As we entered our second month amidst the devastation of the Coronavirus pandemic, we continued to look to art as a bright spot in our lives. After spending the first two weeks of social distancing cleaning out her studio, Brookline-based photographerRania Matar turned to her camera as a way of processing all that is happening around her. To document this unique moment in time and because she missed seeing people, she started a photo project called "Connections Across Barriers", shooting neighbors from behind their windows and doors.

I love the insider access many of these Podcasts provide. Guests open up and share with the hosts about their collections, productivity hacks and other fantastic advice from experts in their respective fields. 

I’ll continue to update this list as more courses and videos come online.

The kids aren't the only ones who can be home schooled. There are a wide variety of excellent courses and recorded lectures to catch up on. A few that I'm looking forward to:

• William Kentridge's 2012 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University. 

• MoMA is offering the course What is Contemporary Art?  In this free six week course, curators guide you through more than 70 works of art made between 1980 and the present. At the time of this email, 42,462 people were enrolled. 

I’ll continue to update this list as more museums and galleries come online.

Looking for a mystery? Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has a walk-through with its director of security, Anthony Amore, retracing the path taken by the thieves who broke into the museum on March 18, 1990

Love Contemporary art? The Metropolitan Museum in New York produces short videos of contemporary artists talking about their favorite works in the collection. It's a wonderful series to enjoy. I particularly like hearing Nick Cave talk about his interest in the Kuba cloths. They also have a series of six short videos that invite viewers around the world to virtually visit The Met's art and architecture in a fresh, immersive way

COVID-19 has uprooted how we interact, work and live. As we change our behavior there has been a quick shift by museums, galleries, artists and other arts organizations to continue to engage and inspire their audiences. If anything, I hope that this time enables us to take stock, organize and emerge appreciating so many simple aspects of life that we can't enjoy during this time. 

Have a plan for when disaster strikes. Planning for how and who will handle your collection in an extreme event is essential to managing your collection. Take the time now to put together your priority removal list. Compile the names and numbers of art handlers, fine art storage facilities and conservators who will help execute on your plan. I work with clients to prioritize objects and build relationships with the best fine art professionals in their area.

Prevent

Last September, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opened an all women's exhibition titled "Women Take the Floor", to highlight how few women are in museum collections (including their own).  In order to rectify these disheartening statistics, the exhibition has physical mass (hundreds of objects) and presence (on view until May 2021). I love the quote wall they use before you walk into the space, where heroes such as Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar and Ruth Asawa are quoted. Included in the wall text is the question: "Can you name 5 women artists?" This question, first posed by The National Museum of Women in the Arts based in Washington, DC, became a social media sensation when people utilized the hashtag #5womenartists last March during Women's History Month. It is a question that continues to stick with me. 

January is the most visceral of art months. One normally doesn't search for Spring paintings in April, Summer scenes in July or Autumnal landscapes in October; the other three art seasons are seasonally-agnostic. Winter is different. Come January in New England, I look forward to seeing seasonally-appropriate works of art, and a major reason is the physical impact it has on me.

Donate to your favorite arts non-profits

Artists for Humanity: a place where teens are employed to explore and express their creative abilities

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: honor the past and re-imagine the future for the 150th anniversary of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2020

We traveled to Napa Valley last month for a long weekend to celebrate a family wedding. Always eager to see the local art community, we enjoyed time in St. Helena, where we visited Caldwell Snyder Gallery (profiled below) and Hall Wines. The trip made an impact and has stayed in my mind. As you walk into the impressive glass and concrete building at Hall, you are met with a massive, imposing even, Nick Cave tondo to the left of the front desk. Made of found beaded and sequined clothing, "Garden Plot" is sparkling and dynamic.

November foliage turns to Native American Heritage Month and Thanksgiving. Every week I pass by Cyrus Dallin's monumental sculpture "Appeal to the Great Spirit" as I climb up the marble steps to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Earlier this year, the MFA held a sold-out lecture to reexamine the sculpture from multiple perspectives; does the work portray a dignified Native American figure, as the artist intended, or does it simply uphold a 19th-century stereotype of Native Americans as a "vanishing race"? 

Back to school. Especially in New England, this is the true start to the New Year. Even the change from humidity to crispness signals a fresh start. One of the things I love most about September is how everyone comes together again through art. The fall exhibition schedule is my favorite because we are relaxed and refreshed from the summer, ready to see, learn and absorb. It is an especially great time to visit college art museums in your area. Living in Boston we are lucky to have some of the most important academic institutions in the world, and they all have strong curatorial programming and vision. Be sure to check out my recommendations below for some of the best shows opening this fall.