 Your collection of art is a part of you. Personally selected pieces for your home and office. Works that you found visiting a gallery on vacation. A painting you commissioned to celebrate a special moment. The creation your grandmother hung in a prominent space in her home. And taking care of your art is taking care of your legacy. Are your pieces protected right now? Homeowner's insurance often excludes artwork from your policy. Check with your agent. They may offer special coverage or be able to direct you to a fine art insurer that specializes in your current needs. But, where do you want your art collection to be in the future? Your pieces should be a part of your estate planning and here are some options: 1) Individuals: Entire collection to one person or one specific piece to one specific person. Or any combination in between. 2) Individual Shares To An LLC: Create a corporation as owners of artwork and make your chosen heirs managers. This avoids the jealousy with the proceeds could be distributed evenly. The collection could continue to be maintained and used for investment or revenue generation. 3) Donate To Museum Or Other Institution: Contact recipient organization before donating to make sure your wishes are followed. Will it become part of their permanent collection or immediately sold at auction? Will your pieces be displayed or placed into storage? Are you donating individual pieces or the whole collection? Have any and all conditions put in an agreement and include it with your will. Remember, if you don't agree on the conditions there are plenty of other museums, foundations, schools, galleries, agencies, and workshops that would be honored to host your collection. 4) Your Own Museum: You may have a large enough collection to start your own museum. This is how many institutions got their start. Talk with your estate planning attorney about how to organize, manage, and endow this new entity. Do you know what you have? Taking an inventory of your collection is important. A simple spreadsheet can go a long way if it includes: artist's name, creation date, serial number, title, medium, origin country, size, invoice, and photo of piece. This will help you understand what you have, your insurance company, your heirs, and executor of your will. And, as always, discuss the consequences of your donation with your tax advisor. HAPPY COLLECTING! About Mike Kraus Mike Kraus was born on the industrial shoreline of Muskegon, Michigan. After earning his Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he attended Grand Valley State University for his graduate degree. From there, he gained varied experiences from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Art Institute of Chicago, Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Lollypop Farm Humane Society, and the Children's Memorial Foundation. And every place he worked, he had his sketchbook with him and found ways to be actively creative. In 2014, Kraus became a full-time artist by establishing Mike Kraus Art. Since then, he has sold hundreds of paintings that are displayed in nearly every state and dozens of countries. Currently, Kraus lives in Rochester, New York with his beautiful wife and goofy dog.
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Rochester Art Collectors has suspended all in-person programs for the time being due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The following programs that were scheduled have been canceled: Crafting Democracy | Talk by Eboni Jones | RIT Bevier Gallery | March 14, 2020 Red Dot Challenge:2020 | Info Session #2 | Boulder Cafe & Lounge | March 16, 2020 Buying Art at Auction | The Ronald and Krista Reed Collection | Cottone Auction House | March 28, 2020 Red Dot Challenge:2020 | Game Launch | April 1, 2020
Rochester Art Collectors is rolling out the super-fun FREE fantasy art collecting social media game Red Dot Challenge here in Rochester! You’ve heard of fantasy sports games like fantasy football, right? Well there’s also fantasy dating games, fantasy travel games, and fantasy role playing games. Fantasy art collecting is a recent entry into the growing social media fantasy gaming world. Informational meetings about Red Dot Challenge:  Why is Rochester Art Collectors bringing the Red Dot Challenge to Rochester?
On Wednesday, February 26, 2020 Rochester-based author and former gallerist, Shirley Dawson, gave a talk at Cad Red Gallery in the Village of Pittsford inspired by an entry in her blog, Rochester Art Review. A nearly complete video of her presentation is embedded below. The text below the video was reprinted from her blog with permission.
I am surrounded by beautiful objects collected over a lifetime. I combine texture, color and shape in a way that enhances individual pieces and lends an aura of taste and interest to the complete environment.
When I die, the first stop for these treasures? An estate sale. Nobody in my family wants an entire houseful of “things”— they have houses full already. Increasingly, museums have no use for even good art unless it comes partnered with a sizable donation to store and care for extraneous objects. So for a few bucks, you can own my “eye.” But out of context, my valued objects will lose their punch. Against your cabbage rose wallpaper, my pottery will look like crap and my paintings are far too specific for somebody else’s traditional living room. After the household sale, the dregs and leftovers will be loaded onto a truck and sent off to Goodwill…or Habitat for Humanity… or some church somewhere. All good. I want to help the less privileged even after I’m dead and what better way to cheer up a refugee family than with a 4’ x 6’ painting of smears of gray and black paint! Or a big beautiful ceramic pot tenuously balanced on its 2 inch foot, so fragile that the slightest breath will send it crashing into oblivion? After tripping over that donated painting for the millionth time, a Habitat supervisor will say “Enough! Send this to…the dumpster, the trash heap.” Nobody will utter the slightest objection because like all things in this world, orphaned art eventually becomes just more disposable clutter. The bitter truth is that only a tiny fraction of artful objects will find long lasting value…just as high school phenom basketball players will mostly fail to reach the NBA…and odds are that the super talented singer in your choir will NOT become the next Aretha Franklin. You doubt me? Then you haven’t gone to estate sales lately. Or visited nursing homes. Or been called to help dispose of abandoned artwork left in a storage facility. I was bereft after one such incident. My friend Nancy wrote: “You’ve come face to face with the dark side of collecting. And as with everything else, it’s as if a mirror is being held up asking ‘what about you?’” Yikes! Has my life — my entire career — been misspent? Is collecting merely a nicer word for hoarding? Does the old adage “one man’s treasure is another man’s trash” apply to EVERYTHING, even art? Well, yes, but along with all the warts, collecting brings along unexpected positives.
And there it is — ultimately, collecting is a case for belonging — community. When we collect objects, we collect the stories too. We weave the thread of our being into the continuing thread of makers and the history of the things they make. It doesn’t matter what happens to these objects after we’re gone. If they find another home, good! If not, they haven’t been made — nor owned, nor loved — in vain. They served for awhile. The makers and their objects — the collectors who bought them —continued the evolutionary experience we share. That’s the best any of us can hope for. Even though Rochester Art Collectors has only been in existence for nine months our group has offered twenty-one programs with the help of seventeen partner organizations. All but two of the programs were free to attendees. "Lure Of The Local," a panel discussion developed in collaboration with the Memorial Art Gallery, and "Think globally. Create, experience and collect locally," done in partnership with Rochester Contemporary, both required an admission fee to those who were not already members of those institutions.
We don't have an exact count but we believe our programs exposed attendees to several hundred artists' works for sale over the course of 2018. Generally speaking we try to hold our events inside of galleries during group exhibitions so attendees can both see and purchase works of art as well as pick up a little education. Event attendees were informed on a wide array of topics at our events including understanding and collecting glass, ceramics, and photography to printmaking, and more. All but five of our programs were open to the public. Our five member-only programs in 2018 fell into two categories: "Collectors Circles" and "Collectors Previews". Members participating in a "Collector Circle" event may bring a piece of art from their collection created by someone other than themselves to talk about with the group. In addition, we have a guest speaker present information of interest to collectors. Usually we hold "Collectors Circle" events in a gallery during a group show. Members were also invited to three "Collectors Preview" events. Every so often we are able to gain access to exhibitions BEFORE the show is open to the public thereby providing members an opportunity to see and purchase works of art before the general public. Here's the list of program events held in 2018. The most recent events are shown at the top.
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Rochester Art Collectors is a privately funded, independent, non-commercial group organized to promote collecting art.
The artwork you see on this site is not for sale. It is owned by private collectors. Rochester Art Collectors neither sells art nor represents artists. Rochester Art Collectors is not owned, managed, or controlled by any outside business, organization or enterprise. Rochester Art Collectors does not endorse any particular style of art, any particular artist, nor any particular venue to purchase art.
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Privacy Policy: Rochester Art Collectors will not share any personal information about you without your explicit permission in advance. Rochester Art Collectors commonly uses eventbrite.com to invite members and the public to it's programs. As a result, members' names and email addresses may be collected by eventbrite.com. Click here for information about eventbrite.com's privacy policies.
The artwork you see on this site is not for sale. It is owned by private collectors. Rochester Art Collectors neither sells art nor represents artists. Rochester Art Collectors is not owned, managed, or controlled by any outside business, organization or enterprise. Rochester Art Collectors does not endorse any particular style of art, any particular artist, nor any particular venue to purchase art.
No entity on our site has paid to be listed. All listings on this site are free. A listing on this site does not constitute an endorsement by Rochester Art Collectors. Rochester Art Collectors strives to accurately represent all listed entities. Rochester Art Collectors reserves the right to limit, arrange, categorize or describe a listed entity in any way that suits the interests of this group. Any entity listed on this site will be removed by request of the listed entity. Any listed entity may be removed from this site by Rochester Art Collectors for any reason.
Privacy Policy: Rochester Art Collectors will not share any personal information about you without your explicit permission in advance. Rochester Art Collectors commonly uses eventbrite.com to invite members and the public to it's programs. As a result, members' names and email addresses may be collected by eventbrite.com. Click here for information about eventbrite.com's privacy policies.
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