PALM DESERT, CA.- Heather James Fine Art announced the appointment of Tom Venditti as Director for its new gallery location in Montecito, CA, opening March 21, 2019. He will oversee operations, exhibitions, and programming for Heather James Fine Art’s 2,000- square-foot gallery located in a new Spanish Colonial Revival building at 1298 Coast Village Road designed by Lenvik & Minor Architects.

The new gallery will feature works of art by pre-eminent artists such as Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Salvador Dalí, Joan Mitchell, Richard Diebenkorn and David Hockney, among others.

Known for its selection of blue-chip masterworks spanning a wide range of genres, movements, and periods, Heather James Fine Art organizes exhibitions focusing on influential visionary artists and seminal art movements. Based in Palm Desert over the last 23 years, with galleries in New York, San Francisco, and Jackson Hole, Heather James Fine Art brings a new chapter to Montecito’s thriving arts scene, which represents the perfect mix of burgeoning local cultural and creative sectors coupled with a strong visitor economy.

As an active supporter of community-based cultural initiatives, the Montecito gallery will collaborate closely with local museums, and other cultural and non-profit institutions. Heather James Fine Art galleries are currently showing a number of major exhibitions including a Sam Francis survey in Palm Desert. Noteworthy exhibitions this spring will focus on Japanese-American post-war art at the San Francisco gallery and Female Surrealism at the New York gallery.

According to James Carona, founder of Heather James Fine Art, “We are delighted to have Tom Venditti head up our third gallery in California, and our fifth location nationwide. Having advised many prominent art collectors, including Paul Allen, on building and managing their collections, Tom’s extensive network and market knowledge will be a tremendous asset as we continue to expand.”

Prior to joining the gallery, Venditti was an independent art advisor as well as a collection design, installation, and management consultant based in New York. Before that, he served as the Senior Director of Art Collections for Vulcan Inc. in Seattle, WA. During his 14 years at Vulcan Inc., he advised on acquisitions for the Paul Allen Family’s public and private art collections, supervised due diligence on acquisitions and deaccessions, and established strategic planning and procedural standards for collections management at multiple properties globally.

Additionally, Venditti’s prior experience working in Seattle involved advising and consulting for several prominent private collectors. His work within the public sector has included supervising the fabrication and installation of public art by 12 commissioned artists for the Seattle Seahawks Stadium. In addition, he served as the Associate Curator of Education at the Tacoma Art Museum, WA. He is a member of the American Alliance of Museums and the Western Museums Association.