Our Qualifications
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The mission of SLATE Art LLC is to create opportunities for people to live, work, and engage with art that delights the senses, stimulates the mind, inspires creativity and innovation, and expresses our clients’ taste and values. We achieve this by delivering a combination of services (research, curation, and project management) and sales of bespoke collections of fine, decorative, and public art, to corporate and institutional clients around the world. We pride ourselves on our capacity to deliver quality service and customized products on time, on budget, and with professionalism and integrity.
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SLATE Art LLC is a Limited Liability Partnership which owns and operates two businesses: SLATE Contemporary Gallery and SLATE Art Consulting.
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Veteran art consultant Shelley Barry and gallerist Danielle Fox started working together on corporate art consulting projects in 2013, leading to the merger of their two sole-proprietor businesses to create SLATE Art LLC in 2014. Shelley Barry came to this work with a double major in Fine Art and Marketing, two decades of experience in galleries, municipal arts boards, and running her own art consulting company, Artful Solutions. Danielle Fox brought a PhD in Art History, four years working at Sotheby’s in London, five years working in the interior design industry, fourteen years as a curator and project manager, and experience as a Board Member of Oakland Art Murmur as well as the San Francisco Art Dealer’s Association.
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Today, SLATE Art LLC has six employees including four full-time commercial art consultants and project managers, a business manager, and an art preparator. The two owner-founders also work full-time running the business and managing projects for their most important clients, bringing the team to a total of eight experienced art and business professionals. This is our most valuable resource and gives us the capacity to tackle multiple large-scale projects at any given time.
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SLATE Art Consulting manages projects all over the globe, often engaging artists who are local to the project to make each collection unique and add a strong sense of place. In the last five years, SLATE Art Consulting completed projects in Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Texas, Utah, Oregon, Nebraska, Alabama, New Mexico, and Washington State, as well as dozens in California from San Diego to Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
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WBE: Certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) as a woman- owned and run company
SLEB: Certified by Alameda County and the Port of Oakland as a “Small Local Emerging Business”
SLBE: Certified by the City of Oakland as a “Small Local Business Enterprise”
SAM REGISTERED: US Federal Government’s System for Award Management
DUNNS NUMBER 12236300
NAICS CODE 459920
Our Team
Danielle Fox
Principal Partner and Managing Member, Slate Art LLC
An art historian by training (PhD, Northwestern University), Danielle has over thirty years of experience in the art world as a teacher, writer, editor, curator; as Deputy Director of Business Development at Sotheby’s in London; as communications and project manager for Artakt Art consulting in London; founder of SLATE Contemporary Gallery in Oakland, and Principal Partner of SLATE Art Consulting. She brings to her work an understanding of the international art market; experience working with galleries and auction houses; and five years in the interior design field, which gives her a special understanding of the important role that art plays in architectural and design programs. Danielle oversees operations for SLATE Art LLC, manages SLATE’s Public Art program, and curates collections for key clients. She is also a Member of the Board of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association.
Shelley Barry
Principal Partner and Managing Member, Slate Art LLC
Art is Shelley’s business. With an early career in sales and marketing for multi-national companies, she has over twenty years of experience in the art world, thirteen of which she spent as the sole proprietor of a small corporate art consulting firm. Shelley currently oversees SLATE’s business development activities, in addition to curating bespoke art programs for key account clientele. Shelley has served on various boards, such as the San Ramon Arts Foundation, the San Ramon Arts Advisory Committee, Student Art For Education’s Advisory Council, and was appointed by the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors to serve as a Commissioner At-Large for the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County. Formerly a Vice Chair on the Board of the Sandra J. Wing Healing Therapies Foundation, Shelley is also a member the San Francisco Art Dealers Association.
Jillian Piccirilli
Senior Associate
Jillian holds a BFA in Painting and a BA in Anthropology from Cornell University. She is a former exhibition manager for Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections and Director of Operations for Oakland Art Murmur. Jillian has worn many hats at SLATE Art since she joined the team in 2015. She previously served as business manager and SLATE contemporary gallery manager, working with many of SLATE Art Consulting’s top clients in the architecture and design industries. Jillian currently serves on SLATE Art's general management team, as well as a project manager for SLATE Art Consulting, with a focus on the tech industry, higher education, and public art.
Ryan Robertson
Business Manager
Ryan received her BFA from Santa Fe University of Art and Design with an emphasis in painting & drawing. After graduating, she stayed in Santa Fe and interned with The International Folk Art Alliance and the Center for Diversity and Integrated Learning at SFCC. Since moving to the Bay Area in 2018, she has worked as a Production Coordinator and Office Manager in the film industry, collaborating on documentary passion projects as well as creating content for major corporations and tech companies. She is excited to join the SLATE Team and return to her roots in the Fine Arts world. When she isn’t at work, you can find her painting in her studio, trying to hone her culinary skills at home in Oakland, or somewhere along the coast camping with her partner.
Donna Napper
Senior Art Consultant
Donna’s career in the field of contemporary art combines more than twenty years in both southern and northern California, working as a gallery owner, exhibition curator, and art consultant. She founded and directed her own art gallery in Los Angeles for eight years, before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area to work as the Curator and Director of Public Programs for the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. More recently, Donna has focused on art advisory projects, placing art in corporate collections for clients in health care, real estate development, legal, banking, and information technology industries. She is the former Co-Chair for the Northern California chapter of ArtTable, a national organization for women working in visual arts leadership positions. She currently serves on the Advisory Council and Curatorial Committee for Root Division, an arts non-profit in San Francisco. Donna has a passion for supporting artists with their professional development.
Rowan Coughlin
Senior Art Consultant
Rowan cut her chops in the art world working in museums in the U.S. and Scotland. She eventually realized she wanted even more connection with the artists she represented and went on to be the Director of Gauntlet Gallery in San Francisco, CA, working closely with the artist community and letting the creativity flow. After Gauntlet, she partnered with interior designers on large-scale hospitality projects as an art consultant at Kevin Barry Art Advisory. Rowan has been taking on special projects with select clients for the past several years through her own firm, Rowan Coughlin Art Advisory, that she continues to run in addition to working with SLATE's corporate and multi-family housing projects. One of Rowan's favorite things about working with creatives is the ability to conceptualize and on-the-ground problem-solve together.
Nia Taylor
Project Manager
Nia has an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University. She has worked at Bloomsbury Auctions New York, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, ArtTable, and the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA). Nia manges international projects for SLATE’s key clients in the tech sector, curates rotating exhibitions, and manages Public Art projects. She is also Chair of the City of Palo Alto’s Public Art Commission.
Angie Garberina
Associate
Angie Garberina has been working in the field of art for over 35 years. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico in 1988 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Dakota in 1997. Using the lost wax process, Angie has cast bronze for herself and for other artists both in Santa Fe and in Berkeley. She is also a master lithography printer with 10 years’ experience teaching at Kala Institute in Berkeley. Angie has worked at several galleries selling art and mounting new exhibitions. Currently Angie brings her expertise to SLATE, supporting gallery exhibitions, operations, and sales. When she not at the gallery, Angie enjoys watching the Warriors basketball team, working on her own art, being auntie to her bestie’s daughter and fairy-dog-mom to her other bestie’s dog.
SLEB: Certified by Alameda County and the Port of Oakland as a “Small Local Emerging Business”
SLBE: Certified by the City of Oakland as a “Small Local Business Enterprise”