We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Debbe Goldstein. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Debbe below.

Debbe , appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I was a creative kid in a small town. I had some musical composition abilities and was winning awards in elementary school. When I started college as a music major I discovered I didn’t enjoy spending hours in a practice room. I took an art history course from a fabulous professor and I was hooked. I was able to see the world through a comprehensible filter. I discovered I was more visual than aural and I kept taking art history classes until I had a complete major. I knew that I excelled at being able to understand paintings etc and knew that I wanted to pursue a life in the arts.

Debbe , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always had a job in the arts. Or should I say I have only had jobs in the arts. I was an assistant director of admissions at Art Center College of Design. I looked at thousands of portfolios over the years. I went on to become the head of recruitment for Dreamworks SKG animation. I also taught art history for over a decade in Los Angeles. I curated an exhibition at the SMOCA in Scottsdale entitled, ” At Home with Ozzie and Harriet- Mid century modern”. I am very proud that I submitted a paper to a conference entitled ” Popular Culture and the Atomic Age”. My paper, Lot’s Wife , was accepted and I got to present it to the conference. It was about how the atomic bomb influenced the mostly visual arts. I started my company when I realized that the business of selling art had shifted to the internet. I wanted to work with artists who I felt hadn’t gotten enough exposure. I started writing a blog and fell in love with that. Throughout my career I was advising artists, but in this capacity I had to put my money where my mouth was, so to speak. As my business grew, and as I was assessing the needs of the artists, I realized my best contribution was to take a long view of their careers and find opportunities that for them that they might not think of pursuing. I love working with artists. Working with ideas and objects, is for me the place where I feel perfectly at home.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think out of all the questions asked here, this one might be the most important. Artists influence the culture of their generation. They ask uncomfortable questions, and expose controversial truths. They live in the world of ideas. They commingle art and commerce in meaningful ways. The art business is a multi billion dollar one. A free society works best when ideas are exhibited. Artists help transform opinions and deal with expanding knowledge. There is something so meaningful about seeing art from the past. Let me give you an example. I went to see a Michelangelo drawing show a few years back. The feeling of the artist reaching out over six hundred years was palpable and extraordinary. Seeing how other cultures lived and survived and interpreted historical events is imperative in ways for us to see our own lives. To best support that activity, artists need support. Museums need funding. Creatives need jobs to help inform and transform the world we live in. In a world where information currently is fighting knowledge, it is critical that the knowledge brokers are heard and seen.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I very recently represented an artist whose career I was completely devoted to. I was able to provide opportunities that would have never occurred wi shout me running the engine.

He betrayed me by dropping me and having a manager of his call me to tell me, and then he signed with a gallery that I had been working two years to get him into. I was told he was no longer making art, I understand that artists leave dealers all the time. And that is a professional hazard. The way in which I was told and the sense of betrayal was hurtful to me. It seemed personal. That being said, I thought a lot about a new direction and I have “pivoted” in a new exciting way. I have taken on a new painter, and I am introducing a new area called “multiples” where I am showing more prints, and sculptures that are as the name suggests multiples. They will have different price points and I am expanding the amount of artists that I am working with. Every closed window…

Contact Info:

• Website: ArtRep-DG.com
• Instagram: ArtRep-DG.
• Facebook: ArtRep-DG

Image Credits
Dianne Athey, Dal Henderson, Ramone Munoz, Jim Kazanjian