SDG 17 | Harnessing the Power of Art to Spearhead the SDGs | Tayler Ava Friar

|Welcome back SDG Talkers!! Thanks for joining us for another episode of highlighting change makers and their inspirational work towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)!

Don't you know that you don't have to be a Hollywood producer to make good content?

IN THIS EPISODE:

- How can art be used as a primary driver of the SDGs?

- How to put development into context & set goals

- How to empower others to use the arts for social change

- Discover unconventional art in unconventional spaces through black & brown voices

Tayler Ava Friar is an art historian and international communications consultant with a passion for storytelling. Her career began in tech communication, one of her roles being editor-in-chief of “Women in Technology” initiatives at Google. Since leaving the US in 2013, she has been living abroad across Europe, Asia, and now Africa.

For the last five years, she has been a communications officer at the World Bank, first supporting their Innovation Labs in Washington DC and Tokyo, and later leading communications in the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience practice. Recognizing the emerging use of art in the development agenda, Ms. Friar served as communications lead for a 500+ person summit in Bridgetown, Barbados, where she did her first curatorial collaboration with the University of the West Indies. This opening exhibition was attended by the Hon. Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley.

She has recently transitioned jobs during the pandemic and now serves as Communications Advisor at the United Nations Development Programme. Additionally, she is a newly appointed contributing writer at Business Insider and founder of ART|unknown. - a platform that explores the intersection of the art, black avant-garde and travel in the African Diaspora.

Ms. Friar previously served as a lecturer and is in the final year of her PhD program in Art History at the University of Cape Town. Her thesis is entitled “Black sexual politics and the erotic: The intersection of gender politics and sexuality in contemporary visual art in Africa” which will be partially published this year with Aix-Marseille University in Provence, France.

Finally, Ms. Friar can be seen as a feature in Vogue Magazine’s November 2020 issue, speaking to the importance of black voices in the 2020 US elections.

Connect with Tayler: LinkedIn | Instagram

Episode Resources:

- ArtNet.com: Climate Change Research

- Bloomberg.org: Public Art Pieces Responds to Climate Change

- GFDRR's YouTube: Art for Resilience in the Caribbean (World Bank)

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