Cravath Chronicle

THE CRAVATH Chronicle (alumni newsletter Winter 2007)

“GET A(RT) LIFE!”
Kianga Ellis and Avail Art

Some arts organizations court philanthropists.
Avail Art tries to create them. Founded in 2005
by former Cravath associate Kianga Ellis, Avail
Art invites young business professionals to a
variety of arts events and gatherings in order to
inspire them to become leaders in arts patronage
—whether as subscribers, board members,
donors or collectors. Kianga’s aim is, in her
words, “to create a pipeline of financial support
for the arts”.

Avail Art’s first project was the Summer Art
Circle, which arranged dance, visual art, music
and theater events for summer associates at
six leading New York law firms, including Cravath.
The law firms sponsor the summer associates’
membership in the Summer Art Circle to
complement their summer programming.
The enthusiasm Kianga and Avail Art have
generated among Summer Art Circle participants
shows the promise of her idea. The participants’
youth belies the conventional wisdom that
today’s twenty-somethings have no interest in
the arts, and that bodes well for their future.
Kianga’s secret: to make art appreciation a
means of socializing and networking as well as
cultural uplift and education. “Art can seem
intimidating without membership in a group that
supports the arts”, Kianga explains. “The people
we attract may be prime candidates for art
patronage, but they need a way to see how to
integrate it into their lives.” By selecting and
scheduling the art events, and presenting them
in a single package, Avail Art performs another
critical service for busy professionals: time
management.

Another Avail Art project is The Young Patrons
Collective (YPC), which has the same mission of
developing future philanthropists, but invitees
may include any professionals who want to learn
more about art, and there is a year-round roster
of events. Kianga is already busy with next
summer’s projects, which include expanding
Summer Art Circle to include MBA summer
interns. In addition, Kianga posts a daily blog of
attention-grabbing “Art Notes”—brief news of
people, places and events in the art world—on
YPC’s website, www.youngpatronscollective.com.
“Get A(rt) Life!” (www.getartlife.wordpress.com)
is a companion blog to YPC. It offers Kianga’s
trenchant and personal observations on art, film
and music.

Kianga Ellis always combined a passion for art
with a keen business sense and cosmopolitan
outlook. Her extended family, who lived in New
York, were avid followers of the arts and she
inherited their fervor. Kianga got her B.A. from
Spelman College, where she majored in Political
Science and took a strong interest in human
rights and regime change in South Africa. At
Yale Law School, where she earned her J.D. in
1998, she was an Editor of the Law Journal and
served on the Recruitment Committee of the
Black Law Students Association.

Like many Cravath alumni, Kianga recalls the
challenges she took on immediately as a
Cravath summer associate in 1997 and as a
corporate associate during 1998-2001. She
worked in derivatives as a summer associate,
and the Firm arranged an internship for her at
the International Swaps and Derivatives
Association in London during her third year in
law school. While in London, Kianga had the
opportunity to present a paper on derivatives—
at the age of 24. She also worked on a derivatives
rotation as a full-time associate. “Those
experiences helped me mature”, she recalls.
“After having to meet such rigorous standards,
and paying such attention to detail, I felt I was
better prepared for challenges I would have to
meet at other organizations—and in running
my own.” Kianga’s Cravath training helped at
another firm with a culture of excellence,
Goldman Sachs, where she was Vice President
& Assistant General Counsel in the derivatives
group. Kianga also worked as a program officer
at the Goldman Sachs Foundation, where she
gained invaluable experience in the workings
of the nonprofit world. She began to hear
concerns about a possible crisis of future
philanthropists while traveling in those circles.
The idea for a solution to the problem, however,
was entirely hers, and formulating it “took a
lot of time and dot-connecting”.

Avail Art bridges two worlds in which Kianga has
traveled, the professional and the artistic, and
benefits both. Programs like Summer Art Circle
help the firm sponsors communicate that they
care about the lives of their lawyers, not just
their work. Avail Art’s Program Partners, which
include some of the city’s most prominent arts
institutions, also focus on developing new
bases for patronage, and welcome another
channel for doing so. Program partners include
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Studio
Museum in Harlem, The Public Theater,
the New York City Ballet, The Film Society of
Lincoln Center, El Museo del Barrio and Lincoln
Center for the Performing Arts.

Cravath’s Summer Art Circle participants
experienced a steady stream of arts and events
during the summer of 2005. They heard a
lecture by Glenn Lowry, Director of The Museum
of Modern Art, and attended a panel discussion
on Law & Art co-hosted by Alliance for the Arts.
They visited Phillips de Pury & Company’s
Chelsea headquarters, where they viewed the
collection and heard a talk on gastronomy
and culture by Marcus Samuelsson, chef and
co-owner of Aquavit restaurant. SoHo artist
Lyle Starr opened his studio to allow Summer
Art Circle members to see how his works are
created. A group of members made a day trip to
Saratoga Springs to see a New York City Ballet
performance of “Swan Lake”. Members also
heard a talk by Barbara Romer, the president
and founder of the New Globe Theater, whose
proposed location is Governors Island. Bowne &
Co. donated breakfast and space in their new
headquarters on Water Street with dramatic
views of the harbor and the island.

One of the Firm’s 2006 summer associates
strongly endorsed Avail Art’s broad-minded
approach to the arts:

“Even though I knew a
lot about some areas of art, the program is so
diverse that I got to explore types of art I wouldn’t
have ever thought of getting involved in without
Kianga. It was great to meet other people who
practice law but stay connected to the New York
art scene.”