NADA Is Building New Generation of Collectors Through Series of Salons

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, art news Newsletter about the art market and beyond. Register here Receive it every Wednesday.

There are obvious barriers to becoming an art collector, chief among them money and space. But there are also less obvious factors, chief among them the intimidation factor: Contemporary art, and the galleries that display it, can look intimidating or arrogant, or both, and many people feel uncomfortable in art spaces. this New Art Dealers Alliance has recently begun to address this issue head-on by hosting a series of collector salons, NADA COLLECTION.

If your first thought is that this might weaken a business, it’s helpful to review author Domenick Ammirati’s perspective. remind On his substack a year or two ago – Colin de Land,The freewheeling American gallery owner and leading avant-garde art dealer of the 1980s and 1990s occasionally held classes for potential collectors. for Heather Hubbs, As a long-time director of NADA, the idea grew organically out of NADA’s overarching mission of “empowering galleries.”

NADA provides a monthly newsletter to members and has an Instagram to promote its galleries; it also funds acquisitions Pérez Art Museum Miami from Florida’s annual fair of the same name and has a collection of pieces acquired from members. A year ago, NADA started a mentorship program that lets veteran members mentor new members and holds meet-and-greet events every Sunday morning in Los Angeles to support a gallery community called “Dealers and Donuts” (dealers host other dealers and NADA handles the donut tags).

Last spring, Hubbs was on the phone with NADA board members, and the topic turned to collecting. The board member noted that many people don’t know, for example, that you don’t have to be rich to start a collection — you can start a collection with a $2,000 painting. “We talked about how NADA should educate people about collecting and why it’s important.” Board members suggested that Hubbs get in touch with art consultant Anne Parker, who has begun hosting a series of salons, and in October Hubbs hosted a dinner at NADA’s downtown Manhattan offices. That led to the sale of two artworks, and since then Hubbs has tried to host a monthly event, whether it’s a gallery walk or a dinner where she invites a gallery to showcase its project or a specific artist within it. The idea is to meet people where they are, she said. “There’s no stupid question,” she said. “It could be: What do you wear to the gallery? If that’s what’s holding you back, let’s get that out of the way.”

These events aren’t just about making collectors more comfortable with gallerists—they can have the opposite effect, too. The gallerist’s goal, she said, is to help them “create an environment where everyone feels normal and safe to speak up.” And, as it turns out, they’re not just appealing to first timers. “It’s interesting to see who shows up and where they are in the process,” Hubbs said. “Some of them have more education in collecting than others.”

For Hubbs, the next step for the NADA Collects program is to address the intergenerational issue of “educating people about heritage and its importance,” she said. “Because I feel like now we’re seeing all these old collectors pass away and then the kids don’t care about the collections and they just auction them off. We’re not there yet, but I want to be there.”