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5 Questions with Natasha Schlesinger, Founder & Chief Curator, Artmuse

Apr 4, 2025

Our radar is always open for professional women in leadership positions in the visual arts. So, it’s no wonder Natasha Schlesinger landed on it. She is an award-winning art historian, art advisor and curator with a start in working at art galleries in New York and London. She continued as a specialist at Christie’s auction house in New York and has since lectured both at Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

Natasha founded Artmuse to provide art guidance, curation and advisory services to private and corporate clients as well as collaborations with brands. She has served as the Art Curator of The Surrey Hotel where she was instrumental in conceiving and curating successful exhibitions connecting The Surrey’s own permanent art collection to the most relevant themes in contemporary art. And having worked in the art field for over 25 years, naturally, we determined there’s so much yet to know about Natasha. Here’s what we found out…

1AN: Let’s start from the beginning. Your career began in European furniture and decorative arts before transitioning into contemporary art advisory and curation. How has your background in historical art forms influenced your approach to contemporary collecting and curation?

Even though I would never have devised a plan for myself to study pre-20th century art forms and history only to go on to become a contemporary art advisor and curator, my background has given me the kind of depth of knowledge that is impossible to obtain if only focusing on modern and contemporary art. In addition, contemporary art today is in a very dynamic conversation with the masters of the past and it is imperative for an art advisor to understand that and to educate the general public and collectors alike so that their collecting choices become more interesting and mindful.

1AN: Speaking of interesting and mindful collections, you are co-curating an exhibition this summer at the Southampton Arts Center, featuring Christine Mack’s private collection. How do you approach curating a private collection for public viewing, and what excites you most about this particular project?

This is a first time that I will be able to partake in presenting a collection I helped to build to the public and it is indeed a very exciting prospect. But, as with any public curation, this is not just about putting as many artworks on display as possible, it is about telling a story, a point of view that best reflects and represents the collector who inspired the exhibition. I am working with the South Hamptons Arts Center curator and with Christine Mack to come up with the best way to lay out the art, to create groupings that speak to one another and reinforce each other. Because the collection is so focused on emerging artists and, in particular, on women artists, we will of course emphasize that. It is a very exciting project. It is also wonderful, because we begin with Christine’s mother-in-law Phyllis Mack, who began collecting in the 80s and has directly inspired Christine’s own collecting passion.

1AN: So, how do you balance your curatorial projects with your work as an advisor to private and corporate collectors? Do you find that these roles influence and enrich one another?

Being an advisor is also being a curator of sorts to each and every client. It is always about building a story through art, responding to each individual collector’s taste, budget, space aesthetic and other factors. I love that each project offers a new and unique approach for my advisory and that is where my curatorial experience and expertise comes in handy. I also have a guidance program, where I take collector groups around to galleries and museums so there is an educational component that also comes to play a role for what I do. All of these facets intertwine to give me a broader and more enriched perspective of contemporary art and of my clients.

1AN: You are currently producing ArtMuse the Series with your husband, filmmaker Adam Schlesinger. How has this project allowed you to explore your expertise from a fresh perspective, and what do you hope audiences will take away from the series?

Yes, this is my newest project and I am so excited about it! I have conceived and am now in the midst of producing this new Art series with my husband, who is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. We have filmed at artists’ studios and galleries. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the artists' creative process and an informal, unscripted opportunity to take viewers through current art shows at galleries in New York. We would like to keep developing the concept further and hope that viewers who cannot visit galleries or artists’ studios in person will tune in and follow us and enjoy the viewing experience. We would love for it to be picked up by a larger program and to develop it further.

1AN: We would love to see that too! With over 25 years in the art world, what emerging trends excite you the most in terms of collecting, curation, and the broader evolution of the art market?

There are so many exciting trends going on right now and for the past 5-10 years. I will try and name just two that I am interested in and am encouraging others to reflect upon. One, of course, is the role of women artists in the contemporary art world. Women artists now make up an ever-growing percentage on the contemporary arena. From young, emerging women artists to re-assessed or re-discovered women artists overlooked in their own time, the time is ripe for women artists to be seen on par with their male counterparts, for their prices to equal those of the men and for a much deeper representation of women artists at institutions not just private collections. Another welcome evolution of the contemporary art world has been the blurring of any material boundaries separating the fine from the decorative fields. It is notable that even the most blue-chip mega galleries now represent artists working across many disciplines and mediums that now include ceramics, textiles, and glass.

Connect with Natasha here!