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Annie Taylor On Collecting as Cultural Stewardship

To her, collecting art is not just about ownership but also about building relationships, strengthening community, supporting artists and contributing to the writing of art history in real time.

A new generation of collectors is thinking collaboratively and finding ways to expand their impact beyond simple ownership. Among them is Annie Taylor, a born-and-raised New Yorker with an unwavering passion for art. In addition to helping with her own family’s foundation, she serves as an active trustee of the Bronx Museum, where she sits on the Acquisitions Committee. She’s also on the Advisory Board and Contemporary Art Committee of the Brooklyn Museum and is co-chair of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Apollo Circle. Observer sat down with Taylor to learn more about how her journey into the contemporary art scene started, how she ended up playing such an active role in New York’s contemporary art community and how she sees that role evolving as she continues to engage with today’s fast-shifting art world landscape.

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The works hanging in her Upper West Side apartment tell the story of how she crafted her own path and how her collection has been shaped by an unapologetically personal taste, along with the encounters and relationships that have marked the way. The collection on display reflects both her personality and her attitude toward the world and her surroundings.

As she walks us through elegantly decorated, never-overhung rooms, two main threads become obvious: her predilection for representations of feminine forces of regeneration, care and solidarity, and her attention to the vitality of the natural world and the organic processes of matter. “My collection is always about companionship, duality, two figures together and feminine solidarity. It reflects the values I hold in my life,” Taylor acknowledged. “The thing I care about most is my relationships: with people, with my husband, with my family. To have artwork like this around me is very special.”

While most of the pieces Taylor has collected are by women artists, this seems to stem from her being drawn to those who share similar concerns and sensibilities, rather than from a rigid collecting strategy. The pattern emerged organically through her instincts and emotional response to each work. Gender and diversity matter to her, but her first test remains immediate resonance: whether she feels drawn to the artist, the presentation and the world a work proposes.

Taylor did not come from a family of art collectors; she had to carve out a place for herself in the art world. “They had artwork on the walls, but it was all inherited. My mom is definitely getting into it because of me,” Taylor candidly said. Yet her mother often took her to the Met after school. “That was really how I developed an immense appreciation for art. It made me realize that art is enjoyable to live with every day.”

Taylor studied art history and business at Tulane after abandoning economics, then worked at Phillips, Doyle and Scope and in art logistics before stepping back to work for a tech platform. It was while working in the arts that she began buying pieces, though initially without a clear goal or intention.

The work that shifted her from buying to collecting was a small sculpture........

© Observer