Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Giulia Livi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Giulia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back on your career, have you ever worked with a great leader or boss? We’d love to hear about the experience and what you think made them such a great leader.
The best boss I ever had was Shira Walinsky at Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program. Shira is the co-founder and lead artist of Southeast by Southeast, a community arts and educational space dedicated to supporting and celebrating refugee and immigrant communities in South Philadelphia in partnership with the Mural Arts Program. As Shira’s assistant I learned every step of the mural process in detail, working both in the studio and on site. I was totally inspired by the scale and impact of her projects. But beyond the process, Shira also taught me a lot about empathy and how to be a part of a creative community. She always prioritized connecting families to services and to each other, before the mural project itself. Sometimes we needed to paint, but sometimes we needed to facilitate an after school program or help a neighbor study for a citizenship test. Shira knew that the mural project would always get done, but in order to truly serve the community we needed to listen and respond to daily needs and let the art-making be a vibrant background to everything else that was developing in the neighborhood. I will always be thankful for my time with Mural Arts because it has informed my practice in many ways.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an interdisciplinary artist and educator working in painting and installation. My wall-bound sculptures within immersive rooms employ hyper-cohesive color and abstract forms to work out ideas of multi-functional art objects and curated domesticity. Within my practice I am interested in investigating materiality and color theory. I am currently part-time faculty at Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) and MICA (Baltimore, MD).
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding part of being a creative person is getting to know other creative people. Connecting with those who are complete masters of their craft is always inspiring. Existing within an artist community means constantly thinking and learning and admiring and being amazed. I so enjoy being surrounded by people who wish to challenge the world and find their own way.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I love nothing more than learning a new material skill and wish I would have taken advantage of Baltimore’s resources for learning earlier on. Last year, I took a tile workshop at Station North Tool Library and now I am absolutely obsessed with tile. Recently, I had some CNC training at Openworks and that has opened up a whole new set of doors. I know that the pace at which I have learned has shaped what my practice is today, but I still wish I utilized these creative spaces more. I always preach to my students the importance of building material skills while they have access to campus facilitates. But these resources do exist outside of academia, you just need to seek them out!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.giuliapieralivi.com/
- Instagram: @giuliapiera