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Shauna Alterio makes her own opportunities: “Make sure you get what you want, even if no one is offering it,” she said.
The 1998 printmaking graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute learned a lesson in being proactive the summer before her senior year. She and fellow student Ellen Wise discovered a shared dissatisfaction with what they perceived as a lack of local exhibition opportunities for women. Together with classmates Peregrine Honig and Amy Dane, the women founded a dual-purpose sorority/ artist collective called Theta Alpha Omega. The “sisters” subsequently held four group exhibitions that school year and received invitations to participate in additional gallery shows around Kansas City.
Not everyone on campus supported the “Greek”-inspired endeavor, she recalled: “A lot of people hated the idea of a sorority at an art school. We got a lot of attention for that, too.” Critics and naysayers made her all the more determined to succeed. “I have always found opposition to be a valuable tool in learning and growing. Nothing motivates me like someone questioning me or doubting me,” she said.
Alterio said her KCAI education taught her to trust herself and how to push herself as an artist. “I came from a fine-arts high school, so I expected it to be a breeze,” she said. “I was lucky enough to have several instructors who knew just how hard to push to get me out of my comfort zone.”
Alterio currently works as the assistant corporate display manager for Anthropologie, a position she landed after stints as a teacher, gallery manager, and fashion stylist. “I never thought I would be in retail,” she said. “I had no idea there were retailers that were looking for fine artists to make art installations.”
She started at Anthropologie as a store artist but moved her way up the company ranks until being promoted in 2006 to the firm’s corporate offices in Philadelphia. Now she manages installations and window displays for the entire company. She also is responsible for inspiring artists who work in Anthropologie stores across the nation. She travels to art fairs such as Art Basel/Miami Beach, the Frieze Art Fair in London, and the Armory Show in New York, and she makes studio visits.
Working in retail has taught her a lot about being an artist or, as Alterio put it, “a maker of objects.”
In addition to her “day job,” she is co-proprietor of Something’s Hiding in Here, which sells cottage-industry goods and installation-based artwork. She said her retail experience provides her with a practical way to judge the quality of her handiwork.
“Artists don’t have a tangible gauge on the merit of their work,” she said. “There are no practical criteria for judging its value or success. Those things exist in retail, where the intention, purpose, craft, quality, size, function, aesthetics, etc., are all measurable. It’s these systems of checks and balances that I take from retail and apply to my work as an artist.”
Alterio and her business partner, Stephen Loidolt, a 1999 graduate of the KCAI sculpture department, create and sell ceramic, fabric and wood knickknacks and accessories. To see photos of goods and artwork made by Something’s Hiding in Here, visit www.somethingshidinginhere.typepad.com.
