About Us

Our mission is to serve as a welcoming incubator for creativity and artistic excellence. Through a wide range of programming, we engage both artists and the community to ensure longevity of the arts.

OTE Arts’ vision is to facilitate the integration of arts and community through these core initiatives:

  • Visitors viewing a ceramics exhibition in our gallery sspace

    Community Engagement

    By constantly engaging with and evaluating the needs of our artists and local community, we create inclusive and diverse arts programming that is free and open to the public.

  • A woman sketching in figure drawing class with the model posing in front of her

    Education

    Our educational programming provides teaching and learning opportunities for artists and community members alike, nurturing a profound appreciation for the arts in our community.

  • A sculpture up close made by Vasiliev Nini

    Artistic Excellence

    We cultivate artistic excellence by nurturing talent, creating opportunities, and providing platforms for artists to grow and share their work.

CODA

Our values are defined in the acronym, CODA. We score the pillars of our value system in all programming to determine its priority to the organization.

  • Representing our community is at the center of everything we do.

  • Opportunity is how individuals become involved with our programming, regardless of their socio-economic status.

  • We prioritize inclusion, equity, accessibility, and outreach to historically marginalized groups in all of our programming.

  • Artistic Excellence guides us to nurture emerging talent and serves as our catalyst for transforming communities.

Board of Directors

  • Britt H

    President and Founding Member

    Britt brings her marketing, event production, retail management, and art market experience to accomplish the OTE Arts mission. She began working with local artists in 2018 to develop an artist community in Olde Towne East.

  • Emily Marinangeli

    Secretary and Founding Member

    Emily has a BFA in Fashion Design from Pratt Institute, where her curriculum was very conceptually focused. This background, alongside 6+ years in corporate design and management and 3+ years of freelance experience in home, interior and fashion design provide the experience to conceptualize alongside artists and help execute their ideas at a high level of efficiency.

  • Talle Bamazi

    Board Member

    Talle was born in northern Togo (Western Africa). Bamazi began his artistic career as an apprentice to his uncle, a traditional Togolese artist. Although he studied architecture in Lome he rapidly returned to painting, and developed his own distinctive style bridging traditional African and contemporary modern art.

    After moving to US, he studied at the Art Students League of New York, and earned a MFA degree at the New York Academy of Art. Talle is an artist, curator, and gallerist.