Intersection of Business and Art

Kalli Padgett is a Louisiana born artist who believes in the modern merge of creativity and entrepreneurial practice. After obtaining a Fine arts degree at SCAD in Savannah Georgia she moved to New Orleans. She began making work connecting humanity through visual & environmental experiences and eventually came to a halt noticing huge gaps in the industry. She started “Creole Connection” as a new way for artists to generate and obtain career changing opportunity. The Louisiana Creoles, as she understood it, were ethnic groups who settled in Louisiana and survived by mixing cultural knowledge. Designed for artists, by artists around the creole concept with the purpose of creating a thriving ecosystem of organizations, businesses, creatives, and city relationships. Started in 2020 with zero business background, Kalli pushed through walls and gained recognition across many different subcultural networks, while also managing to support her own art career through her collaborations. Her most recent collaboration taking root is Climate Culture- a collaboration with Ray Fontaine and Leroy Brown is bringing climate science professionals, artists, and climate tech business together in creating public art as a catalyst for solving sustainability issues in the city. Kalli is extremely dedicated in changing the way artists do business and isn’t going anywhere. She has a vision for establishing a space where Creole Connection can become a central mecca of opportunity for creatives, a cultivation of international and local relationships, and a connective resource exchange for organizations, entrepreneurs, and artists.