The notion of my involvement with an art gallery would never have appeared in the crystal ball of my college years. After graduating from the Hotel Management School at Cornell University, I settled in Boston and began work at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel as personnel manager. I spent the next eight years interviewing applicants twice my age and sitting at the management table with department heads twenty years my senior. I was one of only two women out of twenty managers, joining the ranks of like-minded “sixties” women who were determined to carve new roles in the working world.

In 1972, I married Bill Vose, the fifth generation to run his family’s art gallery. Having been brought up in Wilmington, Delaware, I found life within an old Yankee family full of new customs (use it up, wear it out or make do)--and a fully mapped genealogy dating back centuries. In 1984, after our two daughters were safely at school, I joined my husband and in-laws at Vose Galleries, leaving the hotel business behind to begin the long process of becoming an art dealer.

One of my great joys over the years has been helping people through the process of selecting and displaying art in their homes. Through home visits, where I can see actual colors and spaces, I help clients focus their tastes and suggest paintings that reflect their preferences. It is wonderful to see a person’s face light up as he or she responds to just the right painting. After we hang the perfect painting in the perfect spot and turn on the light, very often the entire room is transformed. That’s an exciting moment!

My greatest satisfaction, however, has been in reaching a level of art connoisseurship after years of study and developing a love of fine art and the creative process, irrespective of just the business considerations. Recently, I took on the responsibility of developing a contemporary art department at the galleries. I have come to believe that humankind’s highest achievement derives from the pairing of creativity and hard work--whether it is writing a novel, developing a new mathematical theorem or applying paint to canvas. I hope to make a real contribution in fostering appreciation for the visual arts and helping Boston become, once again, a center for the arts.