Anna Mikaela Ekstrand is a curator, the founding-editor-in-chief of Cultbytes, an online art publication, and a cultural strategist/PR-person

Anna Mikaela Ekstrand in New York photographed by Matthew Stewart

I am a curator, the founding-editor-in-chief of Cultbytes, an online art publication, and a cultural strategist/PR-person.

To get an insider’s perspective on the art world visit Cultbytes and follow us on Instagram @cultbytes.

What motivated you to become an entrepreneur? Is having your own business something you always wanted?

My dedication to work with art drove me to become the entrepreneur I am today – managing an art publication, producing/curating exhibitions, and working on communications projects for artists, galleries, arts-tech companies, and arts-related non-profits.

I am drawn to the predictive and descriptive nature of contemporary art; art is unadulterated, direct from the source, a manifestation of one person or a small collective’s ideas. There are so many engaging experiences that the global art world has to offer – pavilions, palazzos, and canals filled with the latest art in Venice during the biennale, standing barefoot on a marble floor taking in Monet’s lily pads illuminated solely by natural light at the Chichu Art Museum on Naoshima Art Island in Japan, and exploring the culture of a new city by visiting its art museums or seeing new work at a local gallery.     

What do you think about company culture? What are some of your tips on being a good leader?

Good leadership is to be communicative, collaborative, and open to listen and share knowledge. I believe in flat organizational structures, trust, and not shying away from trying new things to achieve the best results. 

When I founded the art publication I engaged two friends as advisors, Alexandra Bregman, an arts writer and the author of The Bouvier Affair: A True Story and the performance artist Ayana Evans. They serve as integral sounding boards. Since 2016, I have published articles by some 45 writers from around the world and my main goal is to tell their stories and broadcast their opinions in the best way possible.

For cultural strategy projects, my core communications team consists of Nina Blumberg, a talented social media strategist, and Alexandra Israel, a thorough PR-specialist together we exchange ideas and support each other as we take on new clients. I can’t imagine working without my #Cultbaes.

How far are you willing to go to succeed?

When you are an entrepreneur or freelancer, work never ends; there will always be another milestone to hit, idea to realize, or issue to solve. Girl, don’t be too hard on yourself working with what you love is a success in itself!

Who is the one super successful person you look up to? Can you share their quote/ideology that inspires you the most?

“The cyborg is a kind of disassembled and reassembled, postmodern collective and personal self. This is the self feminists must code.” ― Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs And Women The Reinvention Of Nature.

How do you generate new ideas to stay relevant on the market? Is it important to innovate in your space?

In digital communications and growth for artists and galleries, my approach is to be open-minded and dogged in activating networks. I identify where my clients fit in and target connections that will allow them to grow diagonally – across digital and human verticals. Adding-on to press coverage, I deliver unexpected results like a book project, exhibition opportunities, in-person meetings with industry leaders, and/or fashion or artist collaborations to open doors to territories uncharted by clients.

As a curator, my interests develop rhizomatically guided by the theory I read and the artists, academics, and creatives I interact with. With an expansion of university programs and residencies geared to shaping curators, they are a dime a dozen; good ideas are easy to come by. Being able to provide funding for production, access to spaces and institutional partnerships are true assets. I have found that a collaborative outlook and a little bit of luck is key to making ideas reality.

If you were a book, which one would it be and why?

Egalia’s Daughters (1947) by Gerd Brantenburg. Sorry gents, all hail the matriarchy.