Editor's Letter

Local Flavor
With each issue of American Art Collector I get to do a little armchair traveling when curating our destination guides, which zoom in on a different city, region or state each month.

In October, we bring you our Art Lover’s Guide to Collecting Fine Art in Charleston, South Carolina, which begins on Page 60. I treat these special sections as if I’m planning my own trip and, as I delve deeper into my research, my interest in the location only grows. (Sometimes, I suddenly find myself looking into flights). Such was the case with Charleston, frequently cited as one of the top art destinations in the country—and, as you will see in these pages, for good reason.

We’ve got the Charleston art scene covered—its world-class museums, abundant galleries and several upcoming shows of contemporary realism—but the city’s offerings extend far beyond the visual arts. So I extended my research beyond the best spots for art experiences, to other ways to get a taste of the local culture. After all, you’ve got to eat and get your rest to maintain your energy between all that gallery hopping, art-walking and museum-going.

So I called on the locals—the folks at the galleries, organizations and institutions featured in our guide—to get the insider scoop for you. These people live and work in Charleston, and know the difference between the city’s true gems and the tourist traps; and the places to go and things to do that might not pop up in a Google search. The result is a list of best places for coffee, brunch, dinner, cocktails, beer, boutique to luxury accommodations, and outings, art-related and otherwise. We hope it inspires you to plan a trip to Charleston, and if that’s not in the cards, sit back and enjoy the next best thing.

One of the institutions we feature in the Charleston guide, the Gibbes Museum of Art, also appears in another important section inside this issue, our Collector’s Focus dedicated to museums and exhibitions. Our museum coverage continues to grow as we find more exhibitions that are putting contemporary realism front and center. In this issue alone, we have previews of four exhibitions of contempory realism, all of them vastly different, from a highly localized showing of Sean Landers’ maritime works at the Newport Art Museum, to renowned British figurative painter Jenny Saville at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, to Dyana Hesson’s botanicals at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and, finally, Arline Mann’s intimate show at the Customs House Museum in Tennessee.

This issue could not come at a more timely moment, as museums face an uncertain future due to the slashes to, and in some cases elimination of, federal arts funding. As you flip through these pages, I hope they open your eyes to the crucial role museums play in keeping the art world thriving, and preserving our cultural heritage for generations to come.

Sarah Gianelli, Managing Editor
sgianelli@americanartcollector.com