✯ A. Mills Art ✯

This is a guide to building a meaningful collection, meaningful being the operative word here. As history has demonstrated over time, we are studied and known by the things we own - our belongings tell stories of who we are. This approach focuses on not only your aesthetic preferences, but also connecting your acquisitions with your personal history, passions, and local community. Art collections, built with intention, can be one of the most personal ways to tell a story and to engage with the stories of others around you. 

Art collecting is for those interested in fostering creativity. Whether you are coming from a life-long engagement with art or the last time you thought about paint was for a 4th grade class project, collecting with the intent of fostering personal relationships will, at the very least, provide opportunities for you to connect with and support the creative community around you.

We start with the first ten pieces. Set in two groups of five, it’s a step by step guide to learn how to connect your aesthetic preferences with your story. It’s the journey of finding out what matters the most for you while starting the foundation of what will become, over time, a well-developed thesis about art and artists. It introduces you to different kinds of art (we’re talking more than painting vs sculpture), the different ways to acquire work, and how to do it all with integrity and care.  

At the end, you should not only be familiar with the process of art acquisition, you should have relationships with the artists, galleries, among other art venues. You’ll be able to clearly communicate your preferences in aesthetics, acquisition process, shipping, installation, etc., and at the very end, you’ll have that first big keystone work in your collection.

THE FIRST TEN going live just a few days... ✯

At the top, a detail from a Terry Winter's painting at Matthew Marks Gallery, taken May 9, 2024.