My First Curating Job--A Preview of Our "Paintings and Pincushions" Event, on Wednesday, April 14th, at 7 PM

When I opened Boswell Book Company, I made a list of things I wanted to do at my new store. I should have kept my ideas to myself, because it always turns out to be much harder to get things done than you expect. But I didn't, and two things on my list were:

a. Have an art wall. It's something we did at one of the Schwartz stores, and I've always admired other stores who featured local art.

b. Have some curio cabinets, filled with interesting collections. I don't know why I connect this to Paco Underhill's Why We Buy, but for some reason, I'm convinced it's in there. Perhaps it was his theory that you should put something interesting in the back of the store that gets customers to walk back and see what's going on.

Well, we've got two wonderful exhibits going on that exceed my highest expections. Gloria Macoy is showing her wonderful paintings on our art wall, and Laura Goldstein has lent us her collection of pincushions.

Pincushions! They put my bandage boxes to shame. And by the way, the reason that the bandage boxes are still in the left cabinet is that the lock that I just replaced has already broken. We're hoping Urich will help us with this.

The coolest thing was that I got to go to Gloria and Laura's homes and help pick out what we'd be showing. That makes me a curator, right?

Macoy and Goldstein are speaking together on Wednesday, April 14th, at 7 PM. The event is called "Paintings and Pincushions" and they will be talking, respectively, about art, collections, inspiration.

Goldstein is the principal of Grotta and Company, a wonderful textile design firm. Macoy started painting in earnest after thirty years with the Milwaukee Public Schools.

And yes, some of Macoy's paintings are for sale. Ask for details at Boswell.