On Friday night there was a buzz at the Community School of Music and Art.  Nearly 100 people came to enjoy wine, appetizers, conversation and a talk by Micaela Van Zwoll.  Collectors, artists and students spent the hour before the talk in the lobby with art-related discussions ranging from how they became interested in art to what they are working on now.  (Click here to see photos from the event.)

The audience moved into the auditorium just after 7:00 and were greeted by a slide show highlighting Bay Area art collections that include glass sculpture as well a range of artists that Micaela choose to highlight.  There were many artists, ranging from emerging to mid-career to established, and collections included in the talk.  I was excited to see images of works from the Saxe Collection and the Hess Collection as well as Stig Persson, a wonderfully clean thinking Danish artist; San Francisco Bay Area pioneer Marvin Lipofsky, who was shown by Micaela at Art Basel Miami Beach; educators and artists Susan Longini and Carol Lawton (who were also in the audience). 

An insightful observation that Micaela made about buying art was that all of us have collected something (in her case it started with Matchbox cars many years ago) and that we should use that same sense of wonder and excitement when deciding what art to collect.  Another takeaway from Micaela was that the difference between an established artist and all others on the path to becoming an established is the ability for a piece to be sold in the secondary market.  Why is that important?  Becuase it means there is enough understanding and representation of an artist to be able to set a price for a work in the open market.

The evening wrapped up shortly after 8:00 with an appeal to attend the BAGI Great Glass Auction on February 6th.  We plan on putting an interview of Micaela with slides on the BAGI website soon.