Serious Play, Year One: Building the House We’ll Live In

By Ivan Barnett

Homage to my friend Doug Menuez, who photographed “Steve” for Fearless Genius, 1986.

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs

I launched Serious Play in the spring of 2025 with a simple promise: help artists and galleries align creative integrity with sustainable practice—wonder with discipline, story with structure. A year later, I’m grateful for what we built together in the oldest capital city in the country.

If 2025 was our test, 2026 is our launch—and the front door is Salon 1033. “Salon 1033’s purpose is to embrace creatives in all mediums through spontaneous and authentically curated gatherings.” Two intimate salons in my Santa Fe studio-home brought together makers and culture-bearers for small, honest conversations that counter isolation.

Mabel Dodge Luhan, Frieda Lawrence and Dorothy Brett, 1930, Taos, NM.

We were joined by luminous creatives—Will Cliff, James Keller, Willy Bo Richardson, Kevin Box, Holly Weber, Robert Nott—who reminded me why Santa Fe is the place I love. As Holly Weber wrote: “My intention was to make myself small and invisible, to lurk and learn. But as soon as I walked in and was greeted so warmly by Ivan… I felt myself begin to relax.” That’s the room I want to keep building.

Salon 1033 No. 3 arrives February 8, 2026, with the theme The Art of Collaboration. Private enough for candor, generous enough for discovery, the salon stands on the shoulders of Mabel Dodge Luhan and the mid-century salons I knew through my parents, Isa and Annette.

Who/what/where-when/why of our first year: I’m Ivan Barnett—artist, coach, and former Santa Fe gallery owner—now directing Serious Play, a practice that turns vision and storytelling into career currency. We went live in spring 2025, and work in studios, living rooms, and on Zoom. We exist because extraordinary talent without structure burns out, and structure without a deeper story goes dormant.

In October 2025, Prime Time (Albuquerque) published my essay “The Land That Awakens Us,” a love letter to New Mexico’s light, landscape, and cultural memory—and a practical note on how place restores momentum. In December, the Santa Fe New Mexican ran “My Favorite Room,” a profile of the quiet space where I journal and translate notes into action for my studio practice, the 1033 salons, and our clients.

Painting by Leon Karp of Ivan and Isa Barnett, 1952- “in the room where it happened,” Germantown, PA.

Beyond the room, our reach widened. I served as a juror for the KLIMT02 New Talents Award 2025 and contributed writing to the platform. Our advisory quietly grew as artists shaped coherent series with clear price bands and release cadence, and galleries installed operating dashboards so inquiry → hold → install → close became a weekly habit.

What changed in 2025? Outreach accelerated; attention shortened; AI moved from rumor to reality. What stayed the same? Fundamentals: rooms arranged for longer seeing, labels that point to meaning, cadences that keep studios solvent, collector relationships tended with care—and the same why: keep the art alive in public.

What I’m proudest of are the habits we helped install and instill.

As for 2026: Salon 1033 grows carefully. We’ll publish more musings, release new studio work grounded in intrinsic surface and patina, and expand advisory for artists and galleries who want braver programming with calmer operations. Serious-play.co will continue leading a conversation few attempt: creative play and storytelling, articulated with rigor, offered in rooms where people feel seen and invited forward.

If 2025 was foundation and framing, 2026 is doors, windows, and light. Thank you for showing up, sharing honestly, and trusting the work. The house we’re building is meant to be lived in. I’ll keep the kettle warm. You bring your story. Let’s keep the room small enough to hear one another and big enough to change what comes next.

“What we all want, really, is to be seen, to be seen as we are, and then to be invited forward by the universe.” — Ivan Barnett