In January, 2020, I met Joan Libera and Sumi Shohara at the Louvre. I led them on a tour of the Leonardo Exhibition. Unbeknownst to us at the time, tourism would come to a complete standstill with the rapid spread of Covid-19. In March, under a nationwide lockdown in France, I stopped leading tours and turned my attention to writing.

 

Unexpectedly, I got an email from Sumi that brightened my day. She wrote, 

"I am interested in supporting the wonderful people engaged in the arts and tourism and was wondering if you are conducting virtual tours, or art seminars. I recall that you were preparing to deliver a presentation on female artists in Chicago this spring. Perhaps a lay-persons version of that presentation? "  

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We decided to launch a pilot webinar to enable exploration at a time when travel was not possible, and to get friends together no matter where they happened to be. Sumi and Joan gathered their friends from around the world, and I conceived a series of seminars on the women artists I had already been researching for over five years. My goal was to teach modern art through the eyes of women and bring their forgotten work into the spotlight. Sumi served as host extraordinaire. She also had the brilliant idea to have a percentage of the proceeds go to World Central Kitchen. "I want to feed people," she said. With Sumi's marketing expertise and experience in customer advocacy, we refined and polished the webinar taking everyone's feedback into account. 

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The pilot evolved into a close-knit community of people stretching across the globe, coming together each week to learn and discuss art history. At the end of each meeting, everyone shared feedback. 

Here are a just a few of those testimonials: 

 

 

 

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