[RL] Where are you now?
[BL] In a period of transition. Actually, I’m on a bus in New York, but that’s neither here nor there. For some background, my name is Brian Labra Vergara, a first-gen Colorado Native who went through the REDI Lab program and graduated Colorado Academy to attend Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. As my path continued, friendships blossomed and my brain was stimulated. I graduated Skidmore with Honors in Studio Art while dual minoring in Business/Management and the first Skidmore student to graduate with a minor in Entrepreneurship. After completing my undergrad, I attended my first fellowship with the Storyteller’s Institute and attended my first residency at Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Currently, I am working full time as the first Program Support Specialist at Prosperity Denver Fund. Not only that but I am working on my personal creative portfolio under blv.art as well as my first creative firm, The Artkive, a creative venture aimed to support the work and narratives of creatives and artists through visual storytelling and creative communication practices. I’m kinda busy.
[RL] What would you like to share or for the REDI Lab audience to know about you, your experience, the program, etc.
[BL] The initiative and agency to self-direct their way through a project of their own design, a topic about which the student feels passionate and strives to learn more about, is one of the most life-changing opportunities and luxuries that a learner can truly have. It gives people the option to find what makes them happy.
[RL] What has happened to contribute to how you look at the world?
[BL] The world is frantic, mystifying and unpredictable where anything can happen to anyone. I mean what are the chances that I would just so happen to earn a scholarship that would just so happen to lead me to some of the most important people in my life? This experience molded my frame of morals and sense to create as an artist who just so happened to find passion and flare in the world of creativity and self discovery. I can’t pinpoint it to just one moment of where it all began; however, a combination of the right things, I think, created what I believe is my own happiness. With the right questions, grit, work, self reflection, etc.
My REDI Lab project is part of the story that led me to become the person who I am today. My project ended with creating 10 artistic self portraits, but the real project was discovering why I am drawn to the arts, to theater, or to whatever avenue you wanna call it. It wasn’t just a simple liking, but it became a sense of needing to have these things, ideas, creations, and creative conversations in my life. From that moment, I pursued all things creative and then things just happened. I found my way though doing what I love and what I believe in. Brian (REDI Lab ‘18/CA ‘19) is a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Brian (REDI Lab ‘18/CA ‘19) is a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.