Douglas Drake

has been an art collector since 1968, and a dealer, curator, arts administrator and appraiser since 1974.

He owned and operated a gallery in Kansas City from 1974 till 1985, then in New York City till 1995; since then he has been a private dealer and appraiser while working for the Kansas City Ballet and KCPT in development positions. His art business has focused on Post-War American art, contemporary art, photography, 19th and 20th C. American art, and African and American Indian art.

He has curated over 160 exhibitions of painting, sculpture, photography, works on paper, tribal arts, video and performance art – many of which were reviewed in the leading arts magazines and the New York Times. He has written, lectured, and testified in court on art-related topics; has helped conceive, acquire, and manage a $6 million art collection of 2000 artworks for nationwide offices of a major Wall Street insurance company; and has formally appraised thousands of artworks for insurance, gift, donation, estate tax, equitable distribution, and other purposes.

Throughout his career, Doug has offered community service through art lectures, docent / tour programs, visiting artists programs, cable television art education, student orientation to college and the art business, and fundraising for charities, schools, and art organizations. He has served on the boards of the Kansas City Art Institute, the Arts Council of Johnson County, and Pembroke Hill School, and on advisory boards for Johnson County Community College, UMKC, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum.

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Rachael Blackburn Cozad

offers over twenty-five years of comprehensive experience in the visual arts and is an accredited member of the Appraisers Association of America.

Since 2001 she has been the Director of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri, an institution recognized for its collection of modern and contemporary art, for its exciting exhibitions of work by established and emerging artists, for its large-scale public art projects, and for its Collectors Forum program for art collectors. Prior to this, Rachael was Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in Los Angeles, which controls the world’s largest collection of sculpture by the 19th Century French master Auguste Rodin.

Rachael has curated exhibitions for many major museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Kemper Museum. She has led major projects at The White House and New York’s Rockefeller Center and internationally, in Australia, France, Russia and Singapore. Her record of publications produced in conjunction with these exhibitions is extensive.

Rachael holds a M.A. in art history from California State University, Los Angeles, and a B.A. from Texas Christian University. She serves as a peer reviewer for the U.S. General Services Administration’s Art in Architecture program and also for the Museum Assessment Program managed by the American Association of Museums. She is a former Chair of the Southern California chapter of ArtTable, a national organization for professional women in leadership positions in the arts and a current member of the advisory panel for Art 21: the award-winning PBS television series on the visual arts.

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Soodie Beasley

with a special expertise in furniture designed by designers and decorators, she has over fourteen years of experience working with Decorative Arts, interior design, and both interior and exterior architectural elements.

Soodie has been a personal property appraiser of furniture and decorative arts since 2002 working in Los Angeles and Kansas City. She has worked extensively with Antiques, Decorative Arts, Modern furniture, French and English furniture, and other types of collectibles.

Soodie is an Adjunct Instructor at Park University in Parkville, Missouri teaching courses on the History of the Designed Environment. She has also worked in the Museum field curating exhibitions at the Terra Museum of American Art, formerly in Chicago; the Albright-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Missouri; and Museum’s Without Walls in Kansas City, Missouri.

Soodie earned a B.A. in Art History from William Smith College, Geneva, New York; an M.A. in Art History from the University of Missouri in Kansas City; a Certificate in Appraisal Studies in Fine & Decorative Arts from University of California, Irvine; and a four-year Post-Baccalaureate Designation in Interior Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a candidate member of the American Society of Appraisers.

Her published work has appeared in the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies on the importance of recognizing furnishings designed by decorators. She is also a regular contributor to the Appraiser's Post Blogspot.

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