Dear Reader,
Welcome to Artful Magazine, a new publication focused on covering the best art and travel experiences and cultivating curiosity and discovery.
Our articles, in the spirit of Artful's future trips, aim to be educational, enriching, and entertaining. Artful's small-group journeys, led by expert guides and organized with extra precautions to protect the health and safety of all participants, will offer both established and aspiring collectors a chance to make deep and enduring connections with some of the artists, museums, galleries, auction houses, and private collections that make up the vast contemporary art world. I believe that at this moment of global crisis occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced the cancellation of many art events and the closure of museums in many art-world centers, those intimate interactions with art and the people who have made it their livelihood matter more than ever. I hope to offer the same kind of sustained, focused engagement in our online magazine, which will operate under the auspices of Artful but will retain its own distinct voice.
I join this exciting new venture after many years writing and editing art coverage for major publications (including the New York Times and New York Magazine) and observing how art appreciation and collecting have come to revolve, more and more, around events and experiences. Our founder, Tobias Welo, discovered his passion for art collecting and art-related travel while working as a portfolio manager at Fidelity; our chief curator, Matthew Israel, is an art historian and author of several books who has deep experience in contemporary art, art curation, and art programming both online and off. I arrive at Artful eager to create a magazine that draws upon our various fields of expertise to serve as a savvy and well-informed art and travel partner, whether the reader signs up for one of our trips or just wants to learn.
Next week, we will start publishing articles on a weekly basis. We intend to cover exhibitions, artists, and art destinations (both related and unrelated to current Artful trip itineraries), as well as issues such as sustainability that matter to many culture-seeking travelers or reflect the interests of Artful's philanthropic arm, Artful Impact. While we all await the reopening of museums and galleries, we also plan to cover the proliferating digital initiatives for sharing and experiencing art. You can read these articles on our site and subscribe to our in-development biweekly newsletter here.
We encourage you to explore our website to learn more about Artful, and look forward to sharing our content with you.
Sincerely,
Karen Rosenberg
Editorial Director
May 19th, 2020
