Artroverted

Katherine Wagner is the CEO of the Business Council for the Arts. Her mission is to connect business with the arts and connect the arts with business. She does this by creating primary connections that train and place business leaders on nonprofit boards and through programs that foster synergy businesses with the arts.

Business Council for the Arts (BCA) was founded by Raymond D. Nasher in 1988 as an outgrowth of a 1987 Dallas Citizens Council initiative. Nasher—a Dallas real estate developer, leading philanthropist and global art collector—as well as other key business leaders and Citizens Council members determined that Dallas would have the best opportunity for becoming a prominent business city with parallel growth in the North Texas region’s cultural community.

Using the model developed by David Rockefeller in 1967, Nasher created a new agency. BCA opened in June 1988 as Dallas Business Committee for the Arts, an affiliate of National Business Committee for the Arts.

One of BCA’s roles is to collect data about cultural institutions and programs that have informed and shaped the Dallas cultural policy for decades. Their partnership with Americans for the Arts led to the 2017 Arts and Economic Impact Study, which showed that the arts are not a charity but an industry and that in North Texas nonprofit organizations had a $1.5B impact on North Texas and employs 52,000 people.

Their Leadership Arts Institute program, one of their many programs, has been responsible for training and placing board members in all cultural sectors across the DFW area. Tune in to learn more about the BCA’s work to align business and the arts. Happy listening!

Learn more about BCA on the web: https://ntbca.org/

@bcatexas on Instagram

This week's episode is one of many firsts for Artroverted, recording in a studio with two guests! Our conversation features two leaders in the field of emerging artists. Natasha Arselan and Ty Bishop. Natasha is the founder and CEO of AucArt, the world’s first online, hybrid auction house devoted to emerging artists, connecting collectors with artists enabling them to purchase directly from the artist’s studio. Ty is the founder and publisher of Friend of the Artist, a hard-back, bi-annual, juried publication that publishes the work of emerging artists from around the world. Both Natasha and Ty’s platforms have created opportunities for both emerging artists and artworld insiders to help each other connect and grow. On Monday, they begin their first collaboration, a sale of works selected from the most recent issue of Friend of the Artist, Volume 12. In our interview, they talk about everything from vouching for artists on visa applications to the end of Art. It’s leaders like these two that are essential to the survival and growth of the art world.

This episode was recorded on October 22, 2020

To learn more about Friend of the Artist visit FriendoftheArtist.com and @friendoftheartist on Instagram.

To learn more about AucArt and the sale, visit AucArt.com, and @auc.art on Instagram.

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).

This week I speak with Charlie Adamski Caulkins, Vice President, Head of Office, for Sotheby's in Dallas. Established in 1744, Sotheby’s became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992), and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby’s has a global network of 80 offices in 40 countries and presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong, and Paris.

When we spoke in May, live auctions that have been a fixture of the art market since the 18th century were postponed indefinitely. We talked about Charlie's ascent up the auction house ladder from New York to San Francisco and now Dallas.

We caught up in October following the debut of Sotheby’s new auction format, the first-ever global live-streamed auction. Taking bids in real-time from Hong Kong, London, and New York resulted in record-breaking sales, proving that the demand for great art had not waned. Our conversation was taped days after the newsworthy October 28th sales, where the Baltimore Museum of Art removed two works it planned to deaccession just hours before the auction. Charlie talks about the relationship between auction houses and museums, the pandemic’s silver linings, and how she’s always working to deliver for her clients.

This episode was recorded on May 14, 2020, and October 30, 2020

To learn more about Charlie and Sotheby’s, visit Sothebys.com

@charliecaulkins @sothebys on Instagram

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).

This week we speak with Jennifer Klos, founder of Collector House, a boutique art advisory firm. As a trained decorative arts historian and former museum curator, she takes a holistic approach to building her client's collections. In our conversation we talk about the business of collection building and how she combines her academic studies in decorative arts and interior design with her career as a museum curator to accomplish her client’s goals.

This episode was recorded on June 11, 2020.

To learn more about Jennifer’s advisory services, visit http://www.collectorhouse.com

@jenniferklos on Instagram

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).

This week's guest is Mark Busacca, curator, art consultant, and owner of Busacca Gallery in San Francisco. After graduating from art school in the 1980s, he was immersed in LA's celebrity culture that brought him in contact with Andy Warhol, Leo Castelli, and others in their milieu. Mark's insight into what makes a successful artist is sage advice for aspiring artists everywhere. His decades of experience as a dealer propelled him to found an art technology company that aims to "archive all the world's objects." His platform, Artifact, plans to disrupt the art market by giving collectors access to their #artdata.

This episode was recorded via Zoom on April 29th, 2020.

To learn more about Mark's gallery, visit BusaccaGallery.com

@markbusaccaartcollections on Instagram

Video on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/66473401

The path to becoming a museum director is circuitous, and the responsibility they have to their communities is unique. We spoke with Graham C. Boettcher, R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama, in May during the museum’s closure and discussed his career, the role of museums in society, and how he and his colleagues are weathering the pandemic.

This episode was recorded via Zoom on May 8, 2020.

Learn more on the museum’s website: https://www.artsbma.org

Instagram: @bhammuseum @grahamboettcher

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).

Founded in 2016, ATŌ developed a proprietary technology that utilizes the decentralized database model to store market data and information on works of art they've authenticated. Their freely accessible resource aims to increase trust and transparency in the art market by giving artists and collectors the tools to understand the value of their art. After conducting hundreds of surveys and interviews, she and her team identified the most significant problems facing artists and collectors: counterfeits, provenance, and data for valuation. For Carrie, the solution is in the Data. In making more #artdata accessible to artists and collectors, she hopes that she can restore confidence and transparency to allow artists to grow their careers and invite a new class of collectors to the table. Her experience as an art technology entrepreneur and collector are insightful and informative to both creators and art world insiders.

This episode was recorded via Zoom on April 25, 2020.

Learn more on ATŌ's website: https://atogallery.com

Instagram: @ato_gallery

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).

Nancy Willis is an artist, activist, and educator. Until the pandemic, she taught "Principles of Design," an art class for pastry students at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Napa Valley. As an artist and chef, Nancy works to bridge the divide between the culinary arts and the fine arts through exhibitions, workshops, and her art practice. We spoke about her work at the CIA, activism with the Yazidi refugee community, and Nourish, an exhibition project she curated at the Napa Valley Museum.

Her course at the CIA taught students traditional design conventions and how to look at art and analyze it through their own experiences. She required students to visit a gallery or museum and select a work they could translate into a plating design. For many, it was the first time they had been to a museum. In this intensive course, many students had profound responses that allowed them to work through past trauma.

In 2015 Nancy curated NOURISH, an exhibition that brought together chefs and artists, including Anne-Sophie Pic, Grant Achatz, Richard Diebenkorn, Miro, Picasso, and Wayne Thiebaud. Through a Kickstarter campaign, she was able to present a diverse group of works across all media. She also traveled to Valence, France, to install a Nest camera in the kitchen of Anne-Sophie Pic, one of four female Michelin starred chefs, that live-streamed the kitchen during service into the museum.

In 2017 she was invited to participate in an exhibition related to President Trump's travel ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, which allowed her to engage with the Yazidi refugee community. She traveled around the world to conduct monotype workshops with Yadizi refugees of all ages. On a trip to Europe, she met Nadia Murad, a recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize (2018), and led her and her husband through a monotype workshop in her hotel room.

In conducting workshops with diverse communities, Nancy brings her extensive background in hospitality to art-making that fosters intimate exchanges that are often transformative.

36:51 Lightning round questions.
51:35 One work of Art she would own.
57:22 Wish for the Art World.

We recorded this episode on May 28, 2020.

More about Nancy:

Artist Nancy Willis lives and works in the Napa Valley. As a painter/printmaker she works with themes of intimacy and social connection by creating series such as The BED, RSVP, the CHANDELIER and TERRAIN. With paint or printing ink, Willis uses an additive and subtractive process to explore how color, light and atmosphere can instill meaning and evoke a sense of place.

Until the Covid-19 restrictions, Willis taught classes at the Culinary Institute of America/Greystone, Nimbus Arts and the Napa Valley College. She quickly pivoted to offering online classes out of her studio, including Bake Like an Artist, and Postcards from the Edge. Her entrepreneurial projects include Path of an Artist tours, leading artists to France and Sundance for annual painting workshops. Willis' curatorial projects include Discrepancy/living between war and peace (2011) and Nourish (2015). Her recent exhibitions include NEXT: Print Matters in Houston, Texas and her solo exhibition, Savor the Moment, in Oakland which was an homage to Paris. In 2018/19, Willis was awarded two Community Fund Grants for her project Conflict Zone, a collaborative printmaking project with Yazidi women, men, and kids from northern Iraq.

Learn more on her website: https://www.nancywillis.com

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).

In this episode, we speak with Amy Williams Monier, the co-founder and curator of Connemara Conservancy in Plano, TX. Connemara was founded in 1981 by Amy and her mother, Frances Williams, as one the first land trusts in Texas.

At the suggestion of her mother, Amy invited artists to create work that celebrated the land's beauty that often resulted in monumental works. Over the years, it became famous for its pioneering installation art program that Amy curated its closure in 2002. During the 21-year run, the meadow attracted visitors from around the globe and was influential in the careers of many successful installation artists.

Amy discusses the challenges of creating an installation art program, land conservation, and how Connemara was very much of its time.

This episode is the first recording of Artrovered, via Zoom on April 23, 2020.

Before starting her work at Connemara, Amy helped produce the inaugural edition of Baltimore Artscape in 1981. It was working with artists there that she was first introduced to installation art. When she returned to Dallas the following year, she helped run 500x, one of Texas's oldest, artist-run cooperative galleries. Her experience working with artists and organizations in both places helped her build Connemara's art program.

Contemporary reviews of Connemara describe a bucolic union of art and community. In 1984 Janet Kutner, of the Dallas Morning News, wrote, "In Connemara's casual setting, there is nothing intimidating about these works. Visitors can move around their perimeters; some sculptures allow viewers to walk into or through them. Several pieces invite touching. One work creates musical sounds."

The article continues quoting that year's sculpture coordinator Charlene Marsh:

"Ms. Marsh, Who has spent more time with the Connemara exhibit then anyone beside the artists, sees it as a "mini-synopsis of what's happening in sculpture today." Many of these artists see themselves primarily as builders, she says, in that they like to have physical, hands-on involvement… The Connemara exhibit also suggests what Ms. Marsh calls, "the plight of the serious contemporary sculptor," who is "hungry" for a place to show his work. The unwieldy character of sculpture, and the expenses involved in making and storing it, virtually prohibit artists from making pieces of this scale unless they are commissioned for specific sites.…Obviously, one reason artists like to show at Connemara is that their works can be seen to such advantage in the open landscape.

Kutner, Janet. Plano's Connemara showcases sculpture in rolling landscape, Dallas Morning News, April 15, 1984.

Learn more about Connemara Conservancy: http://connemaraconservancy.org/wordpress/

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).

In this episode, I speak John Abodeely, CEO of the Houston Arts Alliance. In our conversation, we discuss his career path, creating equity in the arts, and how he’s working to help the creative community of Houston cope with the pandemic.

We discuss how he’s worked to improve arts education access in his past positions at Americans for the Arts, the Kennedy Center, and the President's Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and his current work as CEO of the Houston Arts Alliance.

About John:

John Abodeely is Chief Executive Officer of Houston Arts Alliance (HAA). Joining HAA in November of 2017, he brings a strong background in arts and arts education policy as the Acting Executive Director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, service as Manager of National Partnerships for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Manager of Education at Americans for the Arts.

As CEO of Houston Arts Alliance, John directs strategy in grantmaking, civic art development, and new programs. He is committed to developing the organization’s service to the arts community, in partnership with board, staff, grantees, investors, and other stakeholders.

At the Presidents’ Committee, an advisory body to the White House on cultural issues, John was instrumental in the expansion of Turnaround Arts, a program that leverages the unique power of arts education to improve non-arts outcomes in a cohort of the nation's most struggling schools. During John’s tenure, the program successfully scaled from eight schools to sixty-eight. In April 2016, the Committee led sent the first federal cultural delegation to Cuba, immediately following the President's own historic trip. As the Trip Director for the delegation, Abodeely organized ten bilateral meetings with senior Cuban government officials and arranged for high-visibility U.S. artists to tour artist studios, explore schools, visit youth arts programs, and perform on stage with Cuban musicians. As a result of the delegation, embedded press and ongoing, bilateral artist and preservation exchanges helped to further the President’s goal of normalizing relations with Cuba.

John has taught education policy at the graduate level, and served on boards and various review panels. He is a graduate of Amherst College with a bachelor's degree magna cum laude in Biology and Fine Arts, and holds an MBA from John Hopkins University.

About the Houston Arts Alliance:

Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) is a local arts and culture organization whose principal work is to implement the City of Houston’s vision, values, and goals for its arts grantmaking and civic art investments. HAA’s work is conducted through contracts with the City of Houston, overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. HAA also executes privately funded special projects to meet the needs of the arts community, such as disaster preparation, research on the state of the arts in Houston, and temporary public art projects that energize neighborhoods.

In short, HAA helps artists and nonprofits be bold, productive, and strong.

Alliance website: https://www.houstonartsalliance.com/

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).