Name Sara Fitzmaurice | ||
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Sara Fitzmaurice is Founder and President of FITZ & CO, the world's leading public relations firm specializing in the contemporary art world. FITZ & CO's unique area of expertise is international media relations, strategic positioning and planning, audience development, sponsorship development and special events.
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Background
Sara Fitzmaurice grew up in Minneapolis, where she attended The Blake School and later graduated Magna Cum Laude in Art History from Boston University. In 1996 she married the gallerist Perry Rubenstein. Fitzmaurice is on the board of New York City's Public Art Fund, where she has advised on public artist projects, funding, and public relations/marketing since 1999. For the Public Art Fund, she was on the selection committee for two director searches, and currently serves on the compensation committee, strategic planning task force, and as co-chair of the annual spring benefit.
FITZ & CO
Since founding the agency in 1995, Fitzmaurice has advised more than 90 non-profit and for-profit clients across the U.S. in cities such as Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Antonio, and San Francisco; and internationally in Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
Fitzmaurice has spearheaded campaigns for clients including Art Basel, for which Fitzmaurice conceived the museum trustee group outreach program, the first of its kind for an art fair, and the 2001 launch of Art Basel in Miami Beach, for which she served as a lead U.S.-based strategist. Fitzmaurice was the only American to serve on the by-invitation selection committee for the directorship of Art Basel after the departure of Sam Keller. She also has led successful campaigns for many museum new building projects such as Museu de Serralves, designed by Alvaro Siza, in Porto, Portugal; MCA Denver designed by David Adjaye; Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and, currently Parrish Art Museum by Herzog and de Meuron, and Aspen Art Museum by Shigeru Ban. Fitzmaurice and her team launched the Philip Johnson Glass House as a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; helped to grow Performa to become one of the U.S.'s most important visual art performance biennials; provides strategic public relations to the Sharjah Art Foundation in the UAE; and, has represented galleries including Gagosian, Sean Kelly, and Lehmann Maupin. Fitzmaurice has worked with corporations involved in the arts ranging from BMW to NetJets to Hugo Boss, and others.
Los Angeles
Fitzmaurice relocated from New York City to Los Angeles in June 2011 to open her firm's West Coast office and spearhead campaigns for clients such as Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; ForYourArt.com; and Dallas Contemporary.
Personal life
In 1996, Fitzmaurice married art dealer Perry Rubenstein. The couple divorced in 2014, the same year that Rubenstein filed for bankruptcy.