Amaya Loubeau: Traveling to culturally significant locations: 6 points

 

During my field study trip to New York from September 28–30, in partnership with LVMH, I had the opportunity to step into luxury spaces such as Dior and Tiffany & Co., where I saw firsthand how art and luxury operate in conversation. While I expected to observe craftsmanship and branding at a high level, what stood out most was how intentionally these spaces use visual culture to construct desire, legacy, and value. It made me reflect on ideas from my art history coursework around authorship, spectacle, and the production of cultural meaning, especially in relation to who gets positioned within these narratives. Experiencing these environments pushed me to think more critically about the absence and selective inclusion of Black diasporic artists within luxury contexts, and how their work could reshape these spaces in more expansive ways. This trip ultimately deepened my interest in exploring collaborations between contemporary Black artists and luxury maisons, and affirmed my goal of working at the intersection of art, branding, and cultural production to create more intentional and equitable forms of visibility.

- Amaya Loubeau