“Jeff Koons. I met him briefly a few years ago and took a picture with him. I started reading more about him as a person and he seems like a fun optimistic guy who’s nice to be around.”

At a time when the future of the art market depends upon cultivating new audiences and expanding who sees themselves as collectors, the emergence of young collectors represents an important cultural shift. Eleven-year-old Maya Smith is part of a generation redefining what it means to engage with art not as a luxury reserved for adulthood, but as a lifelong practice of curiosity and learning. Growing up in a household where conversations about artists, exhibitions, publishing, and collecting are part of everyday life, Maya has developed an appreciation for contemporary art. Her journey suggests that collecting begins not with wealth, but with education, observation, and a genuine passion for creative expression.

As the daughter of artist, art dealer, curator, and publisher Terrence Sanders- Smith, Maya is being introduced to the responsibilities as well as the pleasures of collecting. Visiting galleries, museums, artist studios, and art fairs has become part of her education, encouraging
her to ask questions, develop her own visual language, and form independent opinions about the work she encounters. As a young collector of color, her perspective also reflects the growing importance of broadening access to cultural participation and ensuring

that future generations of collectors represent the diversity of the artists, communities, and histories that define contemporary art. In Maya’s developing collection is a larger idea: that the future of the art world will be shaped not only by the artists who create its history, but also by the young people who learn to value, preserve, and champion it.

Terrence Sanders-Smith: Many adults don’t begin collecting art until much later in life. What made you want to become an art collector?

Maya Smith: I’m an artist, Dad is an art dealer, and my brother is artist Lucien Smith. My Dad collects a lot of artworks from artists that show at his gallery. He would ask me when he’s interested in acquiring a piece if I liked it or not and why? I think that’s when I started collecting what I like for my room.

When I was around 8 or 9, I went to a five below with my sister and I got a FNAF poster, I put it up in my room and now I look for what art I can put on my bedroom and art studio walls. My collection now includes Shepard Fairey, Diego Rivera, Roy Lichtenstein, and Mark Rothko.

TSS: When you’re looking at a piece of art, what makes you want to add it to your collection? Is it the story, the colors, the artist, the emotions it makes you feel, or something else?

MS: All of the above. If I like the subject matter, colors, the story and it’s not too busy. I just know it when I see it and finally if it would look good on my bedroom wall.

All that really matters to me is that the colors aren’t too bright, and it isn’t too crowded. There’s a connective theme I can’t explain but I know when I see it.

TSS: Has collecting art changed the way you look at the world? Do you notice things—like colors, buildings, nature, or people differently now than you did before you started collecting?

MS: As of now, no, but art is a mirrored reflection from the artist’s perspective. Everyone translates and interprets everything differently. We call can be looking at the same work or same exterior of a building, but we will all see or interpret it differently.

TSS: If you could spend a day with any artist, living or from history, who would you choose and what questions would you ask them about their work and their creative process?

MS: Jeff Koons. I met him briefly a few years ago and took a picture I’ve started reading more about him as a person and he seems like a fun optimistic guy who’s nice to be around.

TSS: Some people think collecting art is only for adults or wealthy people. What would you say to another young person who is interested in art but doesn’t think they can become a collector?

MS: My Dad and I are not wealthy, but we have art everywhere in our home: on walls, in the laundry room and storage spaces filled with it. So, my advice would be to listen to yourself. Become friends with artists, visit their studios and go to art fairs and gallery exhibitions.