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.

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.

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.

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

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"? 

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.