Chesnutt Connell holds two distinct roles. As a curator, she creates exhibitions around concepts, artists, and stories she feels compelled to share. As a consultant, she steps back, focusing solely on the client—their values, preferences, and budget. Her task is to translate these into a collection that authentically reflects them.
Her main belief is that everyone is born with taste, even if not everyone knows how to express it. Paraphrasing Picasso, she says each child is an artist until life teaches conformity. Chesnutt Connell sees her role as helping people reconnect with what they truly love.
“Everyone wants to express something about themselves,” she says. “My job is to draw that out through the art they choose.”
Curator and art consultant kate chesnutt connell
Chesnutt Connell came to the work through interior design, then through the galleries — she served as assistant director at Bill Lowe Gallery before founding her own practice, Labyrinth Curation. Each stop sharpened a different instinct: design taught her how spaces feel; the gallery taught her how art gets championed; running her own firm taught her how to center someone other than herself.
The work is more involved than people expect. She sources pieces, contextualizes existing collections, and rehangs works in new configurations to give them a second life. She factors in lighting, spacing, hanging height, and architecture. Sometimes a piece has to travel up an elevator shaft or be hoisted through a window. “Everyone thinks it magically just goes on the wall,” she said. “And sometimes these things are bulky and awkward and large because they’re born out of a creative mind.”
Reading the room
The initial client conversation isn’t really a conversation; it’s a calibration. Chesnutt Connell notes how people behave and examines what they collect—not just art, but everything. “You can look around anybody’s home,” she said. “Whether that’s flowers or they’ve got records out, you get a sense of who the person is—or is trying to become.”
She always arrives at a key question: Is there a purpose behind the client’s collection, beyond self-reflection? Are they interested in supporting specific artists or mediums—such as female artists, photography, black-and-white works, or plexiglass? “Everyone wants to express something about themselves,” she says. “My job is to draw that out through the art they choose.”
She’s noticed a generational pattern in collecting habits. Older collectors often want to build trust and develop a relationship with their consultant before taking risks on new acquisitions; after confidence is established and a piece enters their home, they’re open to further exploration. In contrast, younger collectors tend to move quickly, making bold or impulsive choices to assemble collections that excite them in the moment. “It’s just like the stock market,” she said, noting how attitudes toward risk differ by age.
The long game
Chesnutt Connell and her husband recently acquired a property in Buckhead, where she will realize a longstanding vision: providing studios and support for artists she believes in. “We see ourselves as custodians,” she explains. “As custodians, our role is to preserve the property and enhance its possibilities.”
Their plans include converting a barn into a studio suited for sculptors and metalworkers, whose work requires open space and resilient environments. They anticipate completing this transformation by late summer or early fall. The commitment, she notes, is long-term—thirty years.
Recently, having a daughter has been one of the driving forces behind the work. “I now think more about the future and how fast time goes,” she said. “And if I can do something to create a better future for artists, for the Atlanta community, for the nation as a whole, for my daughter, then I will do everything in my power to embody that in those acts of good.”
What Atlanta still needs
Ask Chesnutt Connell about Atlanta’s art infrastructure, and she doesn’t hesitate. The city has a range of galleries with different viewpoints and price points, from accessible to significant, something for every kind of collector. What it lacks is density. “We don’t have the advantage of being consolidated,” she said. “Unlike New York or Miami, Atlanta doesn’t have a district you stumble into. If you’re not already looking, you won’t find it.”
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Chesnutt Connell serves on the advisory board of the Atlanta Art Fair, which she views as one solution. Yet, she hopes for more: more public art, more permanent installations, and additional funding for works not reliant on galleries or individual artists. “Art records our humanity,” she says. “And at this moment, everyone could use a little more good humanity.”
When we spoke, Chesnutt Connell was balancing childcare and client calls, with the studio still awaiting conversion and the 30-year initiative yet to begin. The vision, however, is specific and grounded in the principle that guides her approach: that people’s spaces should reflect their true selves, and that Atlanta, with proper investment, could communicate something meaningful.