Art can save lives. And for both Brandolon Barnett and Messay Derebe art did save their lives. And art brought them together. Now they want to bring art to everyone by making it accessible and affordable to dip your toes into the art world. Hence goARTful was born. This startup allows individuals or companies to rent art from local artists and switch out the art as much as they want.
Brandolon Barnett, co-Founder and co-CEO
Brandolon has a love for music and the arts that comes from his time as a performer, his love of anime and photography, and graduate research into the importance of the arts for economic development.
Brandolon holds an MA in International Studies with a specialization in International Economics from the University of London SOAS. He brings to Artful a wide range of experience within the social enterprise and social impact space. He has successfully managed NGO programs in major US markets and on the ground in 5 countries, worked as as analytics manager for Frontstream/TRUiST, as a senior researcher with the Council on Foundations, and as a corporate social responsibility consultant with Global Impact.
He has also acted as the first Director and leader of Growfund (mygrowfund.org), shepherding a $1 million seed investment in the startup and bringing the platform from 160 to thousands of potential users in its first year. Brandolon is a respected speaker on topics related to diversity in philanthropy, impact measurement, impact investing, giving trends, and social innovation. He has been invited to speak at the 2014 Conference for Sustainable Cultural Heritage Management in Rome, the 2016 conference of the Association for Corporate Contributions Professionals (ACCProf), the 2016 Blackbaud Conference, 2017 SXSW, 2017 SOCAP, and other venues.
He is active as a volunteer, and loves his hometown NBA team the Dallas Mavericks.
Messay Derebe, co-Founder and co-CEO
Messay is a passionate believer in the transformative power of the arts having seen their impact on her own life. She has committed her career to expanding access to arts for all.
She is part of the Program team at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Previous to this Messay worked and volunteer with several performing and visual arts organizations around the country in Pittsburgh, PA, Dallas, TX, and Washington, DC. This experience included work with the The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, and Washington Performing Arts.
Messay began her career in finance working as an auditor with Ernst & Young but left that path to pursue her true passion of supporting artists and arts organizations. Messay holds a Masters in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University. She earned her undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University with majors in English Literature and Accounting. Messay also volunteers to support arts in her committee. She serves as a member of the steering committee for Emerging Arts Leaders DC and in other capacities. She is originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and calls Texas her adopted US state.
About Vango Studio
Vango Studio makes the entrepreneurial side of being an artist easy and efficient, saving artists an average of 4 hours per week. In addition to powering artists with an award winning marketplace, we offer artists the ability to create their own website with little to no maintenance, distribute work across platforms, and access detailed insights about their collectors and what is selling across platforms.
Follow Vango on Instagram @vango and @art, and visit www.vangoart.co
