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MEET SANDEEP SALTER
Founder of Brooklyn based store Picture Room and soon to be home goods store, Salter House. In this dialogue we invite you into Sandeep's home to learn about more about the curator behind these unique retail establishments and her enduring support for finding unique artists.
Tell us about a notable memory from your upbringing of something that continues to shape the way you think today?
Martha Graham's Appalachian Spring has been resonating deeply recently. I first saw that with my dad when I was a teenager.
Where did you grow up and what brought you here?
I grew up in London, and moved here at 17, to study, I had always felt a strong pull to New York, since the first time I visited when I was 5 years old. It's been 13 years now, six years in Brooklyn Heights, where I have really found my place.
You have a carefully curated store in Brooklyn called, Picture Room, supporting many young artists, was this the vision from the very beginning?
In the beginning, I focused a lot more on rare ephemera and work by more established artists. It has shifted and we now have more work by young or emerging artists, and the majority of the work at the shop now is in fact originals as opposed to rare ephemera or printed editions. That has been a gradual shift. The collection is at any given moment, a reflection of how our community has grown, of my social and aesthetic horizons as they broaden and shift, and of our artists studio practices as they evolve and change.
What is your process for curating this space?
It is very organic. Seeing work at shows, going to studio visits, learning about work through friends and recommendations, reading, we also get a lot of submissions...
What is something you are currently re-discovering?
My physical strength, I have been doing Pilates this year, and eventually I would like to find a better regimen. I was a gymnast and a dancer for years, and so I am re-discovering the joy I get from my own physicality. It's much harder to be diligent now that there are many many other things that take priority, but I have to start somewhere, gently and slowly.
What is something you have loved for a long time?
Swimming. In freshwater.
We hear rumblings of a new venture for you and your business; will you tell us more about that?
Yes! I am very very excited - we are opening a new shop next door to Picture Room this September! It is a natural home goods store called Salter House, and we will have a Tea Room within the store!
What is something you hope to pass down to your children?
Kindness. Patience. Thoughtfulness.
Maimoun comes from the Persian language word meaning to welcome guests/invite company. If you could invite anyone to dinner who would it be what would the atmosphere be like?
Jane Goodall. A picnic - with my whole family, and hers. The atmosphere would be joyful of course!
