CASE STUDY
PORTRAITS OF MY PEOPLE
The United Nations
From Zoom Breakout Room to UN Exhibition
Challenge
In a ValleyCreates Zoom breakout room in 2021, three artists had two minutes each to share their work. When I asked which of two projects I should pursue, my colleagues reflected back that my excitement about making my invisible Southern Italian ancestors visible through life-size collage portraits was palpable.
How to fund large-scale production from zero budget? How to develop multi-venue exhibition strategy building toward international visibility? How to position work within contemporary discourse on race, assimilation, and identity while managing complete logistics from production through promotion and installation?
This became proof of concept: I applied the eye of an artist and the mind of an entrepreneur to my own work before offering these capabilities to clients. Every skill described here—grant strategy, multi-venue exhibition planning, integrated marketing, strategic positioning—is available to arts organizations, galleries, museums, and foundations.
Solutions
With each successive grant application, I further articulated and refined the artistic vision, developed opportunities for community engagement, and explicitly connected the work to pressing social issues. I secured four major competitive grants totaling $21,050—turning yet-to-be-made work into a fully resourced multi-year project.
Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts (CFWM)/MASS MoCA Assets for Artists ($9,000 total): Three consecutive grants demonstrating sustained funder confidence. 701 Center for Contemporary Art Artist-in-Residence ($9,550): 8-week residency including studio, housing, materials, transportation, and honorarium. Puffin Foundation ($1,500): Secured by contextualizing the initiative within a social justice framework. Art Fluent Evolution Grant ($1,000): Sole recipient from hundreds of worldwide applications spanning six countries.
Funding secured, I pursued shows across multiple venues, building momentum over 18 months. Barn Door Gallery solo exhibition (April 2025) in Northampton during Arts Night Out drew 500+ attendees to my opening/artist talk. I organized a community conversation "Italians and Whiteness in the United States" with my sister Professor Jennifer Guglielmo of Smith College and musician Heshima Moja—transforming the event into a dialogue platform. The strategy paid off: a UN employee who attended that show recommended my work to the United Nations curator.
Four group exhibitions across Massachusetts and Connecticut expanded audience reach and established credibility. Then: The United Nations (September 1-26, 2025) in New York City during General Assembly—the highest-visibility period in the UN calendar. Southern Italian immigrants who arrived over a century ago penniless and illiterate, now honored at the world's premier international institution just miles from where they disembarked.
This wasn't luck. This was strategic sequencing.
I designed integrated campaigns for each exhibition, hiring graphic designer Alison Wood for professional materials and creating 3x5" palm cards—full-color portrait on front, artist statement and QR code on back.
I drove throughout the region hanging posters and distributing palm cards at restaurants, colleges, town halls, cafes, shops, and grocery stores—intentionally designing the palm cards without event dates so people would keep them like prayer cards rather than discard them after the show. Many do: the cards now live in homes, cars, and workplaces across Western Massachusetts and beyond.
Multi-channel outreach drove documented viewership of 6,650+ and secured media coverage from WWLP TV, WHMP Radio, Holyoke Media, and CFWM's commissioned documentary.
Results
The multi-venue strategy successfully positioned work on an international platform while building deep community engagement locally. Strategic grant writing secured not only production funding but opened doors to professional development, mentorship relationships, and institutional networks extending far beyond initial applications.
The project sparked meaningful dialogue on race, assimilation, and identity—transforming from personal artistic exploration into community conversation. This work elevated my role within ValleyCreates from grant recipient to Community Advisor, demonstrating how individual success creates pathways to organizational leadership.
From yet-to-be-made work to exhibition at the United Nations in four years. From zero budget to $21,050 in secured funding. From concept to international platform with 6,650+ documented viewers. The methodology is systematic and transferable: strategic positioning connecting artistic vision to contemporary discourse, grant writing that defines clear outcomes and impact, multi-venue strategy building momentum, integrated marketing driving viewership, and community engagement transforming exhibitions into meaningful dialogue.
This is strategy that flows.
Impact
4 years
From Zoom breakout room to UN General Assembly
6,650+
Documented viewers across all venues
$21,050
Secured funding from zero budget
6
Exhibitions in 18 months (systematic strategy)
500+
Opening night attendees at solo exhibition
3
Consecutive ValleyCreates grants (sustained funder confidence)
“The exhibition has been very well received by our colleagues for its artistic values and uplifting inspirations. These paintings are about how an Italian immigrant family has made it in the United States, where immigration has become a topical issue.”
— Rong Jiang, Curator, The United Nations
“Mark's series is absolutely outstanding—vivid colors, cultural tones, and layered personalities all collaged into life-size portraits. These pieces are bold and soulful, singing with personality and heart. We received hundreds of applications from six countries, and his work rose above them all.”
— Amy Matteson Neill, Creative Director, Art Fluent