Last week, Strategist Yasmin Jones-Henry moderated 2 talk sessions of ‘Marguerite Meets’ over 7-11 December. Yasmin interviewed 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair founder, Touria El Glaoui and Founder of Art Matters and independent art historian, Ferren Gipson. It is a great moment for Marguerite that gave focus to cultural leaders and groundbreaking influencers delivering change to the Art World and share their stories of successful and progressive thinking to redefining the assumptions of value and influencers in cultural sector.

Yasmin Jones-Henry first met Joanna Payne, founder of Marguerite, in August 2018, when she was invited to moderate a panel at the Groucho Club. She shares her connection with the Founder of the network, through her latest contribution to the Futurecity Digital Dialogues.

YJH: The topic of conversation, at that initial Marguerite talk, was “How To Communicate Your Brand”. Guest speakers included Sabine Zetteler (founder of Zetteler PR), Laura Preece (Sutton) and Belinda Bowring. The audience was filled from wall to wall with women: decision makers and real-life influencers in the art and communications world. It’s no secret that women in the art world and the corporate world often suffer from ‘Imposter’s Syndrome’. The Millennials and Gen Z’s among us, are often challenged by a lack of understanding in how to ask for basic things like – annual leave, a pay rise or knowing how to set boundaries in our work life.

In establishing Marguerite, Joanna Payne did not just build a monumental network of powerful female influencers – she created a tangible safe space for women to discuss, problem solve, share and support their peers. The truth is, at the time, I was just starting out in journalism, my first article “Influencers are so last Season” had only recently been published in the Financial Times, and I had never chaired a panel before. That event was my debut. Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by empowered women: creatives, disruptors in their respective fields who were willing to take chances, having bold discussions and sharing much needed insights. As a platform, this is Marguerite’s mission.

Joanna: I launched Marguerite in my living room in February 2015. I found from my time in the art world that many women lacked the confidence they needed to ask for what they wanted so were missing out on the pay rises and promotions more often given to men. I’d been very fortunate in that I worked in the VIP team at Frieze Art Fair where I had been able to build up an amazing network of gallerists, collectors and artists. This strong support network gave me a huge amount of confidence – something I wanted to share with other women in the industry to help them get what they wanted out of their careers and their lives.

YJH: Who were the first speakers?

JP: We quickly moved beyond the confines of my living room and began to host events with artists, museum directors, fashion designers, art collectors and photographers which is the format we’ve kept to this day. Some of our first speakers included people like the Turner Prize 2015 winners; Assemble; British portrait and fashion photographer, Rankin; and art patron, Valeria Napoleone.

YJH: This year marks your fifth anniversary, looking back on the year that 2020 has been – how would you summarise the ways in which Marguerite has evolved since your first event in your living room?

JP: We celebrated our 5th birthday in February with a fabulous party at The Connaught. Over the last five years, we’ve been lucky enough to have had pretty much every London museum director speak for us, from the Director of Tate, Maria Balshaw to Director of the V&A, Dr Tristram Hunt. We’ve also been hosted by fashion designers, Alice Temperley and Dame Zandra Rhodes; artists, Gavin Turk and Idris Khan OBE and photographers, Miles Aldridge and Juno Calypso.

Up until March, we were producing 40 IRL events a year but the arrival of the pandemic caused us to quickly pivot towards supporting our community virtually. The week before the first lockdown, we launched ‘Freelancers Unite’. At a time when the majority of the freelancers in our network were losing all of their work, the forum provided a space in which available freelancers could be paired with companies offering paid work. The initiative helped some of the hardest hit workers by acting as an outlet and a lifeline to over 1000 freelancers who felt as if they had nowhere to turn.

We then launched ‘FEMpowerment: When Life Gives You Lemons’ and ‘Marguerite Create’ on IGTV. The aim of these practical programmes was to help with people’s mental health during lockdown. They included exercise classes, craft workshops and talks on things like money worries and parenting children through lockdown.

YJH: Was this the motivation for your 2020 programming: giving people the content they needed as opposed to conversations that they may find interesting?

JP: Yes, we found the demand for “The Marguerite School For Start Ups” was extremely popular. In recent months, we’ve found that many people are reconsidering their career options, some exploring starting their own businesses. We wanted to create a programme that included the tools I wish I had when I started out with Marguerite. The programme covers everything from ‘start-up accounting’ and ‘managing a team’ to ‘how to use Tik-Tok’. Recordings of all of the workshops are available here.

YJH: Thank you for inviting me back to moderate sessions for the ‘Marguerite Meets’ series. It was a pleasure interviewing Ferren Gipson (art historian and podcaster) and Touria El Glaoui (founding Director, 1-54 Contemporary Art Fair). What was the rationale behind this series?

JP: Historically, the art world has been white male dominated. ‘Marguerite Meets’ was an online series of events which took place from 7th to 11th December, where we met the key figures who are changing the landscape. We had two sessions each day, where a host of journalists interviewed art world leaders including museum directors, curators, artists, writers and gallerists about their career trajectories, personal experiences and plans for the future.

Speakers included: Gus Casely-Hayford (Director of V&A East) Helene Love Allotey (Specialist in Modern and Contemporary African Art at Bonhams) and Eva Langret (Artistic Director of Frieze).

YJH: So what’s next for 2021?

JP: Marguerite will be launching a new online global membership in early 2021. Marguerite has always aimed to make the art world more accessible but has been quite London-centric until now. An accessibly priced online membership with bursaries available will really enable us to spread our mission far and wide which we feel is exactly what is needed to make real change in the industry.