02 May Collector’s Eye: Finding Venues for Valuable Voices

In her career as a museum director, Sandra Harris recalls the time from 2002 to 2005 when she served as the first director of the non-profit Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her office was in a donated space because the museum was just a couple of outdoor lots full of abandoned monumental signs — “a Neon Boneyard,” as Harris describes it. Her job was to decide which signs were worthy of restoration, find a source to restore them, and then find a space to display them. When word got out about the museum, she’d find photographers jumping the fences, clamoring to take pictures of treasured signs. That’s when she decided that the “museum” was a great resource and, with the approval of the Nevada Film Office, offered it for photo and film shoots, which “became very lucrative,” she says.

In August 2021, Harris became the executive director of American Women Artists (AWA), an organization founded in the 1990s in Tucson, Arizona, to unite and promote women in the visual fine arts. As part of this effort, in 2017, AWA launched 25 in 25 to secure 25 museum exhibitions for AWA members over the next 25 years. This was in response to the fact that work by women artists makes up only 3 to 5 percent of permanent art museum holdings in America. AWA’s membership has swelled from its original roster of 25 artists to more than 1,000 members. Harris’ background in museum services and the arts put her on course to be what the organization needed as its leader at the time. In May, she stepped down as executive director of AWA to take the position of executive director of the Kennedy Museum of Art and head of Museum Studies at Ohio University.

During her early career in Arizona, where she attended graduate school at Arizona State University, Harris gained experience in the art world by working at Glenn Green Galleries. After completing her graduate studies, she worked in museums for years, including as the director of the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona, from 2013 to 2017, where she learned about the practice of museums selling art to the public. In 2006, the Wickenburg museum’s board of directors recognized the need to give women who depicted the West a venue, and Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West was born.

“The sale and exhibition of Cowgirl Up! introduced me to the concept of sales rooted in the Western tradition. I liked the idea and thought about taking it to a national level,” Harris says. “The idea of women’s representation and a membership organization to support them intrigued me. The thought of economic security for women artists and how we could help them interested me, as museums rarely did that.”

Under Harris’ leadership, AWA continued to expand beyond the Western art genre to include all types of art, and any female artist can become a member. “Members move up through different levels. There are Associate, Associate with Distinction, Signature, and Master Signature members. The last of those categories is by invitation only, and its honor is based on the artist’s total career. Generally, only two artists a year are invited to become a Master Signature Member; currently, there are 35,” Harris explains.

As executive director, Harris worked with museums and art centers nationwide to host AWA’s annual exhibitions. The most recent Master Signature Show was hosted by the Tubac Center for the Arts in Arizona. The next will be in Loveland, Colorado, from September 14 through November 10, and is their annual juried museum show for all AWA members.

Harris says she “applauds museums who are doing shows like AWA,” adding, “It’s just a matter of swinging the pendulum to include women artists at every level. I’m confident and excited for the future success of AWA under new leadership.”

WA&A: What was the first piece of art you purchased and why?

Sandra Harris: One of the first pieces I bought from a gallery was during an abstract art show in Scottsdale. I was attracted to it because all the artists were young. The piece is made of bendable fiberglass with textures. I wasn’t interested in how well-known the artist was. At the time, I was more interested in young artists being given a chance to show and sell their art. One of my first ‘finds’ was in a small shop in St. Louis. There was this little piece of Western art, line drawings of a horse and rider, that I was drawn to. It was small, hidden, and marked for a very low price. It turned out to be by Will James [1892 – 1942], a famous author and illustrator of the American West. I love my little find.

WA&A: How diverse is your collection?

S.H.: It’s diverse in terms of style and subject matter. I’ve come to understand that I always have some psychological connection to a piece, like location or some thought or feeling I’ve had toward it. One geographical connection is a piece from California artist Omar Wysong, who works in metal. It’s an abstract piece that represents the mountains of the West — at least, in my mind, that’s what it does. Another from Glenn Green Galleries is by Eduardo Oropeza, titled Esperanza. She’s a tall, thin woman holding a big rock over her head; it looks like she shouldn’t be able to hold it. The title translates to ‘hope,’ and psychologically, that’s what drew me to the piece. As a personal collector, I tend towards philosophical art with some realism, such as a painting by Shelby Keefe from Wisconsin, who showed at Cowgirl Up! It is the view out of the windshield that we have all seen countless times on Western road trips where the road stretches ahead for miles. Another painting is a Western sunset in the desert by Jessica Garrett Lawrence, an Arizona artist, that was a farewell gift from the board and staff at Desert Caballeros.

WA&A: Do you purchase art for investment or enjoyment?

S.H.: One hundred percent for personal enjoyment. I do follow the market, particularly if it’s an artist I know or have, and if it goes up in value, I’m happy. Yet, I have never sold a piece.

WA&A: Was there ever an artwork that got away?

S.H.: I have fantasies of having original art by some of the artists I have always loved but were financially out of my range. There was a piece by Gladys Roldan-de-Moras, a San Antonio-based artist originally from Monterrey, Mexico, who exhibited at Cowgirl Up! I had not seen her work until then, but I was so taken with it that I chose it as my Director’s Choice piece. Similarly, I fell in love with a work by Allan Houser but wasn’t able to purchase it at the time. What I have of his is a piece of stone with sketch marks that he gifted me from his studio — being able to go to his studio and see him work, that memory is as good as having a piece.

WA&A: Do you have a favorite artwork, one that you’d save first from a fire?

S.H.: It would be Esperanza by Eduardo Oropeza, even though she would fare better than a painting. I’d save her just because she has been my friend all these years. We’ve both survived earthquakes!

WA&A senior contributing editor Shari Morrison has been in the business of art for more than 40 years.

Jaclyn Miller is a family and lifestyle photographer based in St. Louis, Missouri; jaclynmillerphoto.com.