Friendship Through Art Collecting

My friend Christy Tennant Krispin is one of the most intentional people I know — in the sense that she does many things in her life with a great deal of intentionality and thoughtfulness.

One of those things is collecting art. She recently held a show in Seattle, where she now lives with her husband, of the art they’ve collected over the years. But it wasn’t just an art show, as Christianity Today’s “This is Our City” reported:

Christy, a Dubsea regular, proposed to Nguyen that they take the “living side by side” concept more literally, with a public show of the art that adorns the walls of her house nearby. Christy would give a short gallery talk about the project and her thoughts on collecting, and provide a full-color “gallery guide” outlining the history of each work in the show—how each came to have a place in the Krispins’ home. Though none of the works would be for sale, Christy would include contact information for the artists in a small booklet she produced and online at her website. All in all, the aim would be to show that collecting art need not be about prestige and high price tags. Instead, it can and should be about the ordinary spaces where we live our lives and the relationships we nurture there.

As Christy often points out, the primary benefit for beginning to collect art “is the ensuing friendship between artists and those who value their work.” It’s a great (and often very affordable) way to both become a patron of the arts and populate your home with lovely, storied art.