Liz Lidgett on Making Art Accessible for Every Home
What does it really take to build a thriving art career outside of New York or London? And what do collectors actually want when they walk into a gallery or browse art online? Liz Lidgett has spent her career answering both of those questions, and in her latest conversation with Create! Podcast host Ekaterina Popova, she shares the kind of honest, practical insight that artists rarely hear in formal education settings.
Liz is the founder of Liz Lidgett Gallery and Design, an art advisor, and the author of the newly released book Art for Everyone: How to Collect Art and Personalize Your Space on Any Budget, published by Simon Element. Based in Des Moines, Iowa, she has built a respected gallery practice and a loyal collector base by doing one thing consistently: making art feel accessible, joyful, and genuinely livable.
A Book Built for Real Life
"Art for Everyone" is not a coffee table book designed to sit on a shelf. It is a warm, full-color guide for anyone who has ever wanted to bring more art into their home but felt unsure where to start. Liz designed the book to reflect how people actually live, with families, pets, small spaces, limited budgets, and real questions about where to even begin. Nearly 200 creatives contributed to its pages, including artists, photographers, and interior designers, and the result is a resource that covers everything from discovering your personal style to hanging a gallery wall to cleaning and maintaining the pieces you already own.
The book goes room by room, including practical guidance on what works in kitchens and bathrooms, what materials hold up in humid spaces, and how to install art with confidence even without hiring a professional. It is the kind of resource that meets collectors wherever they are, whether they are just starting out or have fifteen pieces that have never been dusted.
What Artists Can Learn from Collectors
One of the most valuable threads in this conversation is what Liz observes on the gallery floor every day. Collectors are increasingly choosing to skip traditional framing, which means the finishing quality of a canvas matters more than ever. Liz encourages artists to think carefully about their edges, even something as simple as a crisp painted line around the side of a canvas can make a significant difference in how the work reads in a home.
She also emphasizes the importance of giving your gallerist as much context as possible. Collectors are becoming more knowledgeable and more curious, and they want to understand who the artist is and what the work means. When a sale happens without the artist in the room, that story still needs to be told, and the gallerist can only tell it if the artist has shared it.
Finally, Liz speaks to the power of varied price points. Collectors often fall in love with a body of work but cannot access it at the top end. Artists who offer a range of sizes and entry-level pieces give collectors a way in, and that accessibility builds long-term relationships and real career momentum.
Talking About Money Without Apology
One of the most refreshing parts of this episode is Liz's directness about money. She finds it genuinely strange that the art world so often avoids the conversation, because selling work is how artists sustain their practices, pay for materials, and build careers. Galleries exist to make money for artists, and there is nothing contradictory about caring deeply about the work and also wanting it to sell. Liz is clear: both things are true, and both things deserve to be said out loud.
Building a Career from Anywhere
Liz is based in Des Moines, and she owns it completely. Rather than treating her location as a limitation, she has turned it into one of her strengths. She references Joanna Gaines as a fellow creative who chose to stay rooted in a smaller city and built something extraordinary from there. Liz's message to artists who feel geographically removed from the traditional art world centers is simple: your location is not a disadvantage. The internet, social media, and a clear sense of who you serve make it possible to build a meaningful career from anywhere, and being a bigger presence in a smaller market can work entirely in your favor.
Listen to the Full Episode
This conversation is full of warmth, encouragement, and practical wisdom for artists and collectors alike. You can listen to the full episode of the Create! Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Connect with Liz Lidgett:
Visit her gallery and design studio: lizlidgett.com
Follow her on Instagram: @lizlidgett
Get the book: Art for Everyone by Liz Lidgett
Ready to share your work with the world? Submit to our latest open calls and magazine features at createmagazine.co/call-for-art