the model, and many things that I thought were great at the time, I would do so much differently now. That isn’t to say I wasn’t doing great work, because I thoroughly know the impact of it, but moving forward with fresh eyes, I am so excited for what’s next now that I have gained tremendous insight from working for someone else. I don’t see it as backtracking, or giving up on my dream of being autonomous, but a necessary stepping stone to get to the next level.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I had known about business and entrepreneurial accelerator programs earlier on! There are so many free resources out there for entrepreneurs, from free coaching, to cohort based mentorship. I often and still do feel like I’m winging it or building the boat as I steer it, but having access to people and programs that are designed to help guide you are so crucial, especially to start ups. As a Black woman, I know that we are the leading population that are starting social enterprises, but I also know that we are underfunded and don’t have access to the same resources, capital, and connections in the same way, so knowing how to find opportunities for professional development is so important, and there are a lot out there — I found one on LinkedIn!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.amfm.life
- Instagram: @amfmlife
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/amfmlife
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciera-alyse-mckissick-2aa189200/
- Twitter: amfmlife
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@amfmlife
Image Credits
AMFM Expo Party 1 & 2 Photo Credit: Crime & Kindness Pause For Peace Garden_Isaiah Collier Photo Credit: JI Yang Ciera McKissick Headshot courtesy of The Other Art Fair cam.contemporarie Photo Credit: zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o’neal All other images courtesy of AMFM/Ciera McKissick