Creating Interest

I’ve been thinking a lot about how people engage with art. Not the regular art crowd. But new people to the market. People who come to art from other areas and maybe learn something of their art interests and then decide to start collecting. where does this spark come from? What gets new people interested in art enough that they want to start purchasing it and placing it in their own homes?

When I travel across the country to the various art events, auctions and museum exhibitions, these are the questions I ask. And what I hear from collectors, new and old, is that their early collecting passions were fueled by visits to museums—and often times at early ages.true, you either have the collecting bug or you don’t—but this collecting gene turns to art typically through museums.

To me, museums are the points of entry for everyone who is interested in art.when people decide to start looking at art, they don’t typically go to galleries or auctions.they go to museums. It is there they learn about the history of art, where they define and refine their tastes and interests, and where they generally train their aesthetic interests.

From what I’ve been told, it is after these experiences when people suddenly think, “Wait, I can actually own similar work?” And so museum visits get more frequent, a person’s passion for collecting increases as well. As we’ve always said, education is key and the more a person knows, the more they will be able to make informed decisions about the art they wish to add to their collections.

It is in this spirt that we bring to you our first-ever Guide to Museum Exhibitions. though not all-inclusive, we have tried to give you a general idea of what shows to look out for this year when it comes to historic American art.this is our Newyear’s offering to you. Read it, use it and we hope it will lead collectors to newfound areas of art to collect or even turn some art admirers into actual collectors for the first time. Enjoy!

P.S.WE know we haven’t covered everything. If you have an exhibition you’d like us to consider for a future magazine, please send details to Sally Cameron at sacameron@americanfineartmagazine.com