This month’s member spotlight is a feature on Tina Picz (she/her)! Tina has been a resident of Vermont for 4 years and is based in Central Vermont. She works in the arts and entertainment sector as the owner of Firefolk Arts, a Filipina American woman-owned art space dedicated to fostering community-building practices and amplifying diverse stories.
To learn more about Tina’s work, visit firefolkarts.com or connect with her on Instagram: @firefolkarts. You can also reach her via email at firefolkarts@gmail.com. Photo courtesy of Daniel Brooks.
Tell us a bit about your background before arriving in VT and what brought you to the state!
I’m a Filipino American artist, gallery director, and photographer, with a mom who emigrated from the Philippines to the US in 1980 with my white military father. I did not grow up around many BIPOC / AAPI people, and didn’t connect much with my Asian roots or identity until moving to VT. I was raised in the suburbs of Massachusetts until I moved to Boston in 2000, and have lived in California, Florida, and New York City. I moved from Boston to central VT in 2020, mostly because we needed my daughter to be in school, not on zoom school for another year, as VT schools were open, while Boston schools were closed for 2020 / 2021.
How did you get into your career?
In June 2023, I opened Firefolk Arts, a family-run gallery and art space in rural Vermont, which amplifies and uplifts underrepresented artists and voices. Firefolk Arts is the only Asian American or BIPOC woman-owned gallery in Vermont. It is also a community center, third space, co-working studio, and event venue, where we host multi-disciplinary exhibitions, workshops, performances, and gatherings of all sorts. My teen daughter, Harmony Belle, helps with organizing our youth events. I got into this after being involved in the arts for decades prior.
I was a food photographer / stylist from 2014-2022, and still occasionally shoot photos. I shot for Boston & VT chefs, restaurants, and brands after teaching myself the art of styling and having practiced food photography on my own, while I was a stay-at-home mom until my child started Kindergarten. I then began working with local businesses for marketing campaigns. Before that, I was an artist my whole life, having sung in bands, sold vintage clothing online, and made clothing that I sold at boutiques.
Why are you a member of the Vermont Professionals of Color Network?
I joined VT PoC because I wanted to connect with others in our state who share similar stories and challenges, as I believe support and camaraderie are crucial for growth and learning as an entrepreneur.
What aspects of life in VT do you find most fulfilling? What about your professional life here stands out to you?
Some fulfilling aspects of life in VT are my time spent in the forests and waters, which help to ground and center me, and are huge reasons that I was drawn to move to VT, as I had visited for years before I moved here. Connecting to the wild places here, is my comforting respite from the stresses of our world. My professional life in VT reveals to me how much work there is to be done in this state, regarding equity, and redistribution of wealth and resources for underrepresented folks and business owners.
What are some challenges that you’ve faced on a professional level since living in VT?
Getting grants has been difficult, as I am not skilled at grant writing, and my business being LLC rather than a non-profit, bars us from many grants I’d like to apply for.
Can you share any strategies or resources that have helped you overcome these challenges?
The strategies and resources that help me to overcome some challenges here, are being part of BIPOC collectives like VT PoC and VT Releaf, as the support and networks help to spread the word about our work throughout the state.
Tell us about the work you’re currently doing and what drives you in your profession!
We know that many artists find it daunting to get their work seen, and it’s a great motivation to share the opportunity to help them step beyond gatekeepers, and challenge the existing systems.
As a Filipina American woman-owned art space, we seek to foster community-building practices, while representing a diverse range of lived experiences and nuanced stories of the diaspora. We amplify the stories, heritages, and work of those who are less heard in the mainstream media, museums, and galleries, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, women, and youth. We find it crucial to continually thwart gatekeeping in the arts, by offering more space and air time for oppressed or underrepresented people, and their art, to be seen and heard more widely.
What future opportunities do you see for your industry, particularly in the context of the state?
There is so much room for growth in the Arts Sector of Vermont, as we are just beginning to scratch the surface of ensuring that BIPOC / AAPI artists and stories are shared more widely here, in galleries and media. More BIPOC / AAPI-owned spaces, means greater representation for these identities.
It’s so rare to find art shows in rural Vermont that are curated by BIPOC / AAPI artists; and when we view culture, curated through varied lenses, we have an opportunity to see the world and people through perspectives that we don’t commonly encounter in our majority white state. This allows for greater cultural understanding and empathy to grow within our communities, and for our youth to feel represented in more spaces in VT, where they normally aren’t seeing many people who may look like them, or who share similar backgrounds or life experiences.
Are there other things (events/opportunities/jobs/etc) you’d like to share with the VT BIPOC community?
If you are an artist / entrepreneur in need of shared studio space / office space at affordable rates, we offer space at hourly, weekly, and monthly rates, depending on your needs or projects. This is best suited to mediums including: painters, woodworkers, metalwork, jewelry, weavers, textiles, musicians, herbalists, photographers.
We also offer event rental space for parties, workshops, meetings, etc. Reach out with any questions at: firefolkarts@gmail.com.
