The Metrograph cinema, perhaps the only good thing about the gentrification of the Lower East Side, hosted the premiere of the new season of Art21's artist series Art in the Twenty-First Century on 14 September. Dealers and television fans of all stripes gathered for canapés and free hipster movie concessions (cacio e pepe popcorn anyone?) and to toast the programme’s new host, Claire Danes. Accessibility was the buzzword. “For me, it’s all about making art more accessible to a broader public and getting out of the bubble we are in in New York,” said James Cohan, who sits on the Art21 board. Like most of those in attendance, he was pleased with the addition of Danes. “Homeland is awesome!” (He has not seen My So-Called Life.) Danes, who introduces each episode, has parents who are artists, and she tries to keep her collecting in the family. “I have a lot of my friends’ and parents’ work,” she said, “but occasionally I muster the nerve to lay down some serious money for a piece of work that I’m not directly related to somehow.” Does art collecting take nerve? “I think it does,” she said, “and I think it shouldn’t. It should be a much more accessible concept. There’s a sense of elitism or it’s reserved for a select few. It should be fun! Maybe the internet will change that.”
