Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz Honored for Art Collection and Advocacy

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz have been named to the 2026 TIME100 Art List, acknowledging their significant impact on the art world through the Dean Collection. The couple has focused on celebrating and supporting living visual artists, with a particular emphasis on Black artists.

The "Giants" exhibition, a project associated with their collection, opened at the Brooklyn Museum in 2024 and has since traveled to four other U.S. cities, with international stops planned through 2031. The show achieved a record-breaking attendance of over 25,000 visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in August.

Keys, a 17-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, and Beatz, a Grammy-winning DJ, rapper, and producer, view art and music as interconnected creative forces. Their approach to art collecting is deeply personal, aiming to build relationships with artists rather than engaging in purely transactional exchanges. "What got us a lot of love and credibility was being human and not transactional," Beatz stated.

Keys added that their shared artistic background allows them to relate to artists in a unique way. "We’ve always been in a different state of mind just because we are also artists," she said. "So the way we relate to artists is going to naturally be different than anybody else."

The couple has also leveraged their understanding of the music industry to address inequities in the visual arts market. Traditionally, visual artists do not receive royalties when their work is resold, a system Keys and Beatz found unjust. "We never could understand that," Beatz remarked. "Why should the rules apply for us and not for the visual artists?"

In response to this disparity, Keys and Beatz launched "Deans' Choice" on September 9. This elective program, in partnership with Bonhams auction house, allows U.S.-based sellers to allocate a portion of their proceeds to the living artist of a sold work. They see this initiative as a significant step, anticipating that many sellers will choose to participate and support artists directly.

"This is the beginning of something amazing, and we feel that a lot of people will do the right thing," Beatz said. The "Deans' Choice" program, which took seven years to develop, reflects the couple's enduring commitment to advocating for artists. "The ideal industry for any creative person should be a place where they are completely empowered," Keys stated. "The Dean Collection is by the artist, for the artist, with the people."