Patti Johnson

And you could tell that he considered every square inch of the gallery space because that's how he talked about the walls.

He talked about the walls, the floors, the ceiling.

But my favorite moment

And this conversation was when a member asked him what to do when a curator doesn't respond to emails.

And he said, my biggest problem is getting artists to respond to my email, which I think brings up an important point.

If a curator emails you, email them back, preferably within 24 hours.

Number three on our list, Luke Blackadar of VLA.

He is a lawyer on the side of artists.

VLA stands for volunteer lawyers for the arts, and he works for a chapter in Boston.

His greatest strength is making the law sound interesting as opposed to boring and tedious, which is the way it usually sounds when you start getting into the details.

He's plain spoken, friendly,

and breaks the issues down and is always taking the side of artists.

I think everyone should connect with him.

He is my favorite lawyer of all the lawyers out there that I know.

All right, number four on our list is Katherine Haggerty of NYC Crit Club and the Canopy Program.

It's hard to think of anyone more dedicated to providing artists the support they need to really grow their studio practice.

The instructor she hires are incredible artists and teachers.

The studio feedback is better than you'll find anywhere else in the Canopy program, which is the program that Katherine herself developed, allows artists to grow their studio practice through mentorship, critique, artist talks, Q&A, seminars, and workshops, basically the works.

You're looking at a year-long commitment, and the program culminates with a pop-up group show and Chelsea.

So there's that little bit of awesomeness to the program.