VOICES THE PEOPLE AND IDEAS SHAPING THE CULTURE

DIOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR MARIA GRAZIA CHIURI and ARTISTS CARRIE MAE WEEMS and MICKALENE THOMAS on finding INSPIRATION, the JOYS of COLLABORATION, and what happens when ART meets COMMERCE

On April 25, Carrie Mae Weems was honored at the 12th edition of the Brooklyn Museum's annual Artists Ball. But Weems, who has explored subjects like race, gender, identity, politics, and power in her influential photographic, video, performance, and installation work, which she began making in the late 1970s, rejects the notion of the "singular" artist: "I would be absolutely lost without all the other artists upon whose shoulders I either stand or fall," she says. So it's fitting that the Artists Ball is a celebration of not just Weems but the larger spirit of creative community for which she has advocated over the past four decades as an artist, activist, and educator. Mickalene Thomas was enlisted to reimagine the museum's Beaux-Arts Court for the ball. Thomas credits a 1994 exhibition of Weems's The Kitchen Table Series, a cycle of photographs and text panels in which Weems plays the role of a woman whose life unfolds in a single domestic space, with influencing the trajectory of her own creative practice. The event was also sponsored by Dior. The house's creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, was an honoree last year, and since her arrival in 2016, she has consistently used the runway to highlight the artistic efforts of other women, from legends like Judy Chicago and Penny Slinger, who have each designed sets for Chiuri's Dior shows, to contemporary talent like Joana Vasconcelos, who created an enormous fabric installation covered in crochet, lace, fringe, and sequins for the Fall 2023 presentation.