episode 052: Cemre Demiralp

Cemre Demiralp is an incredible force of nature, not one to live her life without bringing meaningful change to the world. She has spent much of her art career thus far working at various museums and institutions, mainly with established blue chip artists and creatives: Kerry James Marshall, Robert Buck, Lara Favaretto, Ian Wallace, Simon Starling, Oliver Stone, Yoko Ono, and Solange Knowles. Currently, she operates the Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship at Emily Carr University, helping to create programs, mentorship, and resources for supporting emerging artists and creative practitioners in sustainable, real world ways. Cemre is also heading up and organizing Emily Carr’s grad art show, which opens this May. She was born in Istanbul, Turkey, the only daughter of a spiritual mother and atheist father. Curious and independent, and usually surrounded by elders & adults, Cemre was encouraged by her parents to have opinions—and to express them. At 17, she moved to France for schooling and at 19, she left her home country for Canada, where she double majored in Art History and Political Science at the University of British Columbia. Cemre’s career in art kick-started during university, as she reached out to galleries and centres to offer her help. In this conversation, we talk about her childhood in Istanbul; her journey into the art world and the existing systems within it that she hopes to improve; the importance of respecting another’s journey in life; how feeling like a migrant is an untangling for her; how she brings what she learned working with blue chip artists to her current role at Emily Carr with emerging artists; interfacing creativity with running a viable business; the way she would approach curating an art show; what she wants others to know about the people & culture of Turkey; and more.