What value did they find in growing your clientele here in the Triad? Location is very vital for Jordan. Though he can work remotely from anywhere, Transform GSO allows him to have a space to focus and motivates that focused mentality.
How has Transform GSO helped them? Jordan uses their membership access as a bridge to connect with local entrepreneurs and host events, meetings, and create active collaborative opportunities with leaders in this space. By doing this, Jordan serves the local community inclusively and develops a diverse environment of creatives and professionals.
What membership benefits provide the most significant value? The biggest advantage is the 24/7 access to the open coworking space and booking conference rooms for collaborative meetings and hosting events. As a creative person and designer, Jordan leverages his memberships to utilize the space for clearing his head and focusing on completing administrative tasks and design work.
Since branding is so essential to building a business, what’s the story behind your business’s name? How does the name JTR presents convey your business goals? It started in 2016 when Jordan finished his master’s in Arts Administration, intending to learn how to empower artistic professionals and emerging new talents. The intention is that JTR highlights emerging talent by presenting their work to the public and a part of the dream of Jordan’s end career to solve contemporary problems through contemporary art.
Favorite project you’ve worked on thus far? Lara Americo, his co-curator, is working on an exhibition by telling the stories of the transgender, non-binary, LGBTQ+ community. They are launching an IndieGoGo to fund this exhibition and help pay for the supplies to create this exhibition. They are also actively receiving artwork submissions. What does it mean to be American? And how can our diverse communities work together more inclusively? JTR presents supporting other institutions and initiatives Black Creatives Revival and Elsewhere museum with administrative services. Jordan also consults with the Jaycees on their endeavors to support BIPOC businesses and their ambition to elevate local BIPOC artists.
What’s one thing — either industry/work-related or not — they learned in the past month? Be very clear and articulate with your intentions as Jordan begins to understand the relationship between the business for which he serves as a liaison. That clarity allows him to respect the boundaries of different organizations and recognize how they can connect people and entities in ways that synergize their effort to magnify their impact.
What’s one skill you’d like to develop or sharpen this year? Project Management. Jordan admits that project management is a skill that he has neglected but sees as increasingly important as he becomes a creative director for specific projects and artistic director for others. He is working on establishing clear boundaries and identifying his bandwidth to manage initiatives and projects more effectively.
UPDATE:
Since the last interview, Jordan T. Robinson has been focusing his goal on building a career as a curator and administrator. He recently was brought onboard as the Communications Manager at https://www.elsewheremuseum.org/people/jordan-t-robinson. “Elsewhere is going through a metamorphosis,” he shared. “What drew me to the organization is its intention to engage in more community organizing and support for social issues. Matthew Giddings, April Parker, Alyssa May, and Jess Hoyle are all contributing to this idea of what art institutions could do in their role for supporting communities.”
Parallel to Jordan’s community engagement work through Elsewhere, and he has also been advocating through his projects and collaborations with other artists. He has been preparing for the subsequent phases of his community project “https://jtrpresents.art/the-transparency-project-overview,” which is to advocate for non-cisgender artists and communities. The first phase was to have the exhibition shown online and had a physical portion at the Guilford Green Foundation in November 2020. Guilford Green Foundation also had live programming streamed live on https://youtu.be/CjEQqQ8utns for TDOR (Day of Trans Visibility). This year, Jordan plans to raise money to fund a final exhibition, both virtual and physical, for 2023 and pay artists for their services and artistry. His work is starting to reach out to organizations interested in building a committee to steer the project’s direction to serve the community better.
In the same spirit of advocacy, Jordan collaborated with local artists, administrators, and queen https://www.frankleighart.com/about of https://www.frankleighart.com/. Jordan curated Beth’s new collection release in an exhibition called “Bloom” at https://www.mycvagreensboro.org/page-18247. The display is about holding space for a Black Woman to be heard and valued. In doing so, there can be space held for healing, growth and become a form of self-care. Bloom hosted an artist talk between Beth and Jaki Shelton Green which reflected on Beth’s origins, influences, and the institutional issues where artists of color face barriers to having their art displayed and sold without a commission or other fees. Jordan has been raising awareness for the lack of creative spaces owned by black and brown-led organizations or owned businesses.
Jordan dedicates himself to promoting and elevating the work of emerging and established contemporary artists and supporting ways for their careers to grow. He is also building opportunities and cases to strengthen his curator, artist, and community organizer skills to cement his career as a curator in the Arts.