Meet Kirsta Niemie Benedetti | Social Impact Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kirsta Niemie Benedetti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kirsta, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
I see myself as a Social Impact Artist: this means that I use the power for change and impact that art has to elevate marginalized communities. My vision as an artist is to bring people together through art and storytelling. I seek to create platforms where people who have been overlooked or misrepresented by broader society can reflect to the world how they want to be known. I focus on my subject’s personal stories and values, striving to highlight the beauty within their experiences and the honor and dignity within their personhood.

In the past two years I have worked with two marginalized communities: New American women and incarcerated women. Currently I am completing a project with 15 women serving extended sentences in state prison. This project is an exploration of humanity within the confines of a prison system, seeking to capture the vibrancy and value of incarcerated women through the medium of portraiture and interactive storytelling installations.

The subjects of my portraits are women who have faced unimaginable challenges and societal judgments, yet they remain individuals with unique stories, experiences, and emotions. Through the art, I aim to peel away the stigmatization and preconceived notions that often shroud those behind bars, emphasizing the inherent worth and dignity that every person possesses. My work amplifies the good and the beautiful in each of these women, serving as an invitation to reconsider perspectives and attitudes toward incarceration.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art and my practice are unique because I stand at the intersection of fine art and advocacy. In order to build the content and concepts for my work I create and facilitate outreach programming with the community I am focusing on and what comes from that is the foundation of my work.

Another very unique element of me as an artist is that I intentionally give away a lot of control in my process to the subject. I do this because it allows me to create more authentic work, but mainly as an ethical value statement that says the subject has the right to be represented as they want to be seen and known. This creates a collaboration between myself as the artist and my subject that I haven’t seen in other artists. Many times the subject will choose a pose or objects to be incorporated into the work that isn’t the best aesthetic choice, so it is then my job as the artist to take that and make it work.

I came to this place from an unconventional pathway. In my sophomore year at Maryland Institute College of Art an opportunity to live in India and work in Mother Teresa’s homes for the poor came up and I took a year off from school to do it. That time convinced me that my career cannot only be for myself, that I must use all that has been given to me for uplifting those with less privilege than myself. I completed my BFA and soon moved to Egypt with my husband to start a nonprofit that builds peace and reconciliation between the Middle East and America through art.

After a few years there we moved home to raise a family and I founded a nonprofit that helps people who are new to the US start a new life. While doing this I continued to build my career as an artist, licensing my work and making royalties, and raising two kids. After 6 years the organization I founded grew to a size that would require me to give up my art career, so instead I left the nonprofit to become a full-time artist.

This move is what led to my ability to merge what I learned in social work and community development with my goals as an artist. I have knowledge and skills that most artists don’t have and has allowed me to partner with nonprofits to do the work I love.

One hard thing I’ve learned in these past three years of developing this unique approach to art through social outreach is that I don’t easily land in any category. One critique of my work by an art critic was that I need to reconcile whether I am a studio artist or an advocate. I have sometimes found that the art community sees my work as too much like social work, and the social work community sees my work as too much art. I am learning to be ok with balancing these things and grateful for the opportunities my unique background and values provide.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
This is an interesting question for Columbus. There aren’t many obvious places that average tourists would find interesting, but Columbus is full of little pockets of gems and an amazing amount of multi-ethnic spots. The places I enjoy the most: Fox in the Snow for breakfast, North Market for lunch, and Addis Ethiopian for dinner. Truly, just driving down Morse Road or Cleveland Avenue near Morse gives you the option to taste food from so many countries: Somalia, Senegal, Ghana, Nepal, Afghanistan, Yemen, Vietnam… And one of my favorite markets is Saraga where you can buy food and produce from most places around the world.

I also love spending time along Scioto Mile or Schiller Park in German Village. A fun thing that I participate in once a month is Franklinton Fridays. Hundreds of people come to the arts district to gallery hop, shop the open markets, and walk through the open studios of artists at 400 West Rich and Chromedge. My studio is in Chromedge and I enjoy opening for Franklinton Friday to meet people and share about my work. I’m always surprised with how amazing people in Columbus are!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I can think of three shoutouts: first is to my husband who not only supports my work, but assists me in building frames, stands, etc. and creatively problem-solves with me daily. Without him I would not be able to be a full-time artist.

The second is my older sister, Melissa Niemie Nathan. She introduced me at a young age to the potential impact I could make for good and immense importance of social justice efforts. She is an amazing social worker in Columbus who has dedicated her life to serving the most vulnerable in our city.

The third is the organization We Amplify Voices. This nonprofit in Columbus provides opportunities for creative expression to vulnerable populations. I have partnered with this organization to do some of my favorite projects as an artist, including working with survivors of human trafficking and my current project working with incarcerated women. Together we are creating a curriculum using art to build empathy in people working in the justice system.

Website: www.kbenedetti.com

Instagram: @kirstaniemiebenedetti

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsta-niemie-benedetti

Image Credits
Image credit for photo of me in my studio: Jaclyn of Coley and Co.