Amid the mayhem of art fairs in New York last spring, one booth at the Future Fair in Chelsea stood out. It featured a large sofa planted in the middle of the space on which a young woman invited fairgoers to take a seat beneath a wall of works that she soon revealed was a salon-style showcase for contemporary women artists. For Hall Rockefeller, 31, that fair was an important public moment for Less Than Half, the education and advisory platform she founded to help “culturally curious women find meaning in art by learning to collect and support women artists.”
Rockefeller titled Less Than Half after a 1989 poster by the Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous group of feminist activists who have for decades fought for more equity in the art world. But Rockefeller, whose very name is synonymous with riches, isn’t hiding behind anonymity.
Less Than Half also fosters community and knowledge sharing on a day-to-day basis through a dedicated Slack channel where members discuss acquisitions, wish lists, and the museum and gallery shows on their radars. And it’s not just about what to buy and where to buy it. Rockefeller is organizing a presentation with legal experts on the whys and hows of trusts and estates. “It’s about being a real steward of the work,” she says.