Contemporary Art Business Program

Lizy Dastin (A Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art)

Lizy Dastin is an art history instructor at Santa Monica College and UCLAx with a specialty in contemporary public art and urban practice. She has previously taught at Chapman University, Mercy College, the School of Visual Arts and the American Jewish University and has facilitated public art related programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the International Center of Photography. Lizy is the founder of Art and Seeking, an interview and digital lecture platform that bridges the gap between the mainstream artworld to the unorthodox world of street art, and co-hosts a popular art and art history podcast called Art Attack with urban icon, Justin BUA.   

Corey d’Augustine (Fakes, Frauds and Forgeries: Issues in Authenticity)

Corey D’Augustine is a conservator of modern and contemporary art and a technical art historian. He regularly works for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and lectures on art history and art conservation at New York University, Pratt Institute, and the Museum of Modern Art. He is a specialist in American and European Post-war art and his research interests include 20th century painting materials and techniques and the conservation of monochrome paintings.  

Amy Goldrich (Art, Money and the Law)

Amy Goldrich’s practice focuses on counseling, transactions, dispute resolution, and general private client representation in the contemporary art world, both domestically and internationally, where her clients include artists, collectors, galleries, arts organizations, as well as other creative businesses beyond the art world. 

Amy has spoken at conferences and art fairs in the United States, Europe, and South America. Her article, “Is a Right of First Refusal an Offer You Can’t Refuse?,” appeared in the September 2011 edition of Spencer’s Art Law Journal and has been cited in other academic papers and journals. “Much Ado About New York Museum Deaccessioning” appeared in the Spring 2011 Arts, Entertainment & Sports Law Journal of the New York State Bar Association. She has also been quoted in publications as diverse as The New York Times, Art & Antiques, Tendencias del Mercado de Arte, espn.com, Registered Rep Magazine, and Artnet News. 

A committed collector of work by emerging and more established contemporary artists, serves on the Executive Committee for Friends of Education at the Museum of Modern Art, and on the Board of the National Academy of Design. She is also a member of the Board for Project for Empty Space in Newark, New Jersey. 

After earning her AB from Bryn Mawr College, a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, and an LL.M. in Trade Regulation from New York University, Amy was a Dean Acheson Fellow and stagiaire at the European Court of Justice, Court of First Instance, in Luxembourg. She is admitted to practice before the courts of the State of New York, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the State of California, and the Central District of California. 

Elizabeth von Habsburg (Appraisals and Art Advisory)

Elizabeth von Habsburg is Managing Director of Winston Art Group, the largest independent art advisory and appraisal firm in the US.  The firm’s 75 specialists cover all areas of fine and decorative art through US offices in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Palm Beach, Chicago, Denver and Houston, and worldwide representation in London, Geneva and Tel Aviv.  Prior to Winston Art Group, Elizabeth was President of the US operations of an international appraisal firm for 18 years, and before that, she was Vice President of Habsburg Auctioneers.  She started her career at Christie’s as Assistant Vice President in charge of the Appraisal department.  She was a Board Member of the Appraisers Association of America from 2003-2015, and was a 2008-2015 Trustee and 2014 Chair of The Appraisal Foundation in Washington, DC.  Elizabeth is a Fellow of the Morgan Library and of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and a member of ArtTable, Inc.  She is a Director of the Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation, and was on the Board of Trustees of Christie’s Education through 2020.   Elizabeth has qualified as expert witness in Fine Art and Decorative Art in the New York, Palm Beach, FL, Philadelphia, PA and Texas courts, and lectures worldwide on all aspects of art.  She is Certified by AAA in Modern and Impressionist art and European Furniture and Works of Art, and is compliant with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP).  She revised four Antiques Hunters Guides (2000-2001), contributed to “Fine Art and High Finance” (2009), to the Appraisal Handbook (2012), and to “Regulation of Art Investments” (not yet published).  In 2015, she was named one of the Fifty Most Influential Women in Private Wealth, by Private Asset Management. 

John Melick (Attention Seekers: Art World Public Relations)

John Melick has more than twenty years of visual arts, travel, and publishing marketing and public relations expertise. John is the founder of Blue Medium Inc., a public relations company serving the visual arts and culture communities. Based in New York City, Blue Medium represents national and international art museums, cultural organizations, foundations, traveling exhibitions, arts associations, architecture and design studios and projects, corporations operating in the art and design fields, public and private sponsors of the visual arts, academic institutions in the visual arts and design, art fairs, and art galleries.

Prior to launching Blue Medium in 2000, he was a consultant at Fitz & Co, a visual arts public relations company in New York (October 1997-February 2000). Prior to his work at Fitz & Co, John was the Managing Director of Boom Communications, Inc. (1993-1997), a public relations and events company specializing in cultural tourism and the visual arts. John also developed a cultural tourism division at International Marketing and Representation (1990-1993).

In 1987, John received a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Sydney. In 1990, he earned a Master’s degree in Communications from Boston University. In 1996, HarperCollins Publishers commissioned John to write a travel book on Sydney, Australia, which was released in summer 1999. John currently serves as a Trustee of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and sits on the boards of the Esopus Foundation. John has also lectured on visual arts public relations at New York University, Christie’s Education, the New York State Council for the Arts, and the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation.

Michael Plummer (Investing in Art: Art as an Asset Class)
Principal, Artvest Partners LLC 

Mr. Plummer is a Principal and co-Founder of Artvest Partners LLC, which counsels Private Collectors, Museums, Foundations, Dealers and Fortune 500 Companies on strategies and investments related to art businesses, art financing and art collections. In addition to its creation of the TEFAF New York Art Fairs, Artvest has guided clients and partners from around the globe on projects of lasting economic and cultural significance. 

Formerly Chief Operating Officer of Christie’s Financial Services, Mr. Plummer was responsible for the structuring and development of an opportunistic art fund. The fund, designed as a private equity style offering, was the first developed by a major auction house in partnership with a leading investment bank. Additionally, Mr. Plummer was responsible for developing art-lending facilities for Christie’s, overseeing global loan underwriting practices, creating specialized art indices, and comprehensive art market sector analysis. 

Prior to Christie’s, Mr. Plummer created one of the earliest US art funds and conducted pioneering research on art as an asset class. He remains one of the industry’s leading speakers, and has lectured at New York University, Christie’s Education, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and The Wharton School. Additionally, Mr. Plummer’s observations on the art market have been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and The Art Newspaper, among others. 

Previously, Mr. Plummer was the acting Chief Operating Officer of Sotheby’s International Realty and was instrumental in the profitable restructuring critical to the parent company’s highly successful IPO in 1989. Having started his career in Sotheby’s Treasury Department, Mr. Plummer oversaw one of the industry’s first significant art loans. 

Mr. Plummer is a co-Founder of the Luxury Marketing Council. From 2012 to 2014, he was Chairman of the American Friends of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), where he reinstituted a Fulbright Scholarship providing full scholarships to deserving American students. 

Mr. Plummer received a BS in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.