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An Icon of Leadership in Art, Business, and the Women's Movement
Barbara Koz Paley
President, Art Assets LLC, New York City
Barbara Koz Paley is one of the most intriguing women you will ever meet. Entrepreneur, art expert, real estate investor, women's advocate, and cultural revolutionary.
Some examples of her many accomplishments are: founder of a highly successful New York-based art consulting firm; co-founder of the Women's Leadership Board at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; member of the Board of the Lang Entrepreneurial Center at Columbia Business School; 2001 recipient of their Distinguished Mentor award; member of the Advisory Board of The White House Project and the Eldridge Street Project; co-founder of the Association of Real Estate Women and Central Women's Focus; and the creative force behind the award-winning Sculpture Garden on Ward's Island in Manhattan (1977-1987).
Fulfilling her destiny
Impressive as this list of accomplishments is, it doesn't do justice to the real woman. Barbara seems to have been born and destined for unique life experiences. Her father was a physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory when she came into the world in Washington, D.C. Her mother, a strong and intelligent woman who had her own profession in marketing, taught her daughter from an early age that girls - not just boys - should prepare themselves for a career.
Barbara's family moved to "suburban New York" - West Orange, New Jersey - when she was in the second grade. This, too, seems to have been destiny. What other location in the world could have been a better place for her to grow up and to develop her own personal sense of style and cultural awareness?
"One of the greatest influences in my young life was my grandmother. She was from Austria and first came to the US when she was 16. She later became a business owner and an investor. For me, she was a wonderful role model and she clearly inspired my interest in business."
Barbara's education included Boston University where she majored in Social Psychology and Fine Arts. Her graduate work was done in Real Estate at New York University. Throughout her adult life, she considers herself a "life long learner" who has also attended the Urban Land Institute, 42 consecutive semi-annual meetings to be exact.
Life after college was filled with new adventures including exploration of ideas and dreams, e.g., moving to New York City and spending time in South Africa. But Barbara's unique career was crafted through her expertise as a NY real estate investor in the 1970's and prior to that, through her own Kozmopolitan Gallery that exhibited prominent European and American artists.
In 1984, Barbara helped create Realty Advisory Services, a real estate and advisory fund, which purchased value-added commercial properties. Founding partners included insurance companies and banks as well as corporate and real estate professionals.
Putting her assets in art
Eight years later in 1992, Barbara founded Art Assets LLC - arguably one of the most unusual woman-owned businesses in the country. The company specializes in understanding how cultural economic development occurs and how its power can be harnessed for its client's projects. Art Assets works with artists, arts and cultural institutions in order to integrate fine art in innovative ways for the real estate and corporate community.
"What I do marries finance, fine art and community planning," Barbara explains. Not your everyday enterprise or collaboration, and yet, it works the way she does it and works well.
One project that captures her ability to bring various elements together was in West Palm Beach, Florida. It's called City Place and started with an existing 1920's church. "I was hired by the developers to think about the entire community from a cultural and programs' perspective. They wanted City Place to be the hub of the community's cultural activities. The end result was very satisfying and has become a major attraction."
Another unique project Barbara was involved with was in downtown Las Vegas. Prudential was the client and they wanted something truly cutting-edge. They also wanted it fast. Barbara brought in the chief curator and in three weeks, they created a 11,000 square foot art exhibit which helped to create a renewed sense of community in this melting pot of tourism, glitz, and relaxed lifestyle.
Power brokering for women
When Barbara isn't dealing in art and real estate, her focus is on her family. Her husband is an archeologist and travels the world to pursue his passion. Barbara is proud of their children including a son who's in the music business in Los Angeles and her three step-daughters - a composer, an actress, and an attorney.
Besides her family and her business, Barbara's strongest passion is utilizing her considerable experience, clout and power to help other women. She feels strongly that women need to work to create a platform from which to move forward. That platform is women's organizations which are proliferating across the country, especially in large urban areas but also in smaller communities as well.
"Women must build coalitions in order to maximize their collective power which in turn must be exercised in the voting booth and the boardroom. One of my concerns is that younger women today appear not be have a collective memory of what it took to get us this far."
Barbara also has strong feelings about how technology could be and should be utilized more effectively to help women exercise power. "The internet should be utilized to change culture, to form coalitions, and to raise awareness about issues important to all women," she said. "When I think about what's happening around the world, in South Africa, India, and in France etc, it seems to me that we're behind. What we need is a revolution! We need to decide how to use technology to marshall women more effectively. We also need to develop a vision that embraces all women."
Amen, Barbara! Listening to her is nothing short of awesome. Her insights are compelling. The fact that she sees Atlanta as a city that is open to women and a city that represents the colors of the spectrum is encouraging. But as great as it is, Atlanta could use an inspiring and unique individual like Barbara Paley to help lead the charge towards power equality for women.
Realistically, however, that's not going to happen. She isn't planning to leave New York, but she is willing to share her extraordinary style and passion. Any next generation leader who has a chance to meet her and hear her speak will be better for it. She's a one-of-a-kind lady!
By Susan B. Hitchcock
Creator of The Age of SHEroes
VP-Client Services, Turknett Leadership Group
April, 2003
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