Art with an Expert – Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50

Name: Art with an Expert – Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50
Start: 2026-04-11T15:00:00-05:00
Location: 200 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX, United States, Texas 78712

Schedule

Sat, 11 Apr, 2026 at 03:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

200 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Austin, TX, United States, Texas 78712 | Austin, TX

We’re thrilled to welcome back Sharon Louden, artist and author of "Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50". Louden’s latest book highlights the lives of 31 artists who have continued to create, contribute, and lead well beyond the age of 50. By sharing their experiences, Last Artist Standing offers models of resilience, ingenuity, and pragmatic solutions—valuable for artists of all ages and for those both inside and outside the art world. Followed by a Q&A.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sharon Louden wears many interchangeable hats: artist, educator, advocate, consultant, community builder, founder and director of the Institute for Sustained Creativity, and editor of the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books. As a changemaker, Louden amplifies unheard voices and advances meaningful opportunities for artists across all disciplines toward sustaining their creative lives.
As an artist, her work has evolved from using writing as a medium, to figuration then abstraction through her paintings and drawings, to creating many physical environments that involve an inclusive advocacy using a varied range of media.
A visionary leader with decades of experience in academia, Louden is also a committed connector—bridging communities and catalyzing change, particularly on behalf of underserved artists within institutional structures. She is a skilled collaborator, bringing together siloed stakeholders from the nonprofit and business sectors to spark dialogue and drive collective progress. All of her work—no matter the form—is rooted in her active creative practice as a working artist.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Doug Woodham is Managing Partner of Art Fiduciary Advisors and the former President of the Americas at Christie’s. A Ph.D. economist and former McKinsey partner, he brings a rare combination of art-world experience and analytical rigor to the study of cultural icons. He is the author of Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Making of an Icon (Thames & Hudson, 2025) and Art Collecting Today (Allworth Press, 2017).
This talk is part of Blanton All Day programming on Saturday, April 11 and included with admission. Free for Blanton Members.
Art With an Expert is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art. Support for this program at the Blanton is provided by the Carolyn Harris Hynson Centennial Endowment.