Reading · Notes From The Field

The older you get, the more you realize luck is mostly exposure.

If you sit in the same place, keep the same routine, talk to the same people, nothing new really happens. You have to engage the world to win. Travel more. Explore more. Talk to strangers.

Here are six ways I’m honoring that. You can too.

01. Search IG and TikTok to find what’s already around you

Google has its biases and its ads. Some of the best spots in your city are ones you’ve driven past a thousand times without knowing. A simple TikTok and Instagram search could change that.

The Butter Art Fair IG comments section led me to Southside Contemporary Art Gallery(SCAG). I clicked the account thinking it would take me to the South Side of Chicago but nope, it led me straight to my own backyard in Richmond, Virginia.

SCAG is a cool space on the south side of Richmond. I settled in, flipped through art books, made a real connection with the owner, and spent time with their current show. “Keep It 1000” features select works by ten artists spanning painting, fiber, sculpture, collage, and photography, all priced at or near a distinct accessible price point, creating fluid entry points into collecting contemporary fine art.

Grounded in education and empowerment, the show is about building real relationships between emerging artists, new collectors, and the broader community. That mission came through clearly in the space.

02. Do something new for the first time

The Hollin Hills House and Garden Tour has been on my radar for a while. Held every other year, tickets drop in December of the prior year and sell out almost immediately. This year I finally got in.

The tour covered 13 homes. I’ll be honest, we were often one of the few Black people in the room. That’s its own experience to sit with.

The standouts were the Murrin/Phillips house and the Smith House and Garden. The Smith House didn’t allow photos, and that space was something else. Perfect lighting, a curated world collection of books and artifacts from different regions, a lived-in gallery feeling. Their Chinese and Japanese pieces blended seamlessly with the architecture and told a story. A life’s worth of intention made physical.

The first home belonged to Debbie and Jim Murrin/Phillips. Mid-century modern done with real conviction — a vast collection of Eames chairs, Noguchi lamps scattered through the rooms, and Jim's own paintings commanding the walls. Their story settled into me quietly as I moved through the space. Two people who lost their spouses, found their way back to each other, and are now living what can only be described as a second life — richer, slower, more intentional. Jim spent decades as a surgeon and somewhere along the way became an artist, and you feel both of those lives in the home. The master suite was almost entirely restraint — a clean palette that let the space breathe — save for the bathroom tile and two photographs hanging in the entryway that told you everything you needed to know about who they are together.

Now. The only Black-owned home on the tour was a garden tour only. No interior access. My friend and I clocked each other immediately — that specific look that doesn't need words. Of course it was. We weren't surprised, just amused in that way you get when the pattern shows itself so plainly it almost becomes funny. So we did what we had to do and pressed our faces to the window. And listen — the woman inside was not playing. Mid-century pieces anchoring the room, Black art on the walls, pops of Yves Klein blue landing like exclamation points, and what I can only describe as an elevated riff on tiger stripes. She wasn't letting strangers in her house and honestly? Fully understandable. Fully correct. The glimpse alone was stunning.

By the end we had walked all 13 homes, squeezed in a lunch break at a sandwich spot ten minutes from the neighborhood, and made it back out before our feet fully registered the complaint. What stayed with me was something harder to name — this quiet appreciation for the residents who sign up for this willingly. Every other year they open their doors, their rooms, their most considered spaces to strangers whose only credential is that they love design. That kind of generosity is its own form of community. The tour exists because they let it, and that's worth honoring.

How to get tickets: Sign up at Hollin Hills Modern to be notified when they drop. They go live in December and are gone fast.

03. Revisit a familiar place with fresh eyes

Glenstone has held a particular place in my life for years now. There's something about the way art, architecture, and nature exist there without competing. I've returned enough times that I know the rhythm of the place, the way the light shifts across certain pieces in the afternoon, which paths feel different in each season.

This visit I wanted to disrupt my own familiarity with it. See it through someone else's eyes, let their first time soften my habit of already knowing what's around each corner. So I brought a date, and we showed up without tickets.

Which is fine because Glenstone has a Ride On policy allowing access via Maryland Transit, essentially a shuttle with fewer than five stops. Admission is free and this is their way of keeping it genuinely accessible. Most people don’t know about this — and the transit pass gets you guaranteed entry, no reservation needed. Worth bookmarking: glenstone.org/visit/getting-here

This trip, I made myself a promise to visit work I hadn’t seen before. That led me to Michael Heizer’s Collapse, where there’s usually a 15 to 20 minute wait wrapped around the corner in the main pavilion. This time I stood patient until my turn. The 15-foot drop is why the piece is guided only. Glenstone chose not to install a railing, opting instead for a serious insurance policy, security, and docents who take no more than three people at a time.

I finally found Richard Serra’s Four Rounds — four massive steel rounds rising from the earth. Glenstone actually holds two Richard Serra outdoor installations on the grounds, both worth the walk and worth the time it takes to let them do what they do. Serra’s work rewards patience. You have to move through it, around it, let it reorient you slowly.

And Andy Goldsworthy’s Three Clay Houses — which I had always missed because it’s open only during two specific windows each day. The exteriors can be viewed year-round, but the interactive interiors are only accessible Thursday through Sunday, weather permitting, from 12:30 to 1:30pm and again from 2:00 to 3:00pm. We were intentional about it this time and made it. Worth every bit of the planning.

Docents are one of my favorite parts of the Glenstone experience. It’s the perfect excuse to nerd out and connect with a stranger over a shared love of art. This time, I met a recently retired social worker who spent decades supporting people experiencing homelessness, now spending his days among art and nature. We chatted about three new Simone Leigh acquisitions. I'd previously seen the work at the ICA Boston in 2023 (from the exhibition that won her the 2022 Venice Biennale Golden Lion). Seeing those pieces again in conversation with someone experiencing them for the first time was its own kind of gift.

Mid-conversation, I spotted a red-winged blackbird. Logged it in Merlin immediately.

04. Free Art Currently on View(kid-friendly)

Nick Cave: Mammoth — Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC February 13, 2026 – January 3, 2027 | Open daily, 11:30am – 7:00pm | Free admission

Nick Cave remakes the museum galleries into an immersive world of crafted mammoth hides and bones, a video projection of the long-dead animals come to life, and hundreds of found objects displayed like paleontological specimens on a massive light table. Vintage tools. His grandmother’s thimble collection. It’s about what we value, what we’ve lost, and what imagination can resurrect. One of the more transportive shows I’ve seen in a while.

Kid-friendly and free, which means there’s no reason to skip it.

For parents: Art in the A.M. is happening June 16, 2026 at 10:30am. Kids under 5 and their caregivers get early museum access before hours, explore the Mammoth exhibition with an I Spy game, and make their own paper puppet mini mammoth. Free, but registration is required and closes June 15 at noon. Get tickets here.

05. The staycation is underrated right now

Gas prices are up. Flights are expensive. A hotel stay in your own city or a driveable one nearby is one of the best ways to reset right now. No airport, no checked bags, no three-hour commute to a gate. Pack light and let the change of environment do the work.

I did it at Yours Truly in DC. I’d been on the road for weeks visiting family and friends before summer travel prices hit and I needed to decompress and lock in. Yours Truly is designed with remote workers in mind and that makes a real difference. There’s a quiet creative energy to working from a well-designed hotel. Generously sized rooms and bathrooms, comfy bedding, breakfast included, solid workspace setup, lunch bagel sandwiches at Call Your Mother, full bar service, and restaurant in Mercy Me with a menu worth sitting down for.

How to get the best rate: Always shop around before booking direct. Hotel Tonight regularly has deals on boutique properties well below rack rate. If you work remotely, book Sunday through Tuesday — rates drop midweek and the hotel is quieter. You get the full experience at a fraction of the weekend price.

06. Stay somewhere that surprises you

There’s a specific feeling that comes with walking into a brand new hotel. That untouched quality, the sense that the space hasn’t been worn in yet. The Sitio Hotel in Virginia Beach has it completely.

The music throughout the property is curated by Pharrell and never missed once. The hotel runs intentionally exclusive, limited to guests and private members, with membership opening up the full Atlantic Park ecosystem including the surf park.

We stayed in the Bunk Suite, room 20, the only one in the hotel. I claimed the top bunk immediately and nearly wrecked myself climbing up more than once. My friends did not let me live it down. The surf aesthetic runs through every corner, light fixtures to surfboards mounted in racks on the walls, without ever feeling like a costume.

Every morning, continental breakfast arrived via room service. Pastries, light bites, coffee, and tea delivered to the door. No lobby, no line. Easily my favorite amenity.

The heated pool overlooks the Atlantic Surf Park, a wave pool complex built to replicate open ocean conditions. Watching riders drop in while the city noise dissolved completely, I genuinely did not think that feeling could be simulated. It can.

What’s walkable from the Sitio:

Nami Nori for sushi. The ambiance and views are there and the food matches. Temaki style is the perfect pregame bite. The caviar service is exceptional and wildly underpriced at $40, served with housemade rice chips.

Frank and Patty’s for a smash burger. Natural beef, great sauces, the perfect bun, natural wine on the menu, intentional music. Elevated without announcing itself.

Esoteric Wine Bar for a tasting. Discovered a handful of California natural wines I hadn’t encountered, including an orange wine that started as an Erewhon exclusive and has since found its own audience.

Three Ships Coffee for breakfast, voted top five in North America for their espresso blend. Get the biscuit sandwich. I brought beans home, no hesitation.

Virginia Beach Flea, a bi-monthly curated vintage and antique market worth timing your trip around.

The Art of Showing Up Differently

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