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Kym Elphinstone | How to Collect Art: A Curator's Guide to Living with Art

Kym Elphinstone is the founder of Articulate, one of Australia's most respected contemporary art and culture agencies, and the author of Collecting and Living with Art. A lawyer turned curator, advisor and strategist, Kym has spent her career immersed in the art world — from the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and New York's New Museum to building audiences for the Biennale of Sydney, the Venice Biennale, Sydney Contemporary, the NGV and private collectors across the country.

In this episode of Build Beautiful, Kym reframes art not as luxury or decoration, but as language — a way of seeing, feeling and remembering. For anyone who has ever hesitated at the threshold of a gallery wondering where to start, this is a warm, expert invitation to walk in.

In this episode, we explore:

• Kym's unlikely path from law in London to a life in contemporary art
• The "baptism by fire" years at MCA Australia working on 12–15 exhibitions a year
• Founding Articulate sixteen years ago — with the Biennale of Sydney as first client
• Why she wrote Collecting and Living with Art — and the foreword by John Kaldor
• "There are no wrong answers" — the biggest myth about how to start collecting
• Walking into a gallery for the first time — why gallerists genuinely want you there
• Fostering, not owning: collecting as a form of custodianship for future generations
• The King's College London study proving art physically changes us — heart rate, cortisol, inflammation
• Understanding the value of art — artist reputation, galleries, career milestones and the market
• Why emerging artists need collectors most, and how to spot a singular point of view
• Sydney Contemporary as "time travel for art" — 45 minutes to take the pulse of the sector
• Advice for designers and architects: commission artists early in the design process, not at the end
• How to help clients see the value of a $50,000 artwork the way they see a $50,000 sofa
• Kym's most cherished piece — an Oliver Wagner canvas made from house-paint dust

Why this conversation matters

In design and architecture, art is too often the final decorative layer — if it is considered at all. Kym Elphinstone offers a quietly radical counterpoint: art should be part of the conversation from the very beginning of a home, a career, a life. For designers, architects and anyone wondering how to begin collecting, this is an expert, unintimidating invitation into the art world — and a reminder that living with art changes how we feel inside our own spaces.

About Kym

Kym Elphinstone is the founder of Articulate, a Sydney-based agency specialising in contemporary art, culture and design. A lawyer who left London for the arts, Kym held senior roles at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia — including on secondment at New York's New Museum on the Bowery — before launching Articulate sixteen years ago. Articulate's clients span the Biennale of Sydney, the Australia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (including the 2024 Gold-Lion-winning Archie Moore / kith and kin presentation), Sydney Contemporary, the NGV, Nonsingular in the Southern Highlands, and a growing roster of private collectors. Her book, Collecting and Living with Art, features 26 Australian collectors and opens with a foreword by John Kaldor.

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