Veronica Pesantes’s contribution to a Prazzle feature on women in the art world named something Vinny had been circling for years: the decades of artistic work deferred by talented people who took a traditional career instead. Veronica is an art writer, curator, and cultural strategist who has spent nearly forty years in art, from museum education at the Guggenheim to bylines in ARTnews. She’s the founder of Miami Art Hang, an education program that places Miami’s artists and galleries in front of the city’s growing international population, turning interest into patronage and collecting. Veronica argues that recognition in the art world arrives either straight out of an MFA program or when retirement allows the work, with almost nothing in between. Over three centuries, economics has operated with an underlying myth, observed by Adam Smith, that selling a beautiful talent amounted to “a sort of public prostitution,” and that assumption still shapes who can afford to make art. Their conversation explores what that costs, and how artists and collectors are pooling money, sharing studios, and building the patronage the market never provided.

Guest Links

• Veronica Pesantes on LinkedIn
• Art Hang, her Substack
• Miami Art Hang on Instagram
• Outlaw Paper: Sandy Rodriguez’s Resistance Map of Gulf of Mexico, US Latinx Art Forum
• Sandy Rodriguez at the Ringling, Veronica’s ARTnews piece
• The Art World, According to Women, Prazzle

Referenced in this episode

• Commissioner; Supporting artists, collecting art. Together.
• Fiber Artists Miami Association (FAMA)
• Collective 62; Art Studios is an independent art space devoted to creation outside of the traditional circuits of art.
• Art Thinking, book by Amy Whitaker

Referenced Design Economics Podcast Episodes

• Episode 19: Misty Heggeness on Swiftynomics
• Episode 7: Thaddeus Squire on fiscal sponsorship

Click here to view the episode transcript.
 
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