The State of Fem Art Teams Up With DiscoverU Health to Bring Affordable Healthcare and Wellness Programming to Artists

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‍(WASHINGTON, DC) –– The State of Fem Art (SOFemArt) and DiscoverU Health have partnered to provide affordable healthcare for freelance women artists and artpreneurs in D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia. DiscoverU Health is a nurse-led healthcare management firm that provides inclusive concierge medicine to pediatrics and adults through virtual and concierge in-home visits by board-certified professional providers.

Starting March 24th until April 24th, SOFemArt members will receive 15% off DiscoverU's monthly health plan and services, providing access to Primary Care, Urgent Care, Chronic Care, Mental Care, Sexual Health, Women's Health Care, Dermatology Care, Dental, Vision, Labs, and more. After the initial launch of their partnership, SOFemArt members will continue receiving 10% off services through 2023. The two organizations have also partnered to provide health & wellness programming for artists education and awareness to encourage creative entrepreneurs and artists to integrate health and well-being into their daily lives.

"Many of our artists have shared how hard it is to find affordable mental and health care services and coverage. That truth is even greater for BIPOC women artists who work full-time in the arts & entertainment industry. Not only are the health and well-being of artists a necessity to us, but it is vital. We're happy to partner with DiscoverU health because they truly care about providing person-centered, equitable care," said Timea Faulkner, Founder of SOFemArt.

The partnership announcement comes on the forthcoming launch of the SOFemArt app, which will happen during the SheROCKS event in Washington, D.C, at The Capital Turnaround. At the event, SOFemArt and DiscoverU Health will share more about their blossoming partnership and why it's a game-changer for full-time artists.

“Everyone should have the liberty to pursue their passion and purpose without the risk of losing access to healthcare. With the SOFemArt and DiscoverU Health partnership, artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs can participate in preventive health while enjoying the pursuit of their dreams. Following your passion presents significant risks, but healthcare should not be one of them,” said DiscoverU Health CEO, Pamgrace Gachenge.

Register here to join the SOFemArt directory for access to DiscoverU healthcare services and to attend wellness events fueled through this partnership: https://sofemart-dev.webflow.io/artist-application

About The State of Fem Art

SOFemArt is a community-driven platform + app of artists and advocates committed to amplifying the voices and work of women artists through mentorship, resources, opportunities, funding, and curation. We aim to reframe gender biases and false perceptions about the education, skill, intellect, or talent of women creatives across the arts and entertainment industries. We do this by putting a lens back on raw talent, putting the resources in the hands of artists, and putting the power of amplification back into the hands of fans to work towards a more equitable arts, entertainment, and tech industry.

About DiscoverU Health

DiscoverU Health tech-enabled healthcare is changing the narrative and standard of care. Evident in our motto, 'bringing care to you,' we're making concierge medicine affordable and accessible to underserved or uninsured individuals. Our preventative health services are anchored in partnership with small businesses and individuals. We aim to leverage healthcare, hospitality, and technology so every client has quality care with tangible outcomes.

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Many questions come to mind when I reflect back to when I was a young little Black girl. I would watch Disney Channel TV shows from ICarly to Hannah Montana, and the only resemblance of something close to home was That's So Raven.

A great show in its entirety, though I've come to realize that I didn't have much representation in my youth of myself or my culture.

What started off as the best shows on television turned out to be the only shows on television.

There was never an option to switch between channels or movies of black families on Lifetime Movie Network or ABC Family. Instead, it was only on BET.

I would turn the channel to BET and watch the Awards with my mom and sister, watching Beyonce perform Deja Vu at the Grammys and Jennifer Hudson delivering powerful vocals from the film DreamGirls. Though BET had it all: live performances, black movies, and even hilarious rerun episodes of Martin and The Jamie Foxx Show - it was the only source of Black television.

And that came at a cost for Black women.

The provocative outfits of women wearing long v-neck slits across their chest dress outline or the too-tight fitted dresses that complimented their curves set a poor standard for the image of Black women.

Take, for example, R&B music videos like 50 Cent's "Candy Shop," where black women could be seen dancing sexually and acting out the submissive fantasies of men. Dancing blindly to the subliminal messages covertly intermingled with fancy cars and witty lyrics - it continues to be hard to overcome what society has deemed to be the archetype black woman.

The depiction of Black women has been hyper-sexualized for so many years throughout the media scene.

Surgically produced bodies, larger-than-life boobs, and even longer wigs, becoming the next black Barbie–THAT became the version of the Black woman most often seen in the media. No longer seeing the diversity or range that represents Black women in all our different flavors - the depiction is starting to fall far from reality.  

We still don't have enough diverse representation of us in the media, and the little we do have prioritizes hypersexualization.

The management teams responsible for casting black women for roles are predominately white men, according to TheHill.com. The study also found that about 92% of CEOs in the entertainment industry are white, and 68% are white men.

It's already a slippery slope when the selected depiction of Black women is decided amongst a group that does not represent them in any way.

How do we go about this issue?

I've read numerous articles and watched countless interviews where Black artists in the entertainment industry share their frustrations.

They face encounters behind the scenes that they've expressed as "too damaging to their authentic selves."

Disney star Monique Coleman, known for her role as Taylor in High School Musical, shared in 2021 to Insider Entertainment in an article Monique Coleman reveals her High School Musical character wore headbands because the crew didn't know how to style Black hair that "We've grown a lot in this industry and we've grown a lot in representation, and we've grown a lot in terms of understanding the needs of an African American actress. But the truth is, they had done my hair, and they had done it very poorly in the front."

She then went on to mention that while playing Taylor, the team of hair stylists always insisted that she wear headbands to "maintain" her hair. Her character was always presented with straightened hair. In order to "define" her look to appear more naturally pleasing, a headband was granted by executives on the show.

Why are so many young Black women taught at a young age that their hair is "too difficult" to handle?

Gabrielle Union, well known for her role in Bring It On, stated in a discussion with Glamour that she realized too early on in the industry that "there were many people in hair and makeup trailers who were totally unqualified to do my hair." She openly shared that hairstylists would use products dedicated to white hair that would leave poor results on her black hair. Union recalled an encounter where a hair stylist used Aqua Net too frequently on her hair, causing chunks of her hair to fall out while on set.

Rather than accepting the distinction between natural black hair vs. white hair on screen and off, the "favorable" look always ends in the way of the white image.

Accurate representation and management of authentic depictions of Black women aren't just stripped away by dumbing down our appearance to meet misogynistic stereotypes or not allowing us to wear our hair in all its many textures and styles, but it's also historically lightening our skin post-edit or not having our shade of makeup on set to begin with.

Often while watching films that feature a far from diverse cast or even in magazines, Black women are seen with slight color distortions that do not match their correct skin shades. As Black women, we range in all different sizes and colors, and how we show up in films, on stage, and in photos should reflect that.

Leomie Anderson, a model for Victoria's Secret came forward in a recent Live stream via Instagram. She spoke with Insider Magazine, showing the makeup completed on her face after a day's work. What caught everyone's attention was the drastic discoloration from her normal skin tone and the orange shade that was added to her complexion. Anderson expressed her embarrassment by explaining the original look that the cosmetics team had completed on her and told the viewers that she had to fix the makeup to prevent walking out in such a disappointing way.

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Since when did it become the models' or actresses' responsibility to "correct" their glam due to the lack of hair and makeup teams not being culturally fluent in their craft?

It is beyond disappointing to hear more stories about how black beauty and the representation of women who look like me are not widely recognized, understood, or embraced.

How many women will have to share their stories?

The pressure that black artists already face in the industry is overwhelming. But it becomes an ever more significant issue when many people in positions of influence have yet to acknowledge and address that this is, in fact, STILL an issue.

But, rather than pass the issue to someone else, why not strive to change it? Educate yourselves on Black beauty and the entire essence of who we really are, not what society has depicted us to be.

This Women’s History month, we commissioned artist Aniko Aliyeva to celebrate the work of incredible women in visual arts.

Today, we recognize artist Bisa Butler. Her intricate portrait quilts tell the stories of the Black experience in technicolor. Each fabric is carefully selected as she translates historical photos into brilliant works of art.

The fiber artist has shared it can take hundreds of hours to complete just ONE quilt.  

In an interview with Print Magazine, Bisa shared, “Quilts are tombs of history. Printed fabrics give you a date and time. If I’m using oranges and blues and dayglow flowers made of polyester, you know that fabric is from the 70s because they’re not making fabric like that anymore.”

The New Jersey native holds her BFA from Howard University and a Master’s in Art and Education from Montclair State University.

This April, she will be honored by the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM) alongside Faith Ringgold and Brian Donnelly (KAWS) for their 60th Anniversary Gala at Gotham Hall in New York.

USC’s Annenberg recent Inclusion Initiative report explored artists and creators of the top 800 songs on Billboards hot 100 charts spanning from 2012 to 2019. The study found that women made up only 27.1% of artists, 12.5% of songwriters, and an astounding 2.6% are producers. Our goal is to shed light on the many women who are immensely talented music producers, composers, audio engineers, artists, songwriters, and instrumentalists changing the way we experience music for now and the future.

Here is a wrap-up of a few women you should know about that are changing the game in the music industry and paving the way for a new generation of women in music.

2005 became a groundbreaking year for the 51st edition of the Biennale when Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez would become the first two women to curate the exhibition for the first time in its history.

This year, the exhibition, which features 213 artists, spotlights more than 180 women. Many of the featured artists are also indigenous, people of color, or non-binary artists. A choice which this year's curator Cecilia Alemani says is "a deliberate rethinking of man's centrality in the history of art and contemporary culture."

While women have been primary drivers in many facets of contemporary art culture, many of their stories have not been shared broadly by being given the space to exhibit at world-renown exhibitions like Biennale.  

During a recent interview with ArtNews, Alemani said that she "made a point of focusing on women artists because [she] wanted to try to bring to the surface those stories that have been considered by many to be minor. Surrealism, Futurism, all those movements—they all had female artists."

In the exhibition opening to the public on April 23, there are heavy themes of surrealism and many new artists being featured alongside historic artists---quite different from the previous Biennale's. We can appreciate the space Alemani is also making for indigenous women in the arts.

"It is an important element of the show, not just because they are Indigenous, but because they bring to the forefront a different way of storytelling that is not the traditional one," she shared with Alex Greenberger for ArtNews.

The La Biennale di Venezia was set back a year due to the global pandemic, giving Alemani space and time to carefully curate this year's exhibition. In some ways, the pandemic and its impact on many of the participating artists truly influenced its direction.

The international exhibition "Milk of Dreams," titled after the book by Leonora Carrington (1917–2011), will take place in the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and in the Arsenale in Venice, Italy.

"The Milk of Dreams was conceived and organized in a period of enormous instability and uncertainty, since its development coincided with the outbreak and spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. La Biennale di Venezia was forced to postpone this edition by one year, an event that had only occurred during the two World Wars since 1895. So the very fact that this exhibition can open is somewhat extraordinary: its inauguration is not exactly the symbol of a return to normal life, but rather the outcome of a collective effort that seems almost miraculous," said Alemani.

The exhibit includes 213 artists from 58 countries; 180 of these are participating for the first time in the International Exhibition. There will be 1,433 works and objects on display, and 80 new projects were conceived specifically for the Biennale Arte. More importantly, let's celebrate the fact that women artists are shining bright, loudly, and boldly at this year's exhibition.

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On March 27, 2021, Love Life Media revealed “The State of Fem Art” (SOFA) virtual art gallery and 360 experience designed by Fatimah “Sattom” Al Asad and curated by event founder Timea Gaines to recognize visual artists being spotlighted at this year’s SheROCKS event. The experience was crafted to commission, collaborate, and spotlight women artists and boldly declare our commitment to helping women artists and creatives be seen.

“We heard so many stories about women artists and entrepreneurs who had succeeded after attending SheROCKS event. We learned of the partnerships and relationships they established through the event. We also received numerous requests to do more. So we decided to create a space to continue the conversation, but more importantly to disrupt the industry in a way that levels the playing field for women in male-dominated industries,” said Timea Gaines CEO & Founder, Love Life Media.

With the SOFA announcement, you can expect media and entertainment, events, workshops, resources, tools, grants, collaborations, and a podcast set to feature women artists and creators.

Today is the first official public viewing of the SOFA art gallery and the podcast cover, which was created to highlight women artists who were disruptors in their own right.

On the podcast cover, you will see Frida Kahlo, Yayoi Kusama, Faith Ringold, Aretha Franklin, Audrey Hepburn, Norma Merrick Sklarek, Zaha Hadid, Rei Kawakubo, Madeline Anderson, and Debbie Allen. The first episode will provide a closer look at why each artist was chosen for the cover and their inspiring stories.

To receive the latest news about #SoFemART and the podcast launch, make sure you’re following @SoFemArt on Instagram.