Music is Art - The Jay Stewart Collection
Opening Reception - Saturday, May 17th 2025
About the exhibit MUSIC IS ART!
A Message From Jay Stewart:
Ever since I was a little kid, I used to go to my Grandfather’s house, I would always stare at his vinyl record covers. I always thought in away, that Vinyl Record Covers are artwork. While working at various record labels, music distribution companies and actual record stores, I was fortunate enough to collect various promotional music posters. I wanted to display some to the DMV area.
Who is Jay Stewart?
Jay Stewart has touched nearly every facet of the music industry at one point in his 25 + year career. Mix Show DJ, Tastemaker, Radio Personality, Record Label Executive, and Music Marketing Guru are a few titles that he has achieved. Starting out as a DJ from Queens, NYC, Jay would make a move to the Washington DC area in the mid 90's.
After receiving a degree from the Omega School of Recording Arts & Sciences, Jay would soon land his first gig as a Promotional Rep. with Rawkus Records. Working with up and coming artists including Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Big L, and helping with the process of turning these artists from underground to Hip Hop Legends was a very humbling experience. After being promoted to a major label, MCA/Geffen/Interscope Records as a Marketing Representative, Jay would help market and promote some groundbreaking albums including, Common "Like Water For Chocolate", The Roots "Things Fall Apart", Mary J. Blige "No More Drama", and Blink 182 "Take off Your Pants and Jacket", to name a few.
When your job takes you to nearly every great record store in the world, Jay began his overwhelming collection of memorabilia, clothes, posters and promotional items. Having one of the biggest promotional music memorabilia collections in the world, Jay was fortunate enough to have 4 posters from his collection, auctioned off at the 3rd Annual “Sotheby’s Hip Hop Auction" which took place in July 2023.