Dear Artist,

I want to be honest with you today, which I suppose is what I am always trying to be.

My wife Delia and I built Praxis because we saw something that bothered us. We had spent years conducting interviews with artists, curators, and thinkers -- over 1,700 of them for Yale University Radio. We had written books about building careers in the art world. And the more we did that work, the more clearly we could see the gap.

Not a gap in talent. Not a gap in ambition.

A gap in access.

The artists who were making it, not always in a fame-and-fortune sense, but in a sustainable, growing, meaningful sense, had support systems. A mentor who opened a door. A curator who took a chance. A grant they knew how to write for. A community that kept them honest and moving.

The artists who were not making it, often, were just as talented. They were isolated. They did not know what they did not know. And the art world was not rushing to tell them.

Praxis was our attempt to address that. Not to make the art world less difficult, it is difficult, but to make the information and the access more available. To put artists in the same room as curators who are genuinely curious. To offer grant templates that reflect how grants are actually won. To build a community where people share news that sounds like: I just got into a biennial in Slovenia. The chief curator came to my studio. The dominoes fell and I got the solo show.

That community is real. It is active. And it reminds me every week that this was worth building.

Here is the practical part:

Tomorrow morning, I am updating the Praxis Center Portfolio and sending it to our curator network. The Portfolio is a private directory of member websites, shared with the curators who come through our sessions -- people who have worked with Documenta, MoMA PS1, the Venice Biennale, and institutions across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

To be included in tomorrow's send, you would need to join as an annual member before Saturday morning.

Annual membership is $595 a year. You get the weekly curator sessions, the full course library, the community, and Portfolio inclusion.

Monthly membership is $59 a month and includes everything except the Portfolio.

Join here: https://praxiscenter.thrivecart.com/praxis-center-membership/

If you have been on this list for a long time and have been meaning to join, this is a real and specific reason to do it now rather than later.

I will be in touch tomorrow.

With genuine warmth, 

Brainard Carey 

Director, Praxis Center for Aesthetic Studies

P.S. Raymond, who had read Making It in the Art World before joining Praxis, wrote to tell me that a handwritten note he sent to a collector -- inspired by a strategy in the book -- led directly to a meeting and a significant sale. He is now inside Praxis, planning his next move. That is the kind of reader I am always hoping to reach.