The event was programed alongside the exhibition ‘Destiny Is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection,’ which highlights Harris Norton’s vision and generosity—qualities that have profoundly shaped Los Angeles’ cultural landscape. For decades, she has championed artists, supported education initiatives and prioritized community care. Her philanthropy and advocacy have built pathways that extend far beyond the art world. The artists represented in the exhibition remind us that creativity is a form of knowledge, and the gallery is an accessible resource for all.

Learning Exchange: Artists Matter was anchored by a conversation between Senior Director of Learning, Partner Debbie Hillyerd and artist Mark Bradford, who spoke about his socially engaged practice. Their conversation underscored how artists can offer a form of leadership where creativity and social responsibility are intertwined, and how those who support artists can help sustain this work. Bradford's contribution reminded those in attendance that they are experts in their own lived experience, and that sharing their expertise can open doors for others. His message was simple but resonant: we are here to share what we know and to help carve
pathways for one another.

The conversation then opened to two young learners from Culture for One, a nonprofit whose partnership with the gallery launched in 2023 in conjunction with Bradford’s ‘You Don’t Have to Tell Me Twice’ exhibition in New York. Nickson Fredrickson and Marissa Medley were invited onstage to share their experiences. Fredrickson reflected, ‘Art spaces were not welcoming, I never saw myself in them, but my experience with Hauser & Wirth and meeting Mark changed that. I got comfortable; I come back and see art, and I learned so many transferable professional skills before I went to college, like public speaking, because of the partnership.’

Medley shared, ‘Before joining the program, I often felt unseen when I shared that I wanted to be an artist. It wasn’t until I walked into Hauser & Wirth for the first time and got my first real foothold in the art world that something shifted. Being able to share my artistic vision with the team made me realize that my voice—and my work—had value.’

The spirit of exchange at the heart of the event animated the afternoon’s final segment, as spotlight speakers from community institutions and nonprofit collaborators shared information about their work, experiences and visions for how we can collectively expand creative opportunities for young people. Following the talk in the garden, emerging artists and educators from Art Division—an organization dedicated to training and supporting underserved youth committed to studying the visual arts—offered exhibition tours of ‘Destiny Is a Rose,’ illuminating Harris Norton’s singular approach to collecting, rooted in care, access and sustained attention. Their voices echoed the exhibition’s central idea: that stewardship can be both a creative and a social act.

About the speakers

Mark Bradford
Mark Bradford is a contemporary artist known for his large-scale, abstract paintings created out of paper. Characterized by its layered formal, material and conceptual complexity, his work explores social and political structures that objectify marginalized communities and the bodies of vulnerable populations. His practice includes painting, sculpture, video, photography, printmaking and other media. Using everyday materials and tools from the aisles of the hardware store, Bradford has created a unique artistic language. Bradford’s work is rooted in his understanding that all materials and techniques are embedded with meaning that precedes their artistic utility.

Just as essential to Bradford’s work is a social engagement practice through which he reframes objectifying societal structures by bringing contemporary art and ideas into communities with limited access to museums and cultural institutions.

Bradford received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1995 and his MFA from CalArts in 1997. He has since been widely exhibited internationally. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Amorepacific Museum of Art; Hauser & Wirth, Hong Kong; the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart; Hauser & Wirth, Monaco; Hauser & Wirth, New York; MAZ Museo de Arte de Zapopan; Fundação de Serralves; and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Culture for One
Culture for One is a nonprofit organization committed to improving the lives of New York City children and young adults living in foster care.

Art Division
Art Division is a nonprofit organization dedicated to training and supporting underserved young adults aged 18–27 who are committed to studying the visual arts.

About ‘Destiny Is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection’
Renowned for her generosity to artists and institutions, Eileen Harris Norton has built an inspiring art collection and forged a philanthropic legacy by focusing upon the work of women artists, as well as artists of color and of her native California. Marking fifty years since Harris Norton made her first acquisition—a print purchased in 1976 directly from Los Angeles artist and African American arts advocate Ruth Waddy—‘Destiny Is a Rose’ presents more than 80 works from Harris Norton’s holdings in an exhibition conceived to celebrate the connoisseurship and commitment to social justice and learning that she embodies.

Taking its title from a 1990 painting by Kerry James Marshall, ‘Destiny Is a Rose’ features paintings, sculptures and works on paper by Mark Bradford, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Hammons, Glenn Ligon, Marshall, Patrick Martinez, Beatriz Milhazes, Michael Norton, Catherine Opie, Yoshitomo Nara, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady, Betye Saar, Amy Sherald, Lorna Simpson, Bob Thompson, Kara Walker and Carrie Mae Weems, among many others.