about the curatorialist

  • Why we’re here

    We met while studying architecture at graduate school in New York City. We studied architecture, art, history and design. We spent years in the city working, observing, appreciating the culture and energy of the City.

    Eventually we found ourselves in Oregon, living a quieter life but no less curious. Near us is a working farm that has become our solitary space, the place we go to slow down and remember that not everything needs to be optimized or explained. We have come to believe that everyone needs a place like that.

  • What this is

    The Curatorialist grew out of all of it: the architecture training, the years in two remarkable cities, the ongoing love of art, design, music, and the makers who dedicate their lives to getting things right. It is a place for objects we believe in, chosen because they are honestly made and built to last. Behind everything here is a person who knows their craft and a material that will only get better with time.

Our measure of quality

We also think that how we spend our time and money is one of the more consequential decisions we make — not in a heavy-handed way, but in the simple sense that buying something well-made and keeping it for twenty years is a more interesting life than buying something disposable and replacing it every two. We are trying to make that choice a little easier and a lot more enjoyable.

A note about the name

The Curatorialist is a portmanteau of two words: curator and specialist.

A curator selects, orders, and gives meaning to things — not just collecting, but for making an argument in why certain objects, ideas, and makers belong together. A specialist brings depth of knowledge to a subject, the kind that comes from years of looking, studying, and caring enough to know the difference between what is good and what is merely fine.

We liked the tension in combining them. Curation without knowledge is just shopping. Knowledge without curation is just a library. The Curatorialist is the attempt to hold both at once — to bring a genuine point of view to the things we carry, and the expertise to back it up.

There is also something in the suffix -ist that appealed to us. It implies a practice, an ongoing commitment, a way of moving through the world rather than a fixed position. A curatorialist is never finished. There is always another maker to discover, another material to understand, another idea worth sharing.