Meet Ashley Miah | SHE.E.O., The Culture Candy

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley Miah and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, how does your business help the community?
I am the Co-Founder of The Culture Candy, an arts organization that’s dedicating to making room for inclusivity in the art world. Founded by myself and Zalika Sterling, two minority women artists, we created The Culture Candy to provide artists like ourselves with showcase opportunities, and a safe space to share their work and be seen. With limited opportunities for underrepresented artists to pursue visual art careers outside of the oversaturated field of graphic design, we aimed to build something that makes space for these artists by creating innovative opportunities for them to be seen. Beyond creating space for artists at career levels, we also do our part in contributing to the importance of art education in underfunded and urban communities and have done workshops and exhibitions with students to encourage expression, and highlight creative career paths.

We started small, with our Outdoor Art Gala during the pandemic in 2020, which fun fact, over 300 people showed up at Gantry Plaza State Park and we actually had to undergo an investigation to prove we didn’t know that many people would come out to support our cause during the pandemic restrictions in NYC. The Outdoor Art Gala was made to launch our collective, create a safe space for artists to share and sell work, build a community to support our company, and give back to the NYC art community, and it certainly exceeded expectations. After our launch, we were approached to do several art markets which quickly turned to pop-ups, 3-day exhibits, monthly curations, and public exhibitions over the past couple of years. We plan to continue on the path of developing our curation company and collective, providing artists with opportunities and eventually developing our own art fair called heART Con which would function at the center of our NYC Art Week every June.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My journey in developing my art career and The Culture Candy actually go hand-in-hand, and I’d love to share the background!

Zalika and I met at work in 2018 and quickly became sisters. When we met, we worked at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Zalika was practicing art as she felt called to at home and I was finishing up my BFA. We were so ecstatic when we learned we were both artists! During my time in college I was so excited to get to my last year of school and create outside of lesson plans however I quickly became disappointed during my last semester in 2019, my professor was insistent in me creating in abstract and conceptual styles with subjects that didn’t reflect my experience as a woman of color from an urban neighborhood now gentrified in New York City. Fed up, I vented to Zalika at work and expressed that I really wanted to make things for the culture, things that our people can relate to and connect with, I didn’t feel seen as an artist because of the restrictions art school has put on my creative freedom. Prior to pursuing my BFA I also attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts, so by this point I felt I was repeating the same lesson plans in a loop and didn’t have the freedom to express myself without the restriction of forced styles and subjects. During this time, we hadn’t started to show work as artists just yet, and Zalika who is very talented yet liked keeping her work to herself, actually had this wonderful idea to showcase our work at The Heath Gallery for a hang night in Winter 2019. We received so much support that night, it was memorable and inspirational to keep sharing our work with the world through our social media names Lee Lee La Cubana and Zalika Zeni!

I graduated that December and our new topic of conversation was career paths. Zalika and I explored the oversaturated art field options of teaching or graphic design, and I even had a teaching job lined up before the pandemic hit. Eventually, we circled back to creating for the culture, why artists like us have limited opportunities in pursuing art careers as just visual artists, and it hit us, let’s just pave our own way.

Our passion is what carried us through getting off the ground and attracting the right opportunities and partnerships. We’ve faced many challenges, such as protecting intellectual property and learned a lot of hard lessons in business, as we are in this business from a source of passion and not greed. Being a business owner has its challenges. Women fight for respect from the larger art world, especially as minorities, so we take so much pride in growing a community of inclusivity around us that supports our vision. Our largest challenge has been intellectual property when it comes to our innovation. As we initially grew, we approached big companies who have stolen ideas through the gray areas of collaboration and social media, such as printing art on easy photography printing products, to state it as professionally and non-directly as possible without directly engaging further with these companies. We’ve also inspired curators with services such as our Art and Dines. We’ve learned that consistency and authenticity in our ideas will push us forward and make us stand out.

Our story is still in the works, I am still developing as an artist and we’re still creating innovative ways to be seen!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’re partnered with many great places that we’d love to take guests to!

The Grey Dog has several locations in Manhattan and offer an all day brunch menu, with fun vibes and beautiful art that we’ve curated with artists such as Zee “Deco Pops”, Julia Ambrose and Sandra Jockus. We rotate artists here quarterly and past exhibitions have included myself Ashley Miah “Lee Lee La Cabana”, Junior Charles, MC Hewlett, Kate Segal and Katrina “Mixy Inks”

Pretty Ricky’s is a lovely bar and restaurant in the Lower East Side, we’ve had artwork here by Francis Gautier and MC Hewlett and have even hosted a drag brunch with Queens Lincoln Bieaux, Ms. Deville and Hannah Divine.

Gallery hopping in Chelsea is always a must! There are also many galleries that showcase local artists around NYC that are definitely a great way to connect with the art community such as The Brooklyn Art Cave, The Ketchup Gallery, EVAC & more!

While in Chelsea, you can’t miss out on Chelsea Market! They have a wonderful variety of food and drinks, including art at Artechous in the same building as well as Artists and Fleas. As one of their partnered curators, we curate a month long exhibition with our collective for the month of June to celebrate NYC Art Week!

The lovely ladies behind The Culture Candy are HUGE on coffee! If there’s any type of coffee variety, we’re there! We’d have to recommend Brooklyn Perk coffee shops, Hibiscus Cafe, & other partners of ours that exhibit art.

Fieldtrip is a great foodie find, their food is wholesome and delicious and they’ve hosted artists of ours such as “Donuts & Henny”.

For wellness, we recommend BQE Fitness, recently voted the best gym in Queens and a wonderful space where we rotate artists monthly, with a high number of art sales! Their supportive environment also includes an onsite Health Kitchen, Pure Eats, which we have an artist on permanent consignment. For some more self care activities, Pick A Color Nail Salon in Brooklyn is a great destination for a self care day, with artists like “Quatro Banz” on display!

While in Brooklyn, Bierwax is an excellent place to grab a drink, and enjoy the featured artist on display such as Darren Toliver that has shown with them last Art Week. Carroll Hall and Sleepwalk are also Brooklyn businesses that support artists with events and opportunities, where guests can enjoy a beautiful ambiance and great drinks.

There’s great dining and drink spaces that have supported our cause as well such as Lamia Fish Market, Veselka, Bixi, Daleview Biscuits and Beer & more!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
A beautiful aspect about The Culture Candy, is that it was built in community and sisterhood. We are a minority women owned business, with myself (C.E.O.), Zalika Sterling (V.P.), with our lovely partners Crystal Bissessar who heads Art & Engagement, Tayler Hernandez with Technical Design & Finance and Danielle Rayson with Global Development & Operations. We take pride in our tight-knit sisterhood, our relationship with our artists such as M.C. Hewlett, Cindy Guzman, Robyn Ivy, and so many more! The entire collective, it’s supporters and the art community is amazing, I wish I could name the over 200 artists and small businesses we’ve worked with, and our friends and family who have supported us as we develop our business!

Website: https://www.theculturecandy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theculturecandy

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-amber-miah-ba6282195/

Other: https://www.nycheartcon.com https://www.instagram.com/leeleelacubana/

Image Credits
Stefano Giovannini cover photo Tommy Kraus Event Photo