Art Consulting Services
Expert Guidance to Elevate Your Collection
Francisco Alvarez provides bespoke art consulting services tailored to private residential clients, businesses, architects, and cultural organizations, elevating spaces and bringing inspiration, joy, and beauty. With over 30 years of professional experience in Canada’s leading cultural institutions — including the Royal Ontario Museum, OCAD University, and Heritage Toronto — Francisco offers independent art consulting services, drawing on his deep relationships with artists and galleries across Canada and internationally. Francisco brings rigorous curatorial judgment, market knowledge, and project management expertise to every mandate.
SERVICES
Private Collection Building
Whether you are beginning a new art collection or expanding an existing one, Francisco works with you to develop a focused, coherent acquisitions strategy aligned with your aesthetic vision and long-term goals. Services include artist research and sourcing, studio and gallery visits, acquisition negotiations, condition and provenance review, and collection documentation. Francisco advises and guides you through many aspects of the art world:
1. finding and selecting artworks that express your tastes and needs,
2. displaying and caring for your artwork, and
3. building and maintaining an art collection.
Using his connections with artists and galleries around the world, he can also negotiate favorable prices, source and purchase artwork, ship and install art, commission new artworks, and curate collections and exhibitions.
Commercial and Hospitality Art Programs
Francisco has curated art programs for hotels, corporate offices, and commercial developments, creating environments that are distinctive, on-brand, and lasting in their impact. Services cover concept development, artist and artwork selection, budget management, logistics, crating and shipping, insurance, and final installation.
Public Art Management
Francisco has extensive experience managing public art processes from inception to installation, including calls for submissions, artist selection, stakeholder engagement, fabrication oversight, engineering coordination, site preparation, and public interpretation.
Exhibition Curation and Production
Francisco curates and/or produces original exhibitions for galleries, institutions, and non-traditional venues, managing all phases from curatorial concept and artist selection through to exhibition design, interpretive texts, communications, and opening events.
Process
Francisco guides every stage of the project, from initial brief and site evaluation to artist selection, procurement, installation and ongoing collection management. The process begins with a consultation to define aesthetic goals, budget and timeline, followed by a curated proposal of concepts and artists, sample viewings or mock-ups, contract negotiation and coordination of delivery and installation, with optional services for framing, conservation advice and collection documentation.
Past Clients
Hariri Pontarini Architects · Aoyama Nomura Design, Tokyo · AC/Moxy Hotels, Los Angeles · Ontario Hospital Association · Edition Reykjavik · Friends of Ruby, Toronto · Canada Council Art Bank · Lambton Golf and Country Club · Portfolio Management Corporation
Pricing is transparent and structured: an initial consultation fee (credited toward ongoing work), a project-based flat fee for concept development and sourcing for small to medium projects, percentage-based commissions for larger procurement and collection builds, and hourly rates for advisory, conservation or valuation work; travel and third-party costs are billed separately with estimates provided in advance. I aim for clear deliverables, regular updates and a final handover package that includes provenance records, care instructions and installation documentation.
To discuss a project or questions, please use the Contact page.
