5 Tips for Creating An Artful Home

You are an artist at heart, but you don’t have an art degree?
My undergrad degree is in math and my Masters is in marketing research. I don’t have any training and I can’t make anything! But I have always loved art. It’s been very important to me all my life.

So how did you get involved in the art business?
I had a boyfriend when I moved to Wisconsin who was a sculptor, and I got very involved with him and tried to market his work. We had many friends who were artists and I saw how all of these talented people struggled to get their work out to different markets. I very much wanted to do something to help them. I started the Guild Sourcebooks in 1985 as a way to help them sell their work and make a living through their art. The Sourcebooks introduced this wonderful work to targeted markets, such as architects. And that was the genesis of the business, which we launched in NY. And then moved back to Wisconsin.

Why Wisconsin?
I wanted a real life, that’s why we’re in Wisconsin. We loved New York, but my husband is from here and he has family here and it feels like a real life here.

And the online business for consumers?
In 1998 I started a separate company called guild.com as an online retail company. The underlying goal was still the same but it was all about broadening the market to consumer. We showcase the artists, but they make and ship all the items directly to the buyer. We also did a print catalog, which we renamed The Artful Home in 2004. In all, there are more than 11,000 works of art available to consumers on our site and in our catalog.

An important underlying principal is that we want people to feel comfortable exploring, looking at and thinking about art. That’s something that the traditional art world hasn’t necessarily been very good at. As you know, a New York art gallery is not always a fun and friendly place to go. And as a result there are a huge number of people who don’t feel connected to art, and we want to change that.