Meet Jose Tutiven | Founder of Colored Colors

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jose Tutiven and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jose, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Colored Colors was created because I saw potential in having an artistic driven community on Long Island, which is where I come from. We neighbor New York City but yet we lacked opportunity for creatives to showcase their talents and if there were opportunities, they weren’t very inclusive. My idea was organizing community events centered around art, music, while giving minorities and millennials a space to showcase their talents. Fast forward to 2021, I have worked with over 300+ creatives and 50+ businesses/organizations all over NY.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Colored Colors just celebrated its 3 year anniversary on January 31st – our first official event was on that date so that’s officially going to be #ColoredColorsDay. And I start with that because this has been a whole rollercoaster.

It’s hard to describe what Colored Colors is because its so multi dimensional and always evolving. Besides it being a business it has really become a community or even a lot of people classify it as an organization. Our main focus is to create events that are beneficial to artists, musicians and small businesses. And our secondary focus is to provide experiences to the general public that will engage them to be involved or invest in the arts. Here is a quick range of what we do; songwriter nights, artist exhibitions, art and music festivals and we even throw brunches centered around the music genre of Bachata. Like I said it sounds a bit confusing but just check our website and you will get it.

Of course this didn’t come easy, nothing ever does, even to this day I find challenges in things. But what I always focused was on professionalism and marketing. I think something creatives lack is that side of things and I get it, the main focus is just to create. BUT you always have to focus on the business side of things. Since the beginning I invested in proper marketing, commissioning graphic designer for flyers, making sure we had photographers at the events and also videographers that could produce recap videos to document what we were doing. I credit a lot of our success to that specifically, even before content became the most important thing, that is what we had as a priority. This year I actually expanded the business and added a secondary business “Colors Media Group” which is now our way of offering marketing and professional development services to everyone within our community.

For me the most important thing that I want the world to know is that we exist and that creatives always deserve proper representation. Art is so important in our daily lives, we just sometimes don’t acknowledge it. We consume art every single day. My mission is to just have more art-centric, inclusive and progressive world to live in. Colored Colors is the vessel to make that happen.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is a great question because living on Long Island you have best of both worlds.

I’ll start out with New York City – favorite spot to go eat has to be Tao Downtown, honestly the best dinner I’ve ever had. Then to hang out would be Lower East Side, more specifically Alphabet City – some really cool low-key spots. If you want some good music Pianos is the place to go. For touristy stuff I prefer downtown rather than Times Squares, personally I think its a little played out and not much to see. I like the culture the Downtown New York City has to offer. That might be a controversial statement to some.

Now if we are talking Long Island, the East End is the place to go. You have access to so many cool places as you head towards the Hamptons. One MUST go place is Wolffer Estate Vineyards, you will never see such a thing and they have the best wines. And if we’re feeling like beers is the go to thing; Jamesport Farm Brewery is such a good vibe. Now if we stay touristy it is worth to take the drive all the way to Montauk – the views on the way are great and once you are there you can go to the lighthouse on the literal end of Long Island. Another honorable mention is Greenport, a small town but has a lot of great restaurants – The Frisky Oyster is top 2 but not 2.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I don’t get to talk a lot about this but there are a few people in my life that influenced me and allowed me to get to the point that I am now. Besides the God that I believe in of course.

The main person that I would credit would be Oriel Ceballos (@or1el) he doesn’t know it but he really showed me that this art scene had so much more potential. Before I had my business I was an aspiring artist who specialized in mixed media art. Oriel was notorious and still is for selling his art work in the subways and streets of NYC. He shared spaces with me a few times and invited me to group shows in the city. Those moments really showed me what could be if I added a bit of a structure to the the system that was already in place. Plus Oriel is a HUSTLER and that is an influence that I took with me.

There are plenty of others as well, Jen the owner of Juventus Pizzeria, she gave my first opportunity to curate a show in her business. My brothers Diego, Dudley and JB; always helping me be grounded. And truthfully all the creatives that have believed in the vision of Colored Colors. Without them the success we have had wouldn’t be possible.

Website: ColoredColors.com

Instagram: @coloredcolors

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-tutiven-9b57221b0/

Other: Our media team – Instagram: @colorsmediagroup

Image Credits
Photos by @thirty1eighty8 of @colorsmediagroup