About Karen Adler
Enid Collins and I share a particular spirit: part artist, part entrepreneur. As Enid Collins put it, “I’m a mixed bag.”
My academic and professional interests have always intertwined and encompassed many disciplines. As an undergrad at Southern Illinois University, I double majored in journalism and Spanish, then worked as a print reporter for a few years after graduation. When United Airlines gave me the opportunity to fly with them as a flight attendant, I took the chance to explore the world––for 20 years. Flying exposed me to an indescribable diversity of places, people and cultures, and led me back to school to earn an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Northern Illinois University.
This professional passion next took me me to Boulder, Colo., where I completed three years of doctoral study with the University of Colorado Boulder’s cultural anthropology program. I returned to UC Boulder in 2021 to plunge myself into current thinking and methodology of museology, earning a Professional Certificate in 2023.
In the early 2000s, I began painting and developed a strong interest in the burgeoning art scene around Boulder and Denver. Over the next decade, I continued to paint while also launching and operating Manifest Art Gallery in Niwot, Colo., for two years, and raising a family on a ranch in the Rocky Mountain foothills.
Today, I serve as collection manager and curator of my ever-growing collection of nearly 2,000 original vintage Collins handbags, accessories and home decor items, plus archival materials including period advertising, catalogs, photos and other documents. I continue to study these works individually and in the rich context of the collection while uncovering more stories of these works, and their significant, if overlooked, designer, Enid Collins.
American Alliance of Museums
Association of Academic Museums and Galleries
Catalogue Raisonne Scholars Association
College Art Association
