From the Fine Art Connoisseur, May/June 2026 Editor’s Note:
Marking the Years
Anniversaries. Generally I think they’re irrelevant. Every time a news channel covers the first hundred days of a newly elected politician, or of a newly hired baseball pitcher, I roll my eyes. Why would 100 days matter more than—say—101 days, when everything might take flight, or fall apart? It just seems arbitrary.
Having said that, this month marks my 20th anniversary editing Fine Art Connoisseur, and that makes me take a beat. How is it possible I have been enjoying this gig for two full decades? Time waits for no one, but this marker does seem incredible.
I am hugely grateful to Eric Rhoads for having taken a chance on me back then. I was a museum person, not a journalist, and surely the Streamline Publishing staff worried that a curator-type would not be organized enough to print an issue the day that needed to happen. We have not missed a deadline yet, and most of that success owes to the extremely competent team here who keep everything flowing. Many thanks to all of you, especially Brida Connolly, Ken Whitney, and Katie Reeves.
But that’s not the only reason these 20 years have been successful. Eric and I are kindred spirits. We recognized in 2006, just as we recognize now, that contemporary realist artists need champions who appreciate their creations and see where their art fits into the arc of history. I have been proud to participate in that effort, which involves all those gifted artists, foresighted collectors, generous patrons, energetic dealers, efficient administrators, savvy curators, and discerning auctioneers.
And then there’s our brilliant article writers, who come to Fine Art Connoisseur from every corner of the field. It’s impossible to thank everyone involved in this journey, but I see you and appreciate all you have done to move the needle.
The living artists covered in every issue of this magazine are well worth championing, and I feel the same about the historical artists we cover. We don’t publish on Monet because he’s already a star and doesn’t need our help, but please take a look in this issue to see all those “Old Mistresses” finally getting their due, several centuries late. Now that’s gratifying work.
Speaking of anniversaries—Happy Birthday, America. This month we are entering peak America250, and I am thrilled to be receiving ever more announcements of exciting projects that honor the country’s milestone. We could not begin to summarize the hundreds, maybe thousands, of exhibitions, acquisitions, installations, publications, research finds, films, lectures, website redesigns, and other projects occurring this year—all highlighting the best of American art, past and present. I’ll bet you’re getting those alerts, too, and I encourage you to participate in as many as possible.
Very high on my own list is A Nation of Artists – a show of more than 1,000 artworks spread across roughly 20,000 square feet at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which have teamed up for the occasion. You could say that Philadelphia is where the idea of a United States of America started, so Philly, here I come. For details, please visit philamuseum.org and pafa.org. See you there!
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Story prepared for the web by Cherie Dawn Haas, Editor of Fine Art Today
