Arts Recommendations from The Mirror Cube
A site dedicated to music, film and artistic happenings, as recommended by an array of working artists
Perhaps no one knows the music, film and art scenes better than those within them. Communities form and flourish, and engage other active creators. Highly collaborative art leads to highly connected scenes with an escalated awareness of what’s working and what’s good. That’s the idea behind The Mirror Cube, a new website that documents and promotes independent art events based upon the recommendation of artists themselves. Founder Jess Manafort—a celebrated filmmaker in her own right—and her team of contributors suggest film, music, art and literature happenings in and around New York and Los Angeles. The result is a one-stop destination, updated daily, for goings on that are worth checking out.
“We always found ourselves turning to our friends, in the fields we work in, to recommend the best stuff to go see,” Manafort explains to CH. “We feel like artists know what’s good and they know what’s happening first, especially regarding emerging artists.” Manafort, after brainstorming with filmmaker Brady Corbet and actor Douglas Smith, began to create a site to extend their network’s tastemaker recommendations to the public, and The Mirror Cube was born. Manafort quickly discovered that many artists “wanted to recommend things they were inspired by and really believed in.” And soon a contributor group of friends expanded to friends of friends. “That’s been one of the most inspiring things to me since starting: seeing how many artists care to support other artists that they believe in, just as a labor of love.”
The Mirror Cube’s contributor list is an impressive who’s who ranging from actors Jena Malone and Jake Hoffman to designer Waris Ahluwalia and musicians Adam Green and Kilo Kish. Artist Sage Vaughn‘s recommendations are found with those from Penn Badgley and designer Timo Weiland. Malone and Vaughn have also contributed art to The Mirror Cube’s launch event. All of this is just the start of potential insider recommendations. In time, Manafort also hopes to connect with established and emerging artists in other cities.
Manafort wants to tap “a range of people who are either actively engaged in city culture or people who want to be but don’t feel confident in choosing.” As a final service, The Mirror Cube allows users to create a personalized “Cube” for storing and sharing events, as well as specific artists and articles. A social element also allows users to follow others with similar taste. There are many potential resources to hit up on gallery days or weekends dedicated to cultural exploration, but The Mirror Cube is the only one headed up by artists themselves.
Images courtesy of The Mirror Cube
