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Our Founder & Story
In 2022, after struggling like many during the pandemic, our founder, Pooja, took a 3-month sabbatical from her finance job in New York City to travel solo across Europe and Asia. As it was her first extended trip with plenty of free time, she spent much of it exploring museums and galleries in every city she visited and quickly fell completely back in love with the arts. After spending about five weeks across Europe, she headed to South Korea.
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At some point while traveling around South Korea, Pooja realized that many of the incredible Korean artists she was seeing in museums and galleries there were almost never featured in Western ones. It made her think about how, growing up in the U.S., she had only really learned about famous European artists like Van Gogh, Picasso, and Dali, or American artists like Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. She had never learned about well-known Indian artists like Amrita Sher-Gil or Sawlaram Haldankar, or South Korean artists like the ones she was now discovering, such as Park Seo-Bo or Kim Whanki. The phrase “you don’t know what you don’t know” kept coming to mind, and she wondered how many other remarkable Asian & Pacific Islander (API) artists she had never learned about. That was when the idea for Kala & Jeong sprouted.
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After returning home to the U.S., Pooja repeatedly found Asian & Pacific Islander (API) artists to be largely underrepresented at most venues and thus began formulating the idea of what she wanted Kala & Jeong to be: in essence, a resource for people around the world to connect with and learn more about emerging and well-known API artists and their incredible work, on a platform that spotlights artists of all Asian backgrounds.
Our Mission
Kala & Jeong’s mission was born out of a desire to shine a spotlight on underrepresented Asian & Pacific Islander (API) artists across the literary, visual, and performing arts spaces. Our focus is on both emerging and regionally known API artists who have captured our attention in person, online, or through travel to local venues, art galleries, or museums.
Our Name
The name “Kala & Jeong” pays homage to the two places that inspired the entire idea—India and South Korea.
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The word “Kala” (कला) is a tribute to our founder’s Indian heritage and is a Sanskrit term used to describe “the arts.” Ancient Indian scriptures reference 64 different kalas, covering everything from painting and performing arts to the art of fashion, fragrance, and more.
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“Jeong” (ì •) is a concept our founder encountered while studying the Korean language and culture. It is a deeply rooted Korean cultural philosophy that can mean many things, but at its core, it has been described as “a growing affection or sense of connection over time.”
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Together, these words honor the heritage that inspired both the name and the vision behind Kala & Jeong. They symbolize our mission—to spread awareness of talented API artists so that appreciation and recognition for them and their work continue to grow over time.
Our Ethos
Our ethos is deeply rooted in the belief that knowledge is power—and that power is most meaningful when used to uplift and support others. But for that to happen, knowledge must first be accessible. People don’t know what they don’t know.
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With Kala & Jeong, our goal is to be a central resource for anyone looking to discover and learn more about API artists in the literary, performing, and visual arts spaces. We keep it simple—no pretentious art-speak, no overwhelming art history deep dives, no arrogance, and no gatekeeping. Just a pure, straightforward spotlight on incredible API artists, open for all to explore.
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That’s why our motto is: “Find. Learn. Explore.”