Young Dealers Series: Portrait of a Lady Sara Boyce & her Brigham Galleries Homa T. Nasab

Sara Boyce has always taken pleasure in educating people. One of Nantucket’s youngest dealers in fine arts, she admits to get a thrill out of working with collectors to develop their own sense of aesthetics. “The biggest joy for me is to help art lovers cultivate their collections and see them through every step of the way.” Boyce views her profession with an uncommon combination of youthful energy, mature ambition, and humility. “I don’t claim to know it all and I am always glad to learn from people who can teach me what I cannot learn in books.” She thrives on establishing one on one relationships with private collectors, and is equally eager to learn from established ones, “I love it when older collectors who have a great eye and respect for art come to my gallery and discuss their ideas about art and collecting in general. It is a real buzz for me.”

 

Upon graduating from college in 1992, Boyce combined her interest in public education with social  (health care) concerns and worked with several non-profit institutions. After a number of years in the field, she augmented her commitment to social work by completing an MBA and an MPH (in Public Health) at Rutgers University. Soon after, Boyce worked as a research coordinator on women’s issues for New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, at the time a US Senator; she served as the Health Researcher in the Primary and then coordinated the Statewide Women's Vote for the General.

 

A few weeks following the tragic events of September 11th, a young and dynamic Sara visited her family who had been decade-long residents of Nantucket. She confesses, “I only came to stay for three weeks.” Upon arrival, Boyce began to help artist-friends to put their career plans in order whilst working with Gene Mahon for Nantucket Television. “Gene was the best boss I have ever had. Every day that I went to work, I had more respect for him.” It was not too long before Boyce became convinced that she had found her life’s new passion which was to work with visual arts and artists. By the start of 2003,  she had taken the gallery space on 50 Main Street and begun to send out calls to top fine arts programs around the world inviting artists to submit their work for exhibition at her new gallery.

 

Since then, the young dealer has traveled extensively to look for artists whose work will strike a core with her rapidly refining aesthetic sensibilities. Boyce also spends numerous hours going through art catalogues, journals and websites doing research to find the best artists, and latest trends in collecting.  She allocates most of her time and energy to bring new blood to Nantucket. Along the way, Boyce balances this mission by representing island artists such as the young and sprightly John Bailey. Boyce says she wants to enrich the aesthetic life of the Island by introducing new forms of expression whilst recognizing her clients’ discrete and time-honored sense of aesthetics. It is an age-old challenge… though one which Sara Boyce is quite capable of addressing.

 

 

The Brigham Galleries

*Portrait of Sara Boyce by Ted Seth Jacobs