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Swizz Beatz, Alicia Keys and the Dean Collection bless 20 diverse artists

Swizz Beatz, Alicia Keys, and The Dean Collection are at it again!

The initiative has finally announced the 20 artists from all over the world that will receive $5,000 dollars each in grants to further their creative careers.

The news came by way of HyperAllergic last Friday which highlighted the 10 women and 10 men from Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe, and Australia who won this year’s Dean Collection 20 St(art)ups, #TDC20.

#TDC20

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Each artist was carefully selected as Swizz Keys put together a curatorial team of more than a dozen people to carefully choose from the thousands of submissions from artists across the world.

Swizz explained to HyperAllergic over the phone about how important the curational process was for him and Alicia. To them, creating new opportunities for artists is key. He said,

“The curation is very important to me. It’s just like in music; everybody can’t make a hit record, but artists have talent and they should have that outlet to get to where they need to go to…I just love to do these things, and my wife does as well. This is what we’re supposed to do. This is what everybody’s supposed to be doing; creating opportunities for other people to have opportunities. We’re all supposed to be playing that part.”

The selection of 10 men and 10 women was important too as Swizz and Alicia feel as if women are underrepresented in artistic industries. Swizz expressed how tired he is of hearing, “Where the women at?”

In addition to leveling out the artistic playing field, the plans behind #TDC20 are to increase each artists’ business savvy. In fact, four out of the 20 artists selected will receive an additional $25,000 if they do something incredibly ambitious with the initial $5,000.

Swizz feels as if artists need to know about their art and then some. It’s not okay that artists are taken advantage of because they don’t know what’s really good on the business side. Swizz told HyperAllergic,

“The key to this whole thing is sustainability. How can artists maintain after a show? How can we educate the artists to start to do things on their own instead of just going with the regular standard? Do you know how to put on your art show? Do you have a business plan? A lot of these artists are only equipped to do art, and I think that that’s the biggest mistake, in all art forms. That’s why artists are always getting taken advantage of because we don’t know the business.”

#TDC20 is really dope for the culture and as the years go on Swizz Keys hope to increase the number of artists selected for the grants each time around. Swizz told HyperAllergic how he eventually wants to get to 200 consecutive shows around the world. He said,

“This is the Dean Collection 20 St(art)ups, next one will be 40, then 60, and so on… I want to get it to 200; I want to do 200 consecutive shows around the world; that’s my goal. That’s when you’re doing something very powerful.”

Damn man, straight up inspirational ish right here. We should all be excited for the 20 artists selected for TDC20 as they truly deserve a chance to learn about the business side of things.

Check out all of their works by clicking on one of the names below.

Fadi AlhamwiAyobola Kekere-EkunJorge CalderónRazahk IssakaTon VajanpanichErwin “Skip” BreaHana El-SaginiTanda FrancisRimon GuimarãesPenda DiakitéFletcher WilliamsShanina DionnaKimani BeckfordSara RahbarPierre-Christophe GamDanielle RobertsEmma LindsayEkene Emeka-MadukaRada Iya, and Shawn Warren.

ATTENTION‼‼‼ #tdc20 Full story in Bio via @hyperallergic. Last month, We asked all the creatives worldwide to send in their creative work and business plan to see how they would use $5K to further their career. The response was amazing, and made it extremely difficult to pick the first #TDC20 winners, out of more than 100 countries . The world is ready for more and we will be bringing more opportunities like this. This is just the beginning. We picked 10 men and 10 woman 🙏🏽 (Full link in the Bio ) congrats to @fadi.alhamwi @ayobola.k @STARMANFUNK @zackie_tlk @indahouse.store @skipxd @hanasagini @tandafrancis @rimonguimaraes @thebeautifulartist @fletcherwilliamsiii @shaninadionna @sara_rahbar_ @pierre.christophe.gam @daniellle_roberts_ @emmalindsay__ @ekenemaduka @artbyrada @warrenart Blessings …….

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