ArtiGras Podcast · ArtiGras Fine Arts Festival

No More Starving Artists: Trina & Anthony Burks on Uplifting Creatives

July 3, 2025·2 hr 18 min·5 clips

Anthony Burks challenges young people who say they can't afford art, telling them to support emerging artists and become collectors themselves.

Sarah begins with gratitude. She introduces Trina Slade-Burks and Anthony Burks Sr. as a couple whose art, curating, and No More Starving Artist work have mattered in Palm Beach County Arts and beyond for decades. The conversation settles in quickly. Trina comes through an arts family legacy, and Anthony as a Florida native with a long career as an artist, but Sarah does not treat any of it like a resume. She keeps pulling the stories forward, so background, purpose, and community support stay in the same frame. No More Starving Artist carries the middle of the episode. The title points to a bigger mission, but the excerpt keeps it practical: artists need curators, exhibitions, catalogs, attention, and people who understand how much work sits behind a public opening. One story turns on surprise. Someone they thought might be difficult understood the mission, supported a Miami show during Basel, and bought a catalog ad. The point is not status. It is that quiet jolt of being seen by someone who gets the work behind the work. Sarah catches that feeling and gives it room. The guest remembers the person as funny, willing, generous, and set on taking a photo with the curators at the opening. The photo matters because the gesture mattered. It held the labor, the mission, and the people carrying it. Sarah does not hurry out. She says the conversation could have filled multiple episodes and that bringing both guests together felt like the fun choice. Before closing, she turns to the ethnic mermaids series, its move into a coloring book, and an event connected to the Norton.

As heard by us

An arts interview about creative labor, community support, and the people behind the work.

Trina Slade-Burks and Anthony Burks Sr. come across as the heart of this arts-focused episode, especially when they talk about what it takes to keep creative work going.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want an arts conversation rooted in real creative life, not polish.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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