What does it take to build a sustainable art career when you don’t live in a major art center?
Interdisciplinary artist La Vaughn Belle has been figuring that out from her home in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Building visibility from the Caribbean required strategy.
La Vaughn has built her reputation through three consistent actions.
- She has maintained a newsletter practice for over twenty years, sending monthly updates and always asking people to subscribe.
- She is committed to strategic networking, traveling and reaching out to build relationships, starting with other Caribbean islands and expanding outward across continents.
- She collaborates across disciplines with writers, philosophers, anthropologists, and scientists to expand her reach and access different funding streams.
The key is being intentional. Strategic networking means knowing what you’re asking for and following up with genuine curiosity.
Listen
Pick one relationship you already have—maybe someone who expressed interest in your work, a curator you met once, or an artist in a different discipline—and reach out this week. Not with an ask, but, following La Vaughn’s example, with genuine curiosity.
Invite them for a coffee chat or Zoom conversation and see where it takes you.
La Vaughn Belle Quotes
“I see myself as living in the world. I think maybe others may project onto me provinciality or smallness, but I always see myself as being an integral and vibrant part of this planet.”
“Iron sharpens iron. What we looked for in each other was a sharpening of each other—intellectually, artistically, creatively, relationally.”
“Sciences tend to get a lot more funding than arts organizations do, but what’s interesting about working with artists is that we’re able to translate some of their data in ways that they have certain limitations on.”
“I was like, let’s just go big or go home. We want The New York Times, we want CNN, we want the The Guardian.”
“I swear I Am Queen Mary will probably be on my tombstone. It’s such a defining project for me and for my collaborator too.”
“If you are not able to at least put 20 making hours a week, you cannot compete on an international level.”
“It isn’t just networking. It’s strategy. Be very strategic in your networking.”
Mentioned
About La Vaughn Belle
La Vaughn Belle makes visible the unremembered. Working across painting, installation, photography, writing, video, and public interventions, she creates narratives from fragments and archival silences. Her practice moves between myth and mapmaking, constructing new cartographies of freedom, care, and belonging.
Recognized for her explorations of colonial histories and Caribbean memory, she has exhibited widely across the Caribbean, the United States, and Europe. Her studio is based in the Virgin Islands.
Follow La Vaughn on Instagram: @lavaughnbelle
