NAIROBI, KENYA: Art pays, or so we can judge from the stories of paintings being auctioned for millions of shillings around the world. Yet we are not quite sure how its value is quantified. To add to the mystery is the story of starving artists. Although art apparently sells for a fortune, choosing a career in this field looks like choosing a life of poverty. To help us make sense of the niche art market, Danda Jaroljmek, founder of Circle Art Gallery, talks to Hustle about a world that she has been part of for almost a quarter century and knows like the back of her hand. How did Circle Art Gallery come to be? In the beginning we were Circle Art Agency. We had a viewing room and an annual auction but we didn’t have an exhibition space. What we did was have pop-up exhibitions around Nairobi at old abandoned houses and places like those. It was fantastic but we couldn’t show enough art on a regular basis so in 2015, we opened the gallery. We have had about 15 exhibitions here in the last three years. Read more