Curators we Love: Laura Finlay Smith

CURATORS WE LOVE

PHOTO: ELAN VARSHAY

Laura Finlay Smith

Laura Finlay Smith is the curator and administrator of the Tia Collection, “A global art collection that is a testimony to the value of diverse cultures, histories, and aesthetics” and is based in Santa Fe. In 1988, fresh from completing her bachelor’s degree at Denison University, a liberal arts school in Granville, Ohio, Smith’s first job, at the Gerald Peters Gallery, was filing transparencies. Two decades later, while working at the Nedra Matteucci Gallery, she met the anonymous collector behind the TIA Collection.

Since 2012, Smith has used her formidable intelligence, energy, and integrity to further the Tia collector’s intent to share his love for art, which embraces multiple styles, and spans continents and more than a century. She works to build alliances with artists, galleries, museums, scholars, and collectors through their acquisitions, and by lending art, organizing traveling exhibitions, publishing catalogs, and commissioning art works. Following is a brief exchange between curator Laura Finlay Smith and author MaLin Wilson-Powell, who collaborated on the traveling exhibition and catalog New Beginnings: An American Story of Romantics and Modernists in the West.

MaLin Wilson-Powell: Please talk about your priorities as the Tia Collection’s curator and administrator.

Laura Finlay Smith: They are always changing, but since 2012, the priorities have been two-pronged and based on balancing which artists to collect with what the collection will be doing in the long term. I’m constantly reading, doing research, listening to podcasts—learning about artists. And, of course, all artists have other artists they admire, and I always pay attention to that. Also, balancing the historic interests of the collection with the contemporary.

MWP: You seem cognizant of but not swayed by trends, always finding strong artworks by underrecognized or overlooked artists.

LFS: I think this comes from being a dealer. There were so many talented artists we represented at

Matteucci, and some of their contemporaries were receiving more recognition. It always kind of broke my heart.

MWP: The Tia Collection includes a high proportion of work by women artists. How did this come about?

LFS: This started because of the collector’s only child, a daughter whose name is Tia. When she was young, Tia was very creative—loved art, loved dance, loved music. He was creating this with her as the inspiration. We talked about how the women in this collection would, in the long term, be her mentors, and how these women have worked so hard for recognition. I think about Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and all the recognition she has received in just the last five years. In 2020, when the National Gallery acquired a painting of hers, it was the first work they had acquired by any contemporary Native American artist. Ever. Women are receiving recognition, as are artists of color and indigenous artists. I am hopeful that this is a long-term trend, not the idea du jour.

It is remarkable what we are beginning to watch unfold in the market. I try to work directly with galleries that have artworks on consignment from the artists themselves, so that the artists are benefiting in the moment MWP: When and how did you enter the art world?

LFS: It was my parents and grandparents both. Going to museums and special exhibitions was crucial, from their perspective—to expose us as young people. My Mom’s parents lived in Fort Worth, which has wonderful museums. When the King Tut exhibition first traveled to the US, in the mid-1970s, my parents took us out of school, and we went down to New Orleans to see the show. We typically would go for a meal, and there would be a discussion: What did you see? What did you like? Why did you like it? And there were, obviously, no wrong answers.

When I started working for Peters, I have to give Jerry credit: not once did he ever make me feel that I couldn’t do whatever I wanted to do, even though I was only twenty. The learning and the education and being exposed to so much—I found it all exhilarating. Then, making connections between artists who inspired other artists . . . getting those connections, that big picture.

Working for Jeff Mitchell [founder of Mitchell Brown Fine Art and former museum director], I learned about the greater responsibility of working with living artists and introducing them to collectors. And when I was working at Matteucci, from 2004 to 2012, I got to do research all day, every day. I just loved it.

For me, I’m the storyteller. That’s my role in life: Telling stories that are not intimidating, and that move forward with those who are thrilled to be along for the ride.

—MaLin Wilson-Powell

MWP: Talk about your ongoing emphasis on building archives, including documents, sketches, notes, audio, and video.

LFS: The archives came from the idea that, until the collector had visited Santa Fe, he had not seen much of the work in person. So the archives provide supporting stories, whether handwritten descriptions or the inspiration—whatever story the artist wanted to tell. The collector sees an image sent by the gallery or artist and whatever supporting material they send. Going forward, this begins to capture a dialog in a more focused manner, with the artists’ voices representing themselves. You can hear Quick-to-See Smith, for example, talk about her work or a specific piece in the collection, and this keeps the maker’s voice front and center, and reflects the Tia Collection’s focus.