Mulberry Art Gallery celebrates first year highlighting work of Black Wichita artists
Anthony Joiner noticed a vacuum in the Wichita arts community, so he filled it.
Joiner will celebrate the one-year anniversary of Mulberry Art Gallery later this week. Located above Fidelity Bank in the Revolutsia shipping container mall at 2721 E. Central, the nonprofit’s mission is to exhibit work by Black artists and other artists of color.
“I’ve always been fascinated with art,” says Joiner, the creative director and founder of Mulberry Art Gallery. “(I’ve) never been able to draw or paint myself, but I was always fascinated with the idea of creating something from nothing.”
It started with a love story
Joiner met his wife in Clarksville, Tennessee. He had moved there from Mississippi, where he was working as a firefighter and living out of his car, an ’87 Pontiac Sunbird.
Dominique Joiner was unlike any woman he had met before, and he admired the vivid acrylic paintings she made in her spare time.
“She had beautiful art and she didn’t think anybody would want to buy it,” he says. His career as a gallerist “began with me selling my wife’s work.”
The Joiners didn’t have their lives figured out yet, but they recognized they both had a drive to do something more.
“We just kind of invested in one another,” Anthony Joiner said.
When they moved to Wichita in 2017 to be closer to Dominique Joiner’s mother and grandparents, he began investing in other artists, too.
Decoding the hustle
In the summer of 2018, Joiner was working long shifts as an assembly mechanic for Spirit AeroSystems. He enrolled in the professional development program Artist INC, changing into a clean shirt before attending the evening sessions at Harvester Arts. He also started Hustle & Art, a brand focused on creative commerce and consulting.
Though still relatively new to town, Joiner had connections to local Black artists through volunteering for Art That Touches Your Heart, a pop-up exhibition program founded more than 10 years ago by Wichita artist Janice Thacker.
“I kept asking the artists, ‘What do you want to see? … What is it you think should change?’” Joiner says. “What I kept hearing from artists of color is that they didn’t have opportunities.”
Many Black artists felt tokenized, he says, tired of only being tapped for exhibitions in February during Black History Month.
When Joiner talked to white arts leaders about a lack of representation in local arts spaces, he says he heard two things: their doors are open to everyone, but Black artists don’t apply for the opportunities.
He blames social segregation along racial lines and the lack of diversity among staff working for arts organizations, not overt racism. But he struggled to convince Black artists to approach majority-white institutions.
“We need people to fight to get us into (traditionally white) spaces, but we also need spaces that are ours,” Joiner concluded.
Searching for space
That fall, Joiner had an opportunity to use some space in the Garvey Center rent free through OpenStudios, which he used to show work by local Black artists. When he was furloughed from his position at Spirit early in the pandemic, Joiner accelerated his plans to become a full-time art consultant and administrator.
Kristin Beal and Kate Van Steenhuyse of Harvester Arts connected Joiner to Michael Ramsey of Bokeh Development. He asked Joiner to write a business plan, then told him the first draft wasn’t good enough.
“Mike is awesome, but Mike is not going to take crap, either,” says Joiner, who credits the developer with “tightening up” his plan. In October 2020, Joiner began fundraising to open a gallery space, originally planned for a Bokeh property on East Central across the street from Revolutsia.
He raised more than $2,000, evidence that community members valued the idea — but not enough to pay for renovations on the original property. Instead, Ramsey allowed Joiner to use Candela at the Lux at 120 E. First St. as a temporary gallery space. In February 2021, Mulberry Art Gallery opened with the exhibition “Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself: An Introduction to Wichita Artists.”
Meanwhile, Joiner was on the hunt for his next location. Ramsey reached out to Aaron Bastian, president and CEO of Fidelity Bank. The institution was leasing two spaces at Revolutsia, but only occupying the one on the ground floor.
“We could never really figure out … what to put on the second floor, so we had unused space,” Bastian said. Ramsey suggested Fidelity sublet the space to Mulberry Art Gallery at no cost.
“I think I made the decision on the spot,” said Bastian, who said he was interested both in supporting local artists and Wichita’s Black community. The gallery took over the remainder of the bank’s lease on the light-filled space that overlooks the Revolutsia courtyard. Dozens of artists have exhibited their work there since.
Expanding the mission
In Mulberry Art Gallery’s first year, Joiner has also pursued other opportunities. He is the art consultant on the Chester I. Lewis Reflection Square Park, which will include works by artists Matthew Mazzota and Ellamonique Baccus. Last June, he curated an exhibition at Reuben Saunders Gallery. And in collaboration with OpenStudios, he helped launch the Mulberry Incubator Collaborative, located just west of Revolutsia at 2627 E. Central. The Bokeh Development building includes six studios and a small gallery. Both Mulberry locations will be utilized by Meet the Challenge, a mentorship program for youth ages 13–19.
Joiner’s primary goal remains promoting the work of Black artists.
“If I can help three to four gallery artists over the next five years gain more national recognition, I’d be happy,” he said. “I want to see more opportunities for everyone, but this is the culture I know and think I can have an effect on.”
If you go
First Friday at Mulberry Art Gallery featuring work by Anthony Dozier
When: 12–6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4
Where: 2721 E. Central
Hours: The gallery’s regular hours are noon–6 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday.
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 11:00 AM.