Online Courses and Lectures to Audit
I’ll continue to update this list as more courses and videos come online.
The kids aren't the only ones who can be home schooled. There are a wide variety of excellent courses and recorded lectures to catch up on. A few that I'm looking forward to:
William Kentridge's 2012 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University.
MoMA is offering the course What is Contemporary Art? In this free six week course, curators guide you through more than 70 works of art made between 1980 and the present. At the time of this email, 42,462 people were enrolled.
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Virtual Exhibitions and Museum Programming
I’ll continue to update this list as more museums and galleries come online.
Looking for a mystery? Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has a walk-through with its director of security, Anthony Amore, retracing the path taken by the thieves who broke into the museum on March 18, 1990
Love Contemporary art? The Metropolitan Museum in New York produces short videos of contemporary artists talking about their favorite works in the collection. It's a wonderful series to enjoy. I particularly like hearing Nick Cave talk about his interest in the Kuba cloths. They also have a series of six short videos that invite viewers around the world to virtually visit The Met's art and architecture in a fresh, immersive way
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April 2020
COVID-19 has uprooted how we interact, work and live. As we change our behavior there has been a quick shift by museums, galleries, artists and other arts organizations to continue to engage and inspire their audiences. If anything, I hope that this time enables us to take stock, organize and emerge appreciating so many simple aspects of life that we can't enjoy during this time.
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Art Disaster Plan
Have a plan for when disaster strikes. Planning for how and who will handle your collection in an extreme event is essential to managing your collection. Take the time now to put together your priority removal list. Compile the names and numbers of art handlers, fine art storage facilities and conservators who will help execute on your plan. I work with clients to prioritize objects and build relationships with the best fine art professionals in their area.
Prevent
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March 2020
Last September, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opened an all women's exhibition titled "Women Take the Floor", to highlight how few women are in museum collections (including their own). In order to rectify these disheartening statistics, the exhibition has physical mass (hundreds of objects) and presence (on view until May 2021). I love the quote wall they use before you walk into the space, where heroes such as Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar and Ruth Asawa are quoted. Included in the wall text is the question: "Can you name 5 women artists?" This question, first posed by The National Museum of Women in the Arts based in Washington, DC, became a social media sensation when people utilized the hashtag #5womenartists last March during Women's History Month. It is a question that continues to stick with me.
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January 2020
January is the most visceral of art months. One normally doesn't search for Spring paintings in April, Summer scenes in July or Autumnal landscapes in October; the other three art seasons are seasonally-agnostic. Winter is different. Come January in New England, I look forward to seeing seasonally-appropriate works of art, and a major reason is the physical impact it has on me.
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Holiday 2019 Gift Guide
Donate to your favorite arts non-profits
Artists for Humanity: a place where teens are employed to explore and express their creative abilities
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: honor the past and re-imagine the future for the 150th anniversary of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2020
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October 2019
We traveled to Napa Valley last month for a long weekend to celebrate a family wedding. Always eager to see the local art community, we enjoyed time in St. Helena, where we visited Caldwell Snyder Gallery (profiled below) and Hall Wines. The trip made an impact and has stayed in my mind. As you walk into the impressive glass and concrete building at Hall, you are met with a massive, imposing even, Nick Cave tondo to the left of the front desk. Made of found beaded and sequined clothing, "Garden Plot" is sparkling and dynamic.
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November 2019
November foliage turns to Native American Heritage Month and Thanksgiving. Every week I pass by Cyrus Dallin's monumental sculpture "Appeal to the Great Spirit" as I climb up the marble steps to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Earlier this year, the MFA held a sold-out lecture to reexamine the sculpture from multiple perspectives; does the work portray a dignified Native American figure, as the artist intended, or does it simply uphold a 19th-century stereotype of Native Americans as a "vanishing race"?
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September 2019
Back to school. Especially in New England, this is the true start to the New Year. Even the change from humidity to crispness signals a fresh start. One of the things I love most about September is how everyone comes together again through art. The fall exhibition schedule is my favorite because we are relaxed and refreshed from the summer, ready to see, learn and absorb. It is an especially great time to visit college art museums in your area. Living in Boston we are lucky to have some of the most important academic institutions in the world, and they all have strong curatorial programming and vision. Be sure to check out my recommendations below for some of the best shows opening this fall.
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August 2019
A great joy of traveling for me is exploring galleries in different cities and towns. It enables me to connect with the local culture and get a sense for the aesthetic sensibilities of the place. This summer, we have visited galleries in Newport, RI, Martha's Vineyard, and the coast of Maine. One of my favorite galleries is Star Gallery in Northeast Harbor, ME (pictured above). It is a seasonal gallery with a sophisticated roster of artists.
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July 2019
The ACAF Brussels Jury, comprised of Simon de Pury, Kenny Schachter, Shaune Arp and Sylvain Levy, among others, met at the beginning of June in London to review the 300 submissions, selecting 60 artists to participate in this year's fair. Learn more about the artists here.
The call for submission for ACAF New York will begin in October 2019 with the fair scheduled for May 2020. For those interested, please sign up on the ACAF website for updates or write me directly.
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