Design 101

Want to be the next Henry Clay Frick or Isabella Stewart Gardner? Dwell offers some pointers on starting your own collection.

“The act of collecting is about looking, studying, sorting, sifting, concentrating, weighing, and making decisions. It’s a lot of work. I got better at it by being rigorous. I couldn’t buy...

Get your information from curators, professors of contemporary art, critics, and other collectors through your local arts organizations, newspapers, and art schools.

Once you’ve purchased a piece, you’ll need to get it home and onto your wall.

Lawrence Rinder is a San Francisco–based collector and dean of graduate studies at California College of the Arts. He was formerly the curator of contemporary art at the Whitney Museum of...

James Cahn is a 25-year-old Chicago-based emerging collector and financial consultant. He collects with his partner Jeremiah Collatz, art advisor at Dirk Denison Architects.