Cover detail, Extraordinary Art Experiences in America: An Insider’s Guide.
A curiosity for travel and art has always ignited Linda Fischbach’s spirit. Throughout her life, art travel has taken her to nearly every corner of the map, which she chronicles on her website Art Privée. An accomplished researcher (Library of Congress, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others) and one of the first producers of the HBO documentary The Price of Everything, her personal highlights include visiting the remarkable Naoshima art island in Japan. Recently, however, she’s turned her attention to spaces closer to home.
Her freshly published book, Extraordinary Art Experiences in America: An Insider’s Guide, written with Tracey Pruzan, reveals unique art spaces in America that often fly under the radar. Pruzan is herself a well-traveled art lover, interior designer, and author of several books (she even served as a lifestyle consultant on the HBO series Succession).
Below, we sit down with Linda and Tracey to learn more about the book and hear their advice for art travel. Linda’s best tip? Ask well-informed people to let you know what to see in the town you’re visiting. It so happens that her book does just that.
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PHILLIPS: Linda, could you tell us a bit about your background and career? What experiences led you to form Art Privée and eventually publish this book?
LINDA FISCHBACH: I am a research librarian. After graduating from college and serving in the Peace Corps, I was working in Washington D.C. and I would spend the weekends going to the different museums: the Corcoran, the Phillips collection, the National Gallery, and so on. I always loved art, but I didn’t have the access growing up in California as there were not a lot of good museums there at the time.
There was something about art that was transporting to me. When I connected my love of art with my love of research, I realized that the website would be the perfect place to share my passions with the public. I had been introduced to Tracey, and during COVID I thought I could do a book with her about America and the wonderful private museums in the country, since people were not traveling internationally and were staying closer to home. It got very complicated because a lot of these institutions were closed during COVID, but eventually we finished the project and I’m very proud of it. I think Tracey is too.
TRACEY PRUZAN: Yes, very proud. Linda is a categorizing lover of culture. She uncovers where works came from, how you find art spaces and how they started. I come to this project as an art lover and a writer, but it’s not my book. This was all Linda.
P: How did you develop this sense for art, Linda? Do you have any early memories of art experiences?
LF: You know, I grew up in a really small town in California called Vallejo, and there was a very small museum in San Francisco that I loved visiting. But I mean, literally California was like the Beverly Hillbillies in those days (laughs). San Francisco was not that sophisticated at the time and didn’t have a lot of museums.
But after spending so much time viewing art in Washington, we moved to Los Angeles, and I became a museum docent. Eventually I was on a special committee that searched for new artists. I then started traveling internationally with art groups and I’ve been involved with the Guggenheim for 30 years — always traveling all over the world.
The idea for my website came because, you know, there are four or five private museums in China, and I’ve visited them all! I love to travel, and I love to share it. For a while, it was difficult for people. There was always a question of how do you know where to go in China? How do you research and find out about these places? And for all my life whenever someone would say “Oh, I went to Timbuktu” or something, I would ask all about it. How the flight was, what it was like when you got there. What was easy about the trip and what was hard. Because I’m so interested in people and their travels. I love sharing my travels and I love hearing about them, too.
TP: And she remembers it all. She remembers everything.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Photo: Kevin Dooly.
P: Are there any spaces covered in the book that really stand out for you? Do you have any favorites?
LF: The most impressive is Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, Arkansas. I’ve visited three times. The first time I went there, I saw a lot of adults and children who seemed like they had never been to a museum before. It was a very sociologically interesting experience. The museum was a nice area with a lovely old-fashioned town square, but there were no boutiques, there was no hotel, there was not much else in the town.
The second time I visited, I stayed in a wonderful hotel that was just full of art. There were a few places to have a nice meal and the community had grown so much. There was more of a mix of people, and the museum itself I think had just purchased a Frank Lloyd Wright house that they put on the campus.
The third time I visited just blew my mind. I could move there! It had restaurants and boutiques; the museum’s campus had grown to include a beautiful garden path that was so well curated, full of beautiful flowers and lovely nature. By the time you get to the museum you are just amazed — it’s just so, so well done. There’s also a performance venue now that does concerts and plays. So, this whole community, this complex, in maybe five years just burgeoned into something so exciting.
TP: Yes, and it’s the sort of place, like many in the book, where these spaces bring a whole other kind of educational programming to their communities. Especially when arts programs are being cut, to go to a place that has arts programming is exciting for so many kids.
American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo: Jon Wilde.
P: What advice would you have for people that are making art part of their travel plans?
LF: You should call, say, a museum, and just ask for the contemporary art department and tell them where you’re going. Ask them, “What are three or four places that I should not miss?” And talk to your friends, travel agents, and auction houses. People are happy to tell you, “Oh! You really cannot miss this!” or “Don’t go here, it’s not really worth it.” Because if you really want to get the real deal you have to research it, but you can always ask professional researchers and curators because they’re always traveling, and they’re very helpful!
P: That’s a great point.
TP: I also think that people feel like they have to go to the major museum in the city — like you have to go to the Prado Museum when you get to Spain. But you don’t always have to; it can be a very fun and completely different experience to go to the galleries or see if there’s an art fair going on while you’re there or see if there are any auction previews. It’s a great way to see more contemporary and more lively things. You don’t always have to go and see what’s been there forever. Of course, it’s important to do that, but I think people forget that there are unique and constantly changing art scenes in all the cities now. There are so many other things that you can experience with art, right now. You can just go in and see what’s current there and you see what is happening. It’s a great way to get your finger on the pulse of a city.
LF: Yes, there are so many wonderful places that people don’t seem to know about. Like Magazzino in the Hudson Valley. It was formed by this couple who are crazy about Post War Italian art, so they built this beautiful museum and actually just made another addition to it, which is more contemporary. It’s so close to the DIA Beacon but no one I’ve spoken to that isn’t really in the art world has visited. It’s very under the radar.
TP: I think the other thing the book points out is that you don’t really have to know anything about art to enjoy these spaces when traveling. The book demystifies the experience of visiting these places. You’ll learn something you didn’t know before or open your vision of the world just by seeing what’s out there.
Discover More from Art Privée and Extraordinary Art Experiences in America: An Insider's Guide >