Members View: Nikita van den Hazel
Nikita van den Hazel is a member of The Circle. She works as an educational developer and has her own company: Hazel Art and Education. By bringing the viewer into contact with art, she stimulates self-reflection while broaching relevant topics, such as social themes, economic issues and climate change.
Nikita: “As a young girl I never understood art. It was dull, dusty and elitist. Art started to move me more and more as I got older, but it wasn’t until the academy, during my own research into art education, that I discovered that art can be fun, light-hearted and appealing. Not only that, it can serve us in so many playful ways. With my company I am looking for ways to offer others this experience as well. To make them enjoy art and allow them to leave with a smile and say ‘We should do this more often!’.” In this Members View, she tells us more about her very first purchase: a disco ball from the Dutch-American art collective Rotganzen.
Nikita: “I first saw the ‘melting’ disco balls by Rotganzen years ago, at Art Rotterdam. I was there as a student for my art education training, but I was mainly studying older art. Contemporary art didn’t really appeal to me yet, but these disco balls had something about them. I thought they were strange, perhaps even kitsch. It was obviously modern and made in my age, yet it spoke to me. I walked on without giving it a second thought, because I was there for a school assignment, and in my mind, buying art was reserved for the elite.
My love for modern and contemporary art started to grow and I started to visit more and more art fairs. I came across The Collectors Circle there and learned that buying art doesn’t have to be difficult, expensive or solely for the elite. My interest in buying art grew. At first, I actually had no intention of buying art, I wanted to orientate myself a bit more first. But after many nice conversations, the disco balls kept coming up. They had been in my mind for a long time. What would it be like if they would end up being my very first purchase? I unconsciously started reading up on the piece and the Kunstkoop art purchase scheme [that allows you to pay off a work of art in interest free installments]. Before I knew it, I had signed the form at PAN Amsterdam and a little later, I had it at my house.
It all happened so fast that I didn’t really have the time to prepare my house for it. Where it stands now will remain the location for the time being. Next to the sofa and directly in view when you enter my apartment. There are still two steel pedestals on the way, on which the artwork will eventually stand. They weren’t even bought specifically for the artwork, but the combination is more than perfect in my eyes.”
