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Brett Cook Brett Cook is an artist who was the United states cultural representative in Nigeria. His emphasis when creating social art often focuses on artmaking, daily life and healing. He is also an educator through his practice, melding beings to both the inner and outer worlds that the complexities of their life cause, to experience through their minds eyes and choices. When Cook was being featured by The Estria Foundation, he explained how early in his life he had been an artist. Starting with slips of papers from his mother to having his pieces in the classroom, art had always been a celebration that was part of his life. He said in this interview that he had been taught that being a great artist was about doing great work. He believes that he has been talented at finding inspiration in anything which helps him lead an artistic life. Cook has been contributing to the art scene over the past 30 years and has developed habits such as “cultivating peacefulness” throughout his art process. This has also helped to lead his social practice art where he inevitably has collaborated with other artists to stand against injustice. In this collaboration, he has learned about the different types of participation and the importance of the audience. This has been important especially when pertaining to injustices. In a Q&A with A Blade Of Grass he answered a question pertaining to how to properly create art that demonstrates a particular message especially about Race gender and class, he explained how he has always made sure to make the art at the location it will be at, instead of the art spaces provided by the funders. Brett Cook has made many artistic contributions, one notable piece is Who Am I In This Picture: Amherst College Portraits with Wendy Ewald and Amherst College Press. Some other pieces include Reflections of Healing in 2010-12 and smARTpower/Sharing Culture in 2012, while he was an artistic ambassador in Nigeria

Bibliography Cook, Brett. “Ask an Artist: Brett Cook Answers Your Questions.” A Blade of Grass, 23 Apr. 2019, www.abladeofgrass.org/articles/ask-artist-brett-cook/. Cook, Brett. Brett Cook, 9 Jan. 2013, brett-cook.com/www.brett-cook.com/Brett_Cook.html. Cook, Brett. “Featured Artist: Brett Cook.” The Estria Foundation, 26 Mar. 2012, www.estria.org/2012/03/featured-artist-brett-cook/.