Interview by Passion Dzenga | Photography by Pebbles BazurARTNOIR is a community first and an institution second — seven co-founders building the kind of art world they wanted to exist in, then inviting everyone else into it. Since 2013, they have used the platform to amplify Black and Brown creatives across disciplines, not just through exhibitions and walkthroughs, but through real infrastructure like Jar of Love: a micro-grant that has redistributed resources to artists and cultural workers when the bigger systems proved fragile.Now, ARTNOIR makes its Dutch debut through a collaboration with OSCAM in Amsterdam Zuidoost — a meeting of two Black women-led institutions that understand the power of place, and the urgency of showing up for community in real time. Their joint exhibition, Watering a Black Garden, lands during International Women’s Month and brings together eight women and non-binary artists from across the diaspora, reframing joy as something intentional: tending, care, rest, and becoming. In this conversation, Larry Ossei-Mensah and Carolyn “CC” Concepcion, co-founders of ARTNOIR, unpack how the show came together, why “radical joy” is a necessary lens, what sustainability actually looks like behind the scenes, and how they’re extending the exhibition beyond the gallery walls — into workshops, circles, and even a book list at the OBA, so visitors can take the experience home.For readers who are just meeting you: what is ARTNOIR - and why bring ARTNOIR to the Netherlands to partner with OSCAM now?Larry Ossei-Mensah: ARTNOIR is a collective platform. We started in 2013, formally it’s seven of us as co-founders and it stems from wanting to create the world we want to see. At the time, we recognized there were a lot of emerging artists doing incredible things but not getting engagement from our generation of patrons. For example, there were curators doing amazing work but not getting the support they needed. A lot of what we’ve done has been about amplifying the voices of Black and Brown, Latin, Latinx, Asian creatives — primarily visual artists but we’ve also worked with writers, dancers, musicians.One example is our Jar of Love microgrant, which we started in 2020. One of our grantees, Samora Pinderhughes, just had an exhibition at MoMA, Call and Response. He presented a new video piece and did a number of performances — and to be part of that journey has been really fruitful and rewarding. When I started working in the arts back in 2008, there were maybe a couple galleries showing Black artists. And now we’re in institutions consistently - but even within that, how do we show up and for each other?We do exhibition walkthroughs and we support exhibitions. We supported the British Pavilion for John Akomfrah’s presentation in 2024 and we’re supporting the British Pavilion again this year for Lubaina Himid's presentation. Since 2013, we’ve understood the importance of the platform being international, not just focusing on the United States. We have delivered projects in South Africa in collaboration with Black Portraiture, partnered with the U.S. Embassy in Paris, and worked in London with Samuel Ross and SR_A on the Black British Artist Grant.In terms of Amsterdam, OSCAM reached out to us to explore what a collaboration could look like. Marian Duff is the founder, and we’ve been working with Annicée Angela, who’s co-curating, and Manu Drenthem Soesman, who’s been helping with production. OSCAM does really important work. When they reached out, I hit up my people in Amsterdam: “Tell us more about OSCAM and its role, and everyone we spoke to emphasized the importance of OSCAM and the work they do.”. I’ve had the opportunity to spend meaningful time in the Bijlmer, which has given me a deeper understanding of what the neighborhood represents within a broader social and cultural context. I see art as a vehicle for conversation, specifically through this project, Watering a Black Garden: Reimagining Joy as a Radical Act of Tending and Becoming, and in considering what it means to present a group exhibition of Black and Brown women and non-binary artists.The timing is also intentional: International Women’s Month. The exhibition is celebrating the month, platforming these voices and artistic expressions, and being in dialogue with the creative community in Amsterdam. I’ve been visiting Amsterdam for the last 20 years, so my network is vast - people in fashion, visual arts, and everyday folks who live there. How can we collaborate, bring our flavor, and bring communities together?We’re not under the assumption that because Amsterdam is “small,” there isn’t an opportunity for engagement and dialogue. I always think about how, in New York, you need special moments that invite people to come out, especially after people have been hibernating, and with the weather getting better. It gives people a reason to pull up — especially if they live in other parts of the city — to say: “We’re going to go to Zuidoost, support this exhibition, see what these artists have to say, support the programming.” And also support OSCAM's work.We are always trying to identify mission-aligned partners who are changing the narrative, expanding discourse, and building a platform that’s accessible not only to creatives but to everyday folks. I did a site visit to OSCAM in October and it was great to watch the aunties coming from the grocery store popping in just to say hello. This is a really important component, community has been a bedrock for what we do regardless of where in the world we show up and collaborate.Carolyn “CC” Concepcion: I’ll add to that: community is central for us. We serve two constituents. We serve the artists — creatives, curators, culture producers, designers, makers — and we also serve communities of color that are interested in the arts. Accessibility is central to our mission. How do we invite our people into institutions, into gallery walls, into art and culture environments that can be intimidating and aren’t designed or programmed with them in mind?That’s why the field trips and walkthroughs are integral to how we got started — it was friends who wanted to see themselves in the art world, and they wanted to see it together. They wanted permission, inspiration, and to not be intimidated. If you like art — if you have even a mustard seed of interest — we can give you a path: where to go see it, how to see it. If you’re interested in collecting, we can support you with entry points. It’s about why you belong in the space, and highlighting who is creating with your narrative at the center.Watering a Black Garden brings together eight female and non-binary artists across disciplines. How did you build that list, and what threads connect their practices for you?Larry Ossei-Mensah: It’s a combination. Some are artists we’ve been following for a long time and really admire. We did research. Once we agreed on the prompt — focusing on platforming the women of colour — we were also thinking about diaspora. We wanted, to the best of our ability, to represent different voices and perspectives across the diaspora.Aline Motta, for example — Afro-Brazilian — I’ve gotten to know her over the last several years through projects in Brazil. Shaniqwa Jarvis is an incredible photographer and artist, and also a friend. It’s been amazing to witness her journey — and to find the right fit and the right timing to share her fine art practice alongside her commercial photography practice.Nengi Omuku is someone I’ve gotten to know over the last several years — I’ve shown her work before at the ICA in San Francisco. Same with Ufuoma Essi; this might be the secondtime I’ve engaged with her practice, having shown it at the MET in Manila, Philippines. Jennette Ehlers, I had been following and met last year while on a trip to Copenhagen, facilitated by the Danish Foundation. We wanted diversity in perspectives and mediums. We think about the exhibition at OSCAM as the soil — what grows from that soil are these varying expressions and ideas. So it’s been great: artists we know, artists we’ve researched, artists we feel have something to say — and we’re excited to collaborate with them. We have artists from Brazil, the U.S., Congo — Copenhagen, Nigeria, UK, France, and the Caribbean - our diaspora moves around, and we want those perspectives highlighted.Carolyn “CC” Concepcion: And another entry point to finalizing our artist list is OSCAM’s focus on emerging artists and young creatives of color. So we also looked to artists — like Rachel Marsil from Paris, Maty Biayenda from Paris, Bernice Mulenga from London — young, electric, vibrant artists at an inflection point in their careers. They have so much more to go and being part of their journey, helping expand their audience and impact, is inspiring. Larry Ossei-Mensah: So much is about the journey. The Venice Biennale just released the list of participating artists, and a number of them are artists we’ve supported in various forms. It might be romantic for me, but knowing you played a small part in helping them get to what they’re destined to get to — that’s powerful.And I believe most of these artists are showing in the Netherlands for the first time. There’s still a lot of work to do in terms of visibility for artists of color, platforming artists of color. This is showing up boldly, unabashedly, with love and care.A lot of the time, Black art gets framed through suffering and trauma. How do you present Black work without defaulting to that lens, while still being honest about the diasporic experience?Larry Ossei-Mensah: That was the intention from the beginning: to illustrate a different and more expanded point of view. It’s part of the journey, but it doesn’t have to be what we’re always centering.We’re thinking about joy, but not in a stereotypical “happy-go-lucky” way. Joy as tending. What does it mean to care for oneself and one’s community? Women and non-binary individuals are often the ones who feed our souls, minds, and spirits. We also wanted to complicate it: joy as intentional choices, how you hold space, how we hold space together, regardless of circumstance. This journey toward freedom, possibility, imagination — there’s no endpoint. It requires consistent engagement and dialogue, finding pockets of respite regardless of what’s happening.There’s always something happening in the world — to varying degrees. So, be mindful, but also look at ourselves, look at each other. Highlight the breadth and depth of what makes us human — complicated, layered, multi-faceted — and in the case of the exhibitions, using different forms of media. Centering wholeness was important in shaping the exhibition and selecting artists.Even the programming extends this. We’re partnering with the OBA Bijlmerplein near OSCAM — putting together a reading list. What does it mean to find a bell hooks book that allows you to process what’s happening in the exhibition? That extension is unique and exciting.Carolyn “CC” Concepcion: I’ll add to that by speaking on the title and the programming. The title Watering a Black Garden came to us after I revisited a photograph I took in 2024 of Raymond Saunders’s work at David Zwirner Gallery during Post No Bills, an exhibition curated by Ebony L. Haynes. Across a Black canvas “Watering a Black Garden” was written.. It felt rooted, powerful, magical. I posted it on my IG stories,Larry saw it, and said: “Oh my god, that’s the name of our exhibition in Amsterdam.” He was like: “I think that’s it.” Our good friend Ebony Haynes, Global Head of Curatorial Projects, further educated us on Saunders' work and what the garden meant to him, and it solidified things for us. So we honor these legends — the artists who laid the foundation. Raymond Saunders is centered and honored in when we speak about where the title of this exhibition came from.And in regards to joy: the programming is intentional. Bernice is coming to do a workshop around her photography practice. We’re doing a flower bouquet-making workshop — touching nature in real life. We’re doing a gathering with Up Close — part of the Amsterdam community — centered on healing circles. It’s wholesome: centering Black legends and centering women across the diaspora.ARTNOIR is a predominantly Black and Brown women-led organization — five women — so uplifting Black and Brown women artists is front and center. And OSCAM is also Black women-led and founded. So it all made sense.Larry Ossei-Mensah: From our research and observation, that’s where both organisations dovetail: pouring into our community, through exhibitions, programming, and even just being a space where “aunties” or “cousins” can come in and say hello. When I did my visit, I noticed it’s a vibe on multiple levels.The title encapsulates the idea: we have to keep pouring into each other regardless of what’s happening — sometimes in spite of what’s happening — to give ourselves the strength, the vision, the imagination to keep moving forward collectively.You’re building something that’s sustainable — and sustainability usually means you’re also thinking about burnout, rest, and care. How do you create space and respite inside the work, especially when this becomes a transatlantic diasporic conversation?Larry Ossei-Mensah: Definitely. It’s a constant process of evolution. It has different faces. For example, when we do our women’s dinner — usually biannual — it can look different. Last year, we did a ceramics workshop, and the year before, it was at the studio of our good friend Asmeret Berhe-Lumax, the founder of One Love Community Fridge. We are constantly mixing the approach to how we engage our community: field trips, going to see art, breaking bread and sharing a meal, and exchanging ideas. And physical, tactile moments — slowing down — is where a light bulb might go off.That’s partly why the programming has landed where it has. It’s one thing to say: “Come see the show, come do a tour.” It’s another to have an artist workshop guide us through lens-based practice — documenting community, telling stories, building an archive. Or to do a flower-arranging workshop — it might seem simple, but we’re all busy, we’re all programmed. So, saying - stop for an hour or two, focus on yourself, focus on community, bring a friend, share time - is helpful.Coming out of COVID, people are more hyper-alert to what’s sustainable. This is a long fight and journey toward freedom or liberation — a holistic approach to living. Our communities — especially if you’re first-gen — hard work and sacrifice are embedded in our psyche. That is important, but so is enjoying life, enjoying friends, having space to dream. The pressure is intense.Even reading a book shouldn’t be a luxury, but for some people it is. Taking time to read Toni Morrison and feed your mind, that matters. So we try to be intentional and strategic with how it shows up in our work.I co-curated an exhibition at Storm King (with Nora Lawrence & Adela Goldsmith), a sculpture park in upstate New York, of Sonia Gomes' work last year— and bringing people into a landscape, showing work, having a performance — it’s a reset. While living in a big city, those reminders are important.And there’s also a benefit in having seven co-founders, mixing and matching when needed. When someone steps back, someone else can take the baton and move things forward.Carolyn “CC” Concepcion: I wanted to speak to the shadow side: burnout, labor, and what it actually takes to build something like this. We’re seven co-founders, but none of us take a salary. We have a small but mighty team of interns and fellows who keep the engine going. We all have full-time jobs. We have kids. We have parents — aging parents. We have partners. And we make a choice every day to do this work for ARTNOIR — to make this space for our community. It’s intentional, curated, selected. And yes, it burns us out sometimes. Institution building for our community — resources aren’t always available. So we have to be scrappy and chic all the time, on a nonprofit budget.And especially in this climate — Black History Month is every day for us. DEI is not a checkbox; it’s our life. In this new administration — it’s more challenging to be loud and proud, but also to stay on the low with the work so we’re not targeted. That’s a new reality. Burnout isn’t just “wellness”; it’s also the pressure of leadership and visibility.Patta is doing this work too — you’re just using a different lens — but it’s all culture-making: image-making, object-making, archival work, storytelling of the Black experience. That’s the shadow side of building in service to our people.Jar of Love is one of the infrastructural pieces that really stands out. Can you break down what it is, how it works, and what resource redistribution and care look like in practice?Larry Ossei-Mensah: Jar of Love emerged from a practical use case. During COVID, once we understood what was happening, I noticed colleagues being furloughed, laid off — and you saw these “mighty” institutions were basically built on wooden stilts. On top of everything happening in the world — George Floyd, etc. — we asked: how do we support from where we stand?So we decided collectively: how can we re-grant or create mutual aid for colleagues in a dire moment? We started the fund in 2020 in partnership with several artists. We did online auctions with Artsy, with the support of then-CMO Everette Taylor — now CEO at Kickstarter — and raised funds. Then we held an open call for a non-restricted microgrant: $500 to $3,000, depending on need.Since 2020, we’ve reinvested over $350K in more than 150 artists, curators, cultural workers, and filmmakers. Initially, it was “for the COVID moment,” but even after that, we still saw the need. It’s an infrastructural gap.We’ve partnered with Sotheby’s, with the support of Walden Huntley-Fenner, and moved to a cohort model. Now we bring in a group of six or seven and try to create a network effect. With the recent cohort, it becomes not just funding, but convening: a filmmaker meets a musician — can you do a score? It becomes an ecosystem.We still provide resources for dream projects and needs, but now we’re asking: what does professional development look like? What do people need now? What are you working on that we can amplify? How else can we support — emotionally, with introductions, and by showing up? And it’s satisfying to see grantees hit their moments. Watching it manifest is one of the most satisfying feelings. We keep evolving it to meet the moment — needs change — and our superpower has been our adaptability and nimbleness.Carolyn “CC” Concepcion: It’s about being responsive when people need it most. COVID was the impetus, but it continues. We expanded Jar of Love in LA during the LA fires — distributing funds aligned with how we did it during COVID. Artists have studio fires, lose parents, get sick — that drumbeat continues, alongside the cohort model.Funding looks different across countries. London isn’t as generous as the U.S. in cultural funding. Our $5,000 might not be “that much,” but it’s the intention: we see you. It’s not only financial — it's the community seeing you and supporting you at different stages.Our goal is to expand in Paris. Our goal is to expand in Amsterdam. That’s something we can work on together — finding the funds — especially in centers of creative exchange tied to the African diaspora.Let’s get practical: what’s the full rundown of programming around OSCAM? Key dates, key moments — what should people pull up for?Carolyn “CC” Concepcion: March 6th is press and VIP programming. Miss Sunny will DJ and Sylvana Simons will do the welcoming — she’s very loved in Amsterdam. We’ll have a panel with fourof the artists who are in town. For the opening, we have more DJs: Princess Vineyard is coming, and then there’ll be an afterparty with AK SoundSystem — so it’s going to be kind of lit. A lot of music, a lot of vibes.The caterer is Tabili, two sisters doing beautiful work inspired by different parts of the diaspora: Brazilian food, Caribbean food, food from the continent all on the 6th.Then the other programs run between March and April: programming with Up Close and the library, an art workshop with Bernice Mulenga, and the flower-making workshop. And the book selection — when does that hit the OBA?Larry Ossei-Mensah: It will launch during the opening of the exhibition. At OBA Bijlmerplein, we will have an area with books, a flyer, and materials with QR codes. The book list will also be online.We’re also doing a playlist. It’s about extending the exhibition and letting people bring it home. You see an incredible painting by Rachel Marsil, you’re moved, then you stumble into an Audre Lorde book that invites you to think about what it is to be a person of color in repose.The first time I came to Amsterdam, a buddy lived by the Heineken factory and said, “Let’s bike to the park.” I was 24, from the Bronx — I was like, “What?” Watching people picnic, relax, and be at rest - that was strange for me then. If I went to the park, it was to play basketball, not to rest.So to have a visual representation of your body at rest — not in fight-or-flight — and then literature or music that can support what you feel as you move through the show: that’s an essential part of making it holistic.Watering a Black Garden is curated by Annicée Angela (OSCAM), Carolyn “CC” Concepcion & Larry Ossei-Mensah (ARTNOIR) and will be on view at OSCAM, Bijlmerplein 110, 1102 DB Amsterdam from Friday, March 6th to May 6th, 2026.
