From Sotheby’s internship to gallery owner

Academic focus: art history major, environmental studies minor
International internship: Sotheby’s London

With the support of the art history department, I received a grant to work abroad during the summer of my sophomore year (1999). I was given an intern position in the prints department at Sotheby’s London and spent my summer learning about old master, modern and contemporary etchings, lithographs and screen prints — everyone from Rembrandt to Warhol!

It was a great introduction to prints and the art market, as well as a broad overview of 500 years of art history. Having that experience and living in London for a summer would never have been possible without internship funding from Mount Holyoke.

The following summer, Sotheby’s asked me back. After I graduated they offered me a permanent job in the prints department, where I worked for a couple of years before going to work for the leading print gallery in London, Sims Reed Gallery. I was lucky enough to run that gallery soon after I started and continued to work there for 14 years.

I now have my own gallery in London, specializing in postwar and contemporary prints and works on paper. My bosses from Sotheby’s (17 years ago!) are still friends and colleagues of mine, and I continue to rely on many of the things they taught me. I can say for sure that my time at Sotheby’s, made possible by the generous support of Mount Holyoke, was the most meaningful and significant thing that happened at the start of my career.