To the Heart of Art...Meeting The Koppel Project's Gabriella Sonabend
The Koppel Project is a creative hub bringing together a contemporary art gallery, creative work and learning space, Phaidon’s only UK bookshop, and direct trade coffee.
Set in a recently decommissioned bank vault, The Koppel Project Gallery seeks to promote international and local artists whose work has an emphasis on storytelling and social engagement.
Behind this enterprise is arts entrepreneur Gabriella Sonabend. After Nyne's Editor Claire Meadows met Gabriella to find out more about the Koppel Project, her inspirations and the philanthropic heart of one of London's most innovative arts enterprises.
I must confess I’m a little in love with the Koppel Project concept, Gabriella. For those who are not aware of it, can you explain the concept?
Thank you! The concept is quite straight forward, it's a creative hub aimed at bringing together people of a multitude of disciplines and backgrounds in order to provide an engaging, ever changing platform for creative expression. The Koppel Project brings together a contemporary art gallery, London's only Phaidon bookshop, a cafe, event space, co-working area and we have just opened a new building (The Koppel Project Hive), which holds 40 artist studios and a project space. Our programme is continuously expanding and developing, which is why we call it a project – we host writers residencies, artist residencies, monthly literary events, discussions and talk and workshops. In the next few months we have dozens of events scheduled, we are extremely busy, but we are still forming.
How did you first mastermind the project? What was your inspiration?
The project developed out of a frustration with what I felt was a problematic gallery world. I have lived all over the world and experienced dozens of thriving cultural spaces, where people have an amazing can-do attitude. I felt the London art scene and in particular the general idea of what a gallery represents was feeling quite stagnant and stuck and there was enormous potential in forming a creative space that also took a social role and tried to reach new audiences. As an artist myself, over the years I had been taking notes on what did and didn’t work in various spaces and dreaming up my perfect space. I wanted to run a gallery, which had the mentality of a cultural institute, focusing on building communities around a space, which was approachable and non-elitist.
I was so fed up of walking into galleries and gallery staff looking at me with eyes that said “she obviously isn’t going to buy anything, so I’m not going to give her my time”. Even as an artist I found a lot of London galleries intimidating and felt I was being judged as I entered them. I wanted to create a space that was the opposite of that, where everyone is treated with equal respect and interest regardless of who they are or where they come from.
I was extremely lucky to meet Gabriel Gherscovic who became my mentor and backer and gave me an opportunity to turn this extremely ambitious dream into a reality. Without Gabriel’s support I probably would never have thought any of this was actually possible. I also was very lucky to meet Hannah Thorne a Peruvian curator who had worked in galleries across the world and shared similar ideas about creating a socially engaged space. Hannah is my co-curator and The Koppel Project Gallery (Baker Street), gallery co-director. Hannah has worked with really exciting artists, particularly from Latin America and we have been forming a programme, that is very internationally focused. Max Vickers our Programme Coordinator got on board in our early stages, Max had previously coordinated the London Art Book Fair and worked in multiple large galleries and institutions, he has really moulded our cultural programme and organized consistently high quality and unique events.
Tell us about the philanthropic aims of The Koppel Project.
One of our main focuses is education. We work with a number of education companies who help people get back into work. This September we will begin a work experience programme, giving people an opportunity to experience working across the entire project, gaining a range of skills. Mentoring artists and other creatives is really important to us, and we are developing an emerging artist mentoring programme. We hold numerous free cultural events giving people an opportunity to showcase their work, hold relevant discussions and forge collaborations. The Hive space has 40 affordable artist studios (£250/month) located in the middle of Holborn. Whilst most artists are experiencing having to move to studios on the outskirts of London, we are opening more studios and trying to bring the artistic community back to Central London. The studios are located in a former office building, and are already turning into a thriving community.
The Hive project space which is curated by Alice Bonnot invites international artists to participate in 3 week long residencies followed by a week long exhibitions. This is a funded programme and already is proving to be extremely exciting. The Koppel Project Hive, opens to the public on 20 August, kicking off with a brilliant residency questioning notions of Utopia. Read more about it here: http://thekoppelproject.com/zut-residency/
Tell us about your background. Has art always been important to you?
I studied Fine Art at the Slade. I am still a practicing artist and art has always been a huge part of my life. My family is obsessed with art, and as a child I knew more about Abstract Expressionism, Dada and Surrealism than about pop culture. Some of my earliest memories are of running around the National Gallery with my mother, who was loves the Pre-Raphaelites. My family really bonded over art. My grandparents collected all sorts of indigenous artworks from around the world as well as striking and frequently erotic paintings. My grandmother used to run a small gallery in the 70s that gave artists their first show. My great aunt who is now 90 was friends with the great surrealists like Magritte and Man Ray as well as artists like Sol Le Witt and Richard Hamillton. To her art was more important than eating and she still travels from Brussels to see the family, any new show at the Tate and to visit my studio. She's my harshest critic - she absolutely loves The Koppel Project though. My cousin Yolanda taught at the Slade and designed costumes and sets for the Royal Ballet and Opera, she was the archetypal artist; she wore only black, chain-smoked, had 3 or 4 cats, never had any food in the fridge, lived in a house jammed full of paintings and fabric, was completely eccentric and brilliant. I remember timidly standing in her house as a child and thinking ‘this is the life!’.
When did you realise just what impact the Koppel Project was having on people’s lives?
When we first opened, people walked past with their mouths hanging open. They couldn't believe a cultural hub just popped up on Baker Street, they were shocked. It's been an amazing experience, watching a community form around the space and bringing artists back to central London. It feels like we’re reclaiming an inaccessible part of the city and I think everyone who comes into The Koppel Project is aware of that and finds it extremely exciting. For our artists, working with such an unusual gallery space (a former bank vault) has really pushed their work and the location has brought an entirely new audience. We are still in the early stages of our project, we are yet to know our potential impact.
As a woman in the arts, do you feel you have to work any harder to prove yourself?
I don't know. That's a question I often think about. I think it would be easy to indulge stereotypes and talk about how hard it is as a woman but I'm not convinced it makes that much of a difference. I think the art world in general demands incredibly hard work and fearlessness to succeed. London is such a competitive and expensive place; living here makes work more challenging and everyone has to work like crazy to prove themselves, especially as there are so many talented and capable people here. One of the things that I think makes our space really different is our ethos is we would always rather collaborate than compete. I am not interested in trying to race against other people, I would much rather extend an arm to another gallery and form an interesting collaborative project, than try to put them down or chase their cliental.
What words of inspiration can you impart to anyone wishing to follow in your footsteps?
Have a really long holiday before you dive into this, because once you begin there's never any time to stop. Be persistent, don't be afraid to ask for help and be a decent person and treat other people well. Don’t compete, collaborate.
What upcoming projects are you particularly excited about?
As I mentioned before The Hive is launching this week, I’m really looking forward to the opening. This Autumn we are diving into a season of Latin America Art beginning with 2 parallel exhibitions ‘From Myth To Earth’ and ‘Mitologia de le Tierra’ , which brings together 2 years of research into Colombian history, mythology, folklore and culture and 7 Colombian artists (most of whom have never shown in the UK before). This is an Arts Council funded project, which myself and my collaborator Sol Bailey Barker have been working on for over 2 years now, this project developed out of a 7 month research trip in Colombia and expanded to include the launch of an artist book, a series of talks and workshops, and working with the Latino communities in London. The artists exhibiting in ‘Mitologia de la Tierra’ are artists Sol and I met in Colombia or discovered the work of since returning home.
From Myth To Earth will be exhibited at The Koppel Project Hive (26 Holborn Viaduct) from 8 September – 29 October http://thekoppelproject.com/from-myth-to-earth/
Mitologia de la Tierra will be exhibited at The Koppel Project (93 Baker Street) from 15 September – 5 November.
