New nonprofit Mulberry art gallery to showcase work of minority artists

And to think that it happened on Mulberry Street.

The street where Anthony Joiner grew up in Mississippi was transformational for him, which is part of the reason he’s naming his new nonprofit art gallery Mulberry. He hopes it will be transformational for “artists that are commonly underrepresented in the gallery scene.”

At most art galleries, Joiner said, it’s not common to see work by artists of color.

“It’s usually one to two pieces.”

And except for those pieces, he said that “you usually don’t see a black face” in the artwork either.

Without seeing people who look like they do, Joiner said, “People who grow up in poverty might never go to a gallery.”

He pointed to how much the photo of a young Black girl gazing up at the portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama seemed to resonate with people.

“That should be a lot more common,” Joiner said. “I want to give those young artists an opportunity to . . . see something that talks to them. . . . That resonates with them.”

Joiner is negotiating to possibly put Mulberry at Revolutsia in February. He had been considering a space across from the development at Central and Volutsia, but it would have needed a lot of renovation, and he said it’s been challenging to raise money during the pandemic.

His final fundraising push will be in January. There’s more information at www.mulberrygallery.com, a website that’s still in the works.

Joiner said the idea will be to help minority artists get exposure without having to open their own businesses.

“We want to try to take some of the risk away.”

From a furlough to a new career

Since moving to Wichita with his wife, artist and Wichita native Dominique Joiner, Anthony Joiner became involved in the local art scene by helping artists with their first exhibitions.

“It helps them to see themselves as more, and that’s kind of the idea where this gallery came from,” he said.

Joiner said he decided to pursue the gallery after he was furloughed from Spirit AeroSystems over the summer.

Eventually, he said he wants to work full time representing artists.

“Right now my primary focus is on the gallery.”

Dominique Joiner, who works with acrylic on canvas, will be one of the artists who will show work at the gallery, but her husband said the gallery won’t be about promoting her above anyone else.

“She’s just going to be showing like everyone else.”

Joiner said he “had a rough upbringing,” and a lot of the formative changes in his life happened on Mulberry Street in Port Gibson, Miss.

The Mulberry gallery name has other meanings as well. Joiner said that in some cultures, the mulberry is considered the fruit of revitalization.

“It kind of tells the story of the gallery as well.”

He said when people think of “the hood,” they think of chaos, and it’s something they want to avoid. He said people often purposely avoid planting mulberry trees, too, because the fruit of the trees can be messy.

“People look at that mess and say, ‘I don’t want one of those in my yard.’ ”

He said they don’t necessarily think of the positive attributes of a mulberry tree, such as its berries that are nutritious or its leaves that can be used for tea, among other things.

“Every piece of that tree is extremely useful and extremely important,” Joiner said. “People just look at one of side of things, and then they stop.”

He said he looks at the Mulberry gallery as a chance to show the greater Wichita population the talent of some of its minority communities that they may not have had a chance to see previously.

Through helping artists with their first shows, Joiner said he has learned more of what they want and need, and now he can put that knowledge to use.

“This gallery is kind of a compilation of those things.”