What Makes A Collector? With Mary Stanley & Josh Baer at Atlanta Art Fair

When Mary Stanley started her Young Collectors Club in Atlanta in 2006, it had two members. It now has 300, around 75 of them serious collectors. Josh Baer, who ran a New York gallery forty years ago, recalls having maybe one client in the entire city.

Recorded on the opening day of Atlanta Art Fair, this is a conversation about how a collector base gets built from nothing, and what it takes to keep artists in a city rather than lose them to the coasts. Stanley's definition of a collector: somebody who can't not buy art.

Atlanta Art Fair runs October 1–4, 2026 at Pullman Yards. For more information, visit theatlantaartfair.com. Recorded October 1, 2026, in partnership with Atlanta Art Fair.

00:00 What a New Yorker needs to know about Atlanta

00:45 Institutional support, MOCA GA, and Idea Capital

01:40 The art schools, and why artists are staying

02:33 Building a collector base: two members to 300

03:24 What a collector is, and what patronage looks like here

04:59 Inside the club: collectors' homes, art trips, and networking

06:37 Are galleries treating people better now?

09:43 Wearing several hats, and the artists she's watching