By Mina Sakay
As Avery Barnes spent weeks volunteering at a women’s empowerment center in Mombasa, Kenya, she began to envision a space where the stories of the women she encountered could be shared and celebrated on a larger scale.
Barnes founded TASWIRA Gallery, a fine arts gallery in Pioneer Square that showcases a global portfolio of contemporary artists, with a focus on artworks from the African diaspora. As of February 2024, the gallery has operated as a nonprofit through a fiscal sponsorship with the Allied Arts Foundation, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that provides fiscal support, artist awards and music scholarships.
“TASWIRA means vision in Swahili,” said Barnes, founder and CEO of TASWIRA. “The vision has always been there, it is always going to be there, and it is the origin of how this all started — TASWIRA was established as a platform to share stories of the African diasporas.”
When Barnes, who was raised in Chicago and Washington, first decided to travel to Kenya in 2019, she was guided by her curiosity and a desire for self-exploration.
“Growing up with a single mom and without my father my whole life — my mom is European and my dad is African American — I had always felt like there was a part of me that was missing culturally,” said Barnes.
Barnes said she attended school as a child in Olympia and experienced racial bullying, which played a pivotal role in shaping her independence. She said she began taking online classes and graduated with her GED at the end of her sophomore year of high school. She then began working for MAC Cosmetics, where she developed her curatorial experience from a love of fashion, makeup, and the art of photography and modeling.
During this time, which coincided with the pandemic, Barnes also became inspired by the impact nonprofit organizations had on local communities and was interested in learning more about nonprofit leadership.
She discovered and connected with the Bamburi Women’s Empowerment Center (BWEC). It provides women with educational opportunities. BWEC works in partnership with Peter’s Hope, a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization that provides funding to the women’s center, and St. Peter’s Mountain Children’s Center, both located in Kenya. The goal is to ensure that women and children continue their education.
When she first arrived at the center in 2019, Barnes said she was in community with more than 24 women and found herself eager to understand their involvement at the center.
She learned about the women’s journeys and the various sources of income they created to sustain their families, ranging from cooking to designing clothing to sell within the community. Their visions for themselves, their families and their communities included access to food, healthcare services and education.
After her first trip, she returned to Seattle, but wanted to find a way to share the women’s experiences through the things they had created. Barnes returned to Kenya six months later and worked with the women again, this time to plan how to share the women’s work to a larger audience.
Barnes brought back with her designs from the center, seeking to share the artisans’ work with the public through various platforms. This marked a new chapter for Barnes.
With the goal of highlighting this group of artisans, Barnes began selling handcrafted designs through various online platforms and marketplaces until she opened her first flagship location with Seattle Restored in April of 2022. Seattle Restored is a program that activates vacant storefronts by connecting local artists and small businesses with property owners, to host pop-up shops and art installations, according to Seattle Restored. The program is brought by the Seattle Office of Economic Development, Seattle Good Business Network, and Shunpike.
TASWIRA was initially focused on selling African streetwear, including dresses, shirts, pants, and more, crafted by the artists Barnes encountered in Kenya in 2019. Barnes also had the opportunity to collaborate with the Maasai tribe located in Maasai Mara, in Narok County, Kenya, by showcasing a selection of textiles that were used for bucket hats. Barnes also invited local artists to sell their artworks.
While living in Seattle, South African artist Lele Msibi, had her work represented in 2023 at TASWIRA’s first location south of downtown. She creates charcoal-sketched drawings combined with joint compound to produce three-dimensionality then mounted on a Masonite board for stability. She explores themes of growth and peace.
Msibi said her art has been largely a personal experience, but collaborating with the gallery has illuminated the value of sharing that journey with others.
“TASWIRA has opened my eyes to what is possible in the art space and has shifted my mindset in terms of what I want for myself as an artist,” said Msibi. “There are copious amounts of time, energy, spirit, mindfulness and consideration that goes into an artist’s creation, and I hope to one day reframe how people view and value art because of that.”
TASWIRA reopened in December 2024 in the current Pioneer Square building and Barnes has redirected the gallery’s focus from a retail experience to presenting art exhibitions, particularly uplifting African diasporic artists and experiences.
“Surrendering to Alchemy” by abstract artist Ariane Callender, runs from Feb. 13 to March 23, 2025, at TASWIRA Gallery. Callender is a Seattle-based artist, originally from New Orleans, Louisiana.
“Alchemy is like an unexpected transformation,” said Callender. “Surrendering to Alchemy, when you put those two words together through the lens of motherhood, is about releasing control so that an unexpected and more beautiful thing can come into that place.”
She describes herself as a self-taught artist who incorporates raw emotions, personal experiences, and a vibrant color palette to create multi-layered pieces on canvas. Callender has participated in exhibitions throughout the city, in other cities in Washington, and also one in New York City. Her current exhibition explores motherhood, the journey of renewal and the concept of regaining control.
“Avery has done such an amazing job of connecting me with her network and setting me up for success with this exhibition, and beyond,” said Callender.
Looking to the future, Barnes, who was listed on Forbes 2023 30 Under 30 Seattle Class, said that she and TASWIRA are committed to uplifting emerging artists.
“I feel drawn to tell of the African experience,” said Msibi. “Being in TASWIRA helped ignite that flame in me, as it is a gallery focused on the African diaspora, which is very inspirational and liberating.”
Barnes hopes to provide a space not only for artists to explore their craft, but for the community to engage and interact with artists’ creations and one another.
“In the future, we are looking to develop and carefully curate experiences that inspire a deeper understanding of the relationship between gallery platforms within communities,” said Barnes. “The way we interact with art and the conversations around art is a tool for healing and leading culture forward with the power of forming eras.”
Source: Seattle Medium
