PRINTBen Gakinya: The art enthusiast
Columbia Art League board member
David Kennedy
Ben Gakinya is Columbia Art League's newest board member.
November 12, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
27 | Eight years in Columbia
Ben Gakinya’s ideal night is a jazz band tapping tunes from an art gallery’s corner. Columbians mingle as they swirl white wine. Thick laughter fills the room.
Related Articles- Eduardo Crespi: The reluctant leader
- Lynn Maloney: The queen of pins and needles
- Granny's House: The home away from home
- Richard King: The man behind the scenes
- The Road House: The home-grown food gurus
- Philip Peters: The achievement gap overachiever
- Teresa Maledy: The go-getter
- Mike Martin: The community investigator
- Leigh Lockhart: The green thinker
- Maureen Dickmann: The progressive pastor
- Stefan Sarafianos: The HIV slayer
- KOPN: The radio rock-stars
- Mike Cooper: The nature-lover
- Brent Beshore: The Pure connector
- CAT: The local TV outlet
- Making waves in a landlocked state
As evening fades to night, patrons begin to feel relaxed. The artwork on display — previously background blur — burn into their eyes as must-haves, those poignant pieces that make business colleagues walk into corner offices and think, “You are someone I need to know.”
“I think good music and good atmosphere make an event,” says Gakinya, Parkade Center asset manager and the Columbia Art League’s newest board member, who joined this summer and is a business connection to the community’s art culture.
“It makes the artist excited.”
Gakinya, 27, was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and spent five years in New Delhi, India. Intrigued by Columbia’s location and diversity, Gakinya moved to mid-Missouri in 2001 to attend Columbia College, where he studied business administration.
He views his role within Columbia’s arts community as an opportunity to nurture relationships and to network. Each winter at Parkade Center, a retail and office complex located on Business Loop 70, he hosts the Affair of the Arts Christmas Bazaar, a fair that features mid-Missouri artwork such as pottery, sculpture and jewelry.
“People will come if there are fun things to do,” Gakinya says. “So many people do art.”
“Definitely a rising star,” CAL executive director Diana Moxon wrote in an e-mail. “He’s a keen supporter of the visual arts and believes that art is one of the cornerstones of a vibrant economy.”
A community’s artistic health depends upon public perception, Gakinya believes. He says artists must be financially flexible to make their work attractive, especially in a difficult market. “The art is with the people,” he says. “If the people want it to continue, it will. If they don’t, it won’t.”
For art to continue, Gakinya believes artists must overcome obstacles. He is candid about their challenges — “People have a tendency to view them as a crying poor-mouth” — but says they are appreciated and deserve support.
Gakinya seeks to guarantee art’s preservation. Artists inspire and enlighten the world, he says.
“They may not be influential like a Michelangelo,” Gakinya says, “but they still will influence people around them.”
Twitter
Facebook
