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    Claire Kahn: A Carefully Curated Discovery 

    Client Overview

    This study talks about how I, Ivan Barnett, at Santa Fe’s Patina Gallery, its creative director and original co-founder took Claire Kahn into its fold and carefully curated her tenure. She was a new brilliant, multi-talented artist. Barnett catapulted her stature and success over a period of ten years, promoting her career. Because of this, she became Patina’s most prominent sought-after artist, both artistically and commercially in its 25 year history. 

    Challenges

    Using a macro lens at 30 thousand feet promoting a new, unknown artist in any gallery is quite a challenge.  In the case of surface designer and textile bead artist, Claire Kahn, it was a huge lift. Her creative process did not orient itself to the typical gallery/artist dynamic.  As such, she possessed all of the elements of a brilliant use of texture, pattern and color. The “elements” were there for the making of Patina Gallery’s first star in its fifteen-year history.  Imagine, out of the blue, an unknown maker of crocheted beaded necklaces arrives at one’s Gallery interested in “representation.”  This was the case with Claire Kahn in 2012.  What made this circumstance extremely unusual was that this was a highly creative and experienced artist and designer who made works at the time that were out of the aesthetic vocabulary realm for Patina Gallery.  

    Another key challenge was could Ivan Barnett lay the foundational stories for this artist? She came from another esteemed world of design into a new story as one of Patina’s most sought after, desired, and collected artists.  Patina Gallery at the time was already representing world-renowned contemporary jewelry makers using more formal techniques and materials to make soul-stirring wearable art.  Patina Gallery already had a 15 year trajectory under its belt and had paid its dues making itself an important, eclectic Santa Fe destination for exclusive, often one of a kind, important works of art, and high craft.

    A Pivotal Moment

    The first pivotal moment happened after knowing that Ms. Kahn’s curated works were extraordinary like nothing seen before. The challenge for Ivan Barnett was, “could the Gallery make the leap of faith and say yes to the representation of beautiful pieces.” Barnett knew that the works were deeply personal, and somewhat out of the gallery’s comfort zone or norm.  There was no doubt in Barnett’s mind that Kahn as an artist was a perfect fit for Patina. In addition, she had a background in design and her lineage, with both parents being scholars, makers, and artists in their own right.  

    Combined with her very sophisticated talents, a huge challenge for me was to take Kahn’s technique and materials that often lived in the hobbyist arena and make them accepted as a new art form in the world of “jewelry arts.”  As a result, the narrative would have to change, and it needed to change swiftly.  

    A final additional challenge was working with the artist from afar, given that she had not yet relocated her studio to Santa Fe.  Consequently, Barnett’s plan was to “position” Claire to be from New Mexico…creating therefore more synergy between the Gallery and the artist.  Taking her from unknown to known in a decade was a big question. Could Barnett do it?

    Objectives

    At the outset, the Gallery-Artist relationship, started around 2012 or so. It was important for Claire to get to know Ivan Barnett as the space’s creative director in order for her work to be properly curated. 

    The first objective, then, was to gain trust and build creative rapport.  Within two years, it became quite clear to Barnett the Gallery had the makings of a major star.  Like most great stories, it required the patience to create a yearly build of acceptance.  Amazingly, her works sold out almost immediately as soon as they showed.  Ivan knew that a carefully crafted and curated narrative was a must for this new artist.  Therefore, his goal within those first two years was to elevate Kahn’s works to museum and collector status. 

    Barnett’s Key Objective

    Serious Play knew another key objective was to not expect the artist to repeat herself in what she was creating. Barnett did not want this to affect how her work was curated. The aim was to ultimately keep her always engaged in new themes and suggest new materials that could expand her works beyond the “semi- precious.”  Kahn’s earliest works predominantly used Japanese glass beads with very little other embellishments.  In his desire to curate the marketing, Barnett did not openly share this with the artist. Thus, Barnett didn’t want the artist to feel too self-conscious since she was sensitive that the public perceive her as “too commercial.”  In many ways, Ivan wanted Claire Kahn to become the next “Grammy/Oscar” artist for Patina.  

    A slow build was necessary, and the public needed to get to personally know the artist.   Patina delivered a strategy of building, curated and told unusual intriguing stories on a regular basis about this new artist. Consequently, Barnett had to present and to promote Claire Kahn as the renaissance creative that she was. He would not pigeonhole her talents in only one area. 

    Solutions Provided by Serious Play

    1. Establish Claire Kahn as an exclusive artist to Patina Gallery. Therefore, create a curated and clear singular destination for the future sales of her works.  The risk level in doing this can have its drawbacks, yet if handled carefully, it can be huge.  Serious Play’s strategic leadership was critical.

      Also, Barnett had to properly orchestrate and manage not only the artist, but also the Gallery’s staff. Ivan insisted that they learn and know of “all things” Claire, part of the engagement tools for clients.  Barnett made sure the artist was not burdened with any requests that would compromise her productivity or creative direction.  Purity of making for Claire was essential.
    2. Made a plan to place regular ads in Santa Fe arts publications “featuring and announcing” Claire was exclusive to Patina Gallery. This exclusivity ensured all sales and commissions were attributed to Patina, hence no competition.  
    3. Create an urgent, specific strategic plan to interview the artist on a range of platforms and media. Print, video, radio, etc.  To expose her talents to an unusually diverse body of media was important. It would expose the Claire Kahn story to a range of people with a variety of sophisticated interests. For example, an editorial in an upscale food publication, woman’s-focused publications, art periodicals, craft publications, etc., all had room to feature Kahn at her best. 
    4. Establish the artist’s new Santa Fe studio and living space to become a large element in terms of client engagement.  This enabled collectors and the editorial world to get to see the inner sanctum of this prolific and renaissance artist.  In turn, her studio/living space became the backdrop for private events, photo shoots, and client/collector engagement through seeing the private world of Claire Kahn.  
    5. Ensure Kahn’s work stayed one of a kind.  All of her jewelry works were unique pieces, never repeated.  

    Solutions Continued

    1. Present yearly one-person exhibitions with entirely new themes for new “collections.” 
    2. Introduce precious materials into her works, like gold, emeralds, pearls, diamonds., etc. 
    3. Create the artist’s chop mark (a gold symbol), a signature if you will, woven into every work Kahn made. 
    4. Expand her artist’s story to include Kahn’s parents. Also woven into her story was the fact that she was also capable of producing beautiful works of fine art.  Thus, we showed Kahn’s other works alongside her jewelry pieces.  By featuring and promoting Claire’s fine art, paper sculptures, it elevated the value of her wearable works as Serious Play had already carefully curated her pieces. This made a Claire Kahn necklace or bracelet a “work of art.”  
    5. Gave design presentations about Kahn’s approach to making her pieces.  
    6. Present “mini collections” about Claire’s works to keep the public engaged during the pandemic.  
    7. Include Claire Kahn’s works in a museum exhibition, with other esteemed New Mexico artists. 
    8. Gave Kahn freedom to follow what interested her and then collaborated with her on new themes.  It was pivotal that her work was always new for each new story, each time she released a new collection.

    Results

    1. In the period of a decade under Barnett’s creative leadership, the Gallery elevated Claire Kahn to international status as Patina’s unique talent. He created a demand for her works as it had never been seen before.
    2. At the outset of her Gallery arrival, the prices for her works over a decade, went from a couple of thousand dollars, to five-figures.
    3. Most of her exhibitions were sold-out shows. Many times, her works were placed with a core of Kahn’s patrons. Of note, her most important collector acquired over one hundred of her one-of-a-kind works.  
    4. Ms. Kahn’s critical acclaim grew far and wide as did the Patina brand because Kahn was the gallery’s exclusive artist.  
    5. Ms. Kahn always insisted she make every piece with her own hands. Amazingly, she produced over one thousand works during her career at Patina Gallery.  

    Here is a partial list of some of Kahn’s most important exhibitions:  

    Conclusion

    A star was born at Patina Gallery in a relatively short period of time.  In many ways, it was a perfect, magical storm. Many of the key elements took hold along the way as Barnett curated Kahn’s pieces. There was a lot of fun in and amongst the “serious play.” The public always clamored for the next new Claire Kahns to be had.  Consequently, most of her exhibitions had half if not more of her works “red dotted” before the exhibition had formally opened.  The level of demand always outweighed the amount of works available.  

    Here at Serious Play, we are wizards, and we know how to help you develop stars. One star in a gallery can be an amazing blessing if properly managed.  Everything, however, needs to be spot-on correct.

    For you the artist, Serious Play can help you position yourself to be that star. If you are fortunate, you can have a healthy, long run like Claire Kahn had.  The Claire Khan story had all of the stars in alignment. There was great unusual talent, a creative director willing to take risks, and an adoring public who wanted something that was so rare they could only be found in one place in the world.