WELCOME TO ARETE ARTS
OUR VISION
Our community provides platforms to amplify the voices and messages of contemporary African artists through exhibitions and small private events. Through our foundation, we provide small grant support for creative initiatives across the African continent that use art to connect and engage people and advance their social and environmental impact. We select art projects which deepen our relationships and which create more inclusive and sustainable communities.
Art speaks from – and to – our deepest selves. With the power to illuminate and challenge entrenched thinking, art helps us to see changing and complex issues from new vantage points. The name ‘arete’ itself speaks to this interplay of multiple interpretations. As a geological term, it refers to the rocky ridge that is created when two glaciers meet, resulting in a dramatic vantage point from which one can see far and wide. It also evokes the Greek meaning of expressing the fullest and best potential of one’s essence.
ARETE ARTS COMMUNITY
ARETE ARTS FOUNDATION
SUPPORTING ART AT THE GRASSROOTS
Art is a powerful way to engage people emotionally and deepen the discourse around social and environmental topics. Art can provide an entry point for reflection and debate that ultimately changes the way we think about issues – which can then lead to action. Art also welcomes a plurality of perspectives. We select projects that use art to create more inclusive and sustainable communities.
- Based in Africa
- Art projects which advance social or environmental change
- Are community led and inclusive
- Can extend their reach or deepen their impact with
targeted funding support - Create opportunities for vulnerable or marginalized communities
JOIN US
DONATIONS CREATE A RIPPLE EFFECT
When you support the Arete Arts Foundation you are connecting with a dynamic and creative global community. Funds support grassroots projects that use art to help create change. This includes everything from allowing more school children to visit museums, ocean clean ups, public installations, exchange visits and participation in global events designed to cross-fertilize ideas and inspiration.
DONATEArete Arts Kai Society corporate and individual donors have provided anchor funding and are part of an exclusive community and receive regular invitations to engage through events, trips and special experiences.
ART TRANSFORMING MINDS AND NATURE
A COMMUNITY CONNECTED BY AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY ART
We connect established and emerging contemporary African artists with buyers and those who appreciate the transformational power of art. We focus on artistic storytelling about social and climate justice. Profits directly support grassroots projects working with emerging artists and the Arete Arts Foundation. We are grateful for the commentary and work of the artists that feature in the Afroprophetic book, profiled below.
- Book publications
- Art sales
- Private dinners and events
- Collaboration with galleries and art institutions
- Bespoke travel experiences to connect with African artists and art initiatives
AFROPROPHETIC BOOK
Africa serves as both a sobering harbinger of what lies ahead for our planet AND has a resilient energy captured by artists that points to a reimagined future
In this inaugural publication, Afroprophetic: Art transforming minds and nature, we focus on the expansive theme of our relationship with the environment and how to protect and value Africa’s incredible landscapes and natural heritage. Profits support a myriad of art projects across Africa that engage young people and communities in dialogue about the relationship between humans and the natural environment. This dialogue probes themes of planetary health and the complex challenges of sustainable development.
Afroprophetic: Art transforming minds and nature — Hardcover Book
Description
Profits from book sales are donated to Arete Arts Foundation to directly benefit grassroots projects and artists
CONTRIBUTORS TO OUR FIRST PUBLICATION
FEATURED ARTISTS
TRANSFORM MINDS
If you are an artist and would like to join our community - whether through selling your art, recommending a social impact project or participating in our events - we would love to hear from you.
REACH OUT
IMPACT LIVES
Donate directly to the Arete Arts Foundation or host a bespoke event that can increase the reach of the art and the reflections they inspire. Funds raised will be distributed to selected grassroots initiatives.
DONATE
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
If you fit into all or none of the above, drop us a line. Art has a place everyone and can spark some creative ideas. We’d love to hear them.
CONTACT USARETE ARTS CIRCLE
OUR PEOPLE
CO-FOUNDER
EMILIA KELADITIS
Emilia is a co-founder of Arete Arts. She was based in London for over twenty years, working in investment banking and fund management across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Emilia grew up in Botswana and throughout her career retained close ties to Africa, supporting not-for-profit organisations in a voluntary capacity. Leveraging her knowledge of financial markets, she specialised in introducing new and sustainable sources of funding to organisations that typically relied on philanthropic capital. Emilia runs a family office invested in commercial and residential property.
CO-FOUNDER
STEPHANIE SLUKA
Steph, a co-founder of Arete Arts Foundation, grew up outside Chicago and is now based in South Africa. She focuses on the intersection of philanthropy, conservation and sustainable development, with a particular passion for entrepreneurship and social enterprises. Fundamentally, Steph sees healthy ecosystems as a requisite for peace, security and global justice - and art as a powerful way to shape narratives and promote meaningful connections that can lead to transformed realities.
ARETE ARTS COMMUNITY CIRCLE
SOPHIE BRAINE
Based in London, Sophie advises on individual arts projects working with a broad range of collectors and artists. She joined the Arete Arts Foundation to curate the content for ‘Afroprophetic: Art transforming minds and nature’ (2023). She worked for a contemporary gallery in Mayfair, having worked for almost ten years for Christie’s London as Associate Director and Head of Sale. She inaugurated the Nordic Art and Design sales and served as the Executive Editor of ‘Nordic Contemporary; Art from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden’ by Thames & Hudson.
ARETE ARTS COMMUNITY CIRCLE
BEVERLY BURDEN
Beverly “Beezie”, has lived in East Africa for fifteen years, namely the Serengeti and Kenya. Her career has been dedicated to conservation, developing and implementing communication strategies for organisations looking to demonstrate social and environmental impact and connect with a broader audience. Over the years she has been inspired by storytelling as a tool to transcend cultures, places and perspectives on the Environment. Beezie collaborates with various filmmakers, always looking at ways to promote conservation storytelling, bolster local narratives and work with African artists.
ARETE ARTS COMMUNITY CIRCLE
OMO BELLO
Omo is a French-Nigerian soprano who serves as an Ambassador for Arete Arts Foundation. After five years studying Cell Biology and Genetics, she devoted herself entirely to music, studying at the Conservatoire de Paris. The recipient of many awards over the years, she made her debut in the role of Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro) at the 2012 Verbier Festival. Her debut album, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn was released in 2013 She performs with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre national de France, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and the Orchestre de Paris. Omo took part in the Operabuja festival in Nigeria, an ambitious project with a vision to build a music conservatory in Nigeria and in doing so promote classical music and lyrical art.
ARETE ARTS COMMUNITY CIRCLE
Tiphaine de Mombynes
Based in Paris, Tiphaine is an environmental expert (agricultural engineer / PhD in Environmental management sciences). As a visual artist, she is convinced by the power of emotions. This led to the creation of the Metis Arts and Development Fund, an alliance of public and private actors in search of sustainable development impacts, housed within the French Development Agency (AFD). With an overarching aim to ‘share emotions, create transformation’ artists become actors to advance environment, gender, education issues. Previous to her role as Director of the Metis Fund, she built and managed the Agency's first research program dedicated to biodiversity. She also financed biodiversity projects (through loans and grants) in emerging and developing countries (Latin America, Africa, Asia, Middle East). Learn more about the Metis Fund here.
ARETE ARTS COMMUNITY CIRCLE
SONIA LAWSON
Sonia is the Founding Director of the Palais de Lomé in Togo, an ambitious renovation, cultural and environmental project, funded by the Togolese State, which opened its doors at the end of 2019. She was entrusted with the conception, management, design and oversight of the transformation of the former Governor’s Palace into a centre for art and culture after it laid abandoned for twenty years. She also curated in 2017 and 2019 exhibitions of design and crafts from Togo at Révélations Biennale des Métiers d’art, the international fine craft and creation biennial at the Grand Palais in Paris. She previously worked in Europe in management consulting, and international brand management at large multinational consumer goods corporations. She graduated from Sciences Po Paris and HEC Paris school of management.
ARETE ARTS COMMUNITY CIRCLE
RIA KULENOVIC
Ria grew up in Yugoslavia and in her early 20s had to flee a war ravaged Bosnia and embark on a refugee journey to Boston, USA. Ria’s love for art was born when she worked for a local theatre that serves as a temple of spiritual resistance during the siege of Sarajevo, staging over a thousand performances in the middle of the war. Her career in international development is propelled by a commitment to social justice and she maintains a love for art and wildlife conservation. Ria is currently working in Ethiopia.
ARETE ARTS COMMUNITY CIRCLE
EKEOMA UDENSI
Ekeoma was born into a family with a love for art and all things beautiful, including art and antiques inherited from his Nigerian family. He now serves as the CEO of All Art Collector and promotes African art and emerging artists from across the continent.