Forum Radio: Jennifer Schipf

Jennifer Schipf (London) is Global Chief Underwriting Officer Fine Art & Specie at AXA XL, which means she sets worldwide strategy for client solutions in the specialised market of fine art underwriting. In her conversation with Jessica, Jennifer talks about inspirational artists, the challenges of intersecting business and art, as well as her own work in the studio.

‘I sit at this very unusual intersection of the two extremes, which makes it a lot of fun, a lot of problem solving, and no two days are the same.’

Transcript

Jennifer Schipf 

Hello and welcome to Forum Radio, our ongoing series of interviews with Forum members all around the world. And today I'm really thrilled to be talking to Jennifer Shipp. Jennifer's a London member where she is the Global Chief Underwriting Officer for Fine Art and Specie at AXAXL and Jennifer's responsible for setting worldwide strategy for client solutions. 

She's been dedicated to the specialised market of art underwriting for two decades and recently established the AXA Art Prize, which sounds brilliant. Jennifer began her career with a research position in the Old Master Drawings Department at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. I don't think I can picture anything nicer. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us today. 

I can't begin to imagine how many thousands of artworks you've looked at. And so I'm quite excited. The first question, we asked the same questions for all our guests, but with art in your veins, I'm really intrigued to hear who your inspiration is. 

Thank you so much for having me. This will be a lot of fun and I look forward to hearing the other member podcasts as well. I would say one of my biggest inspirations, and there are many, of course, comes from the art world, but it's a now sadly deceased female artist called Marisol. 

She was a Venezuelan-American sculptor who spent most of her career in New York. And what always inspires me about her is that her trajectory, her career was not remotely predictable, nor was it really commercial. Unlike so many artists who naturally struggle to support themselves, she really did not focus on the commercial side at all. 

She ended up focusing on her collectors and her museums, and I think ended up in more museum collections at an early phase in her career than many peer artists. But she's also known as the female mother of the pop movement. She was in a few Warhol films and friends with that crowd, but she was just so independent, always followed her creative pursuits, and really wasn't worried about what the market or the dealers or the press had to say. 

And years later, she's still very highly thought of and I expect will get only greater and greater visibility and recognition in time. So she's someone who always stands out to me as a great inspiration. I love that, that's great. 

That's somebody new, I haven't heard of her before, so I'm definitely going to check her out now. You do something, I mean, you know, it's always been obvious, we've known you for a few years now in the forum membership, you know, you've always brought incredible passion for your work. It's always very apparent in talking to you about art, but what is it do you think that you really love about what you do, maybe even just particularly the role that you have right now? I think the most interesting thing is how much of an intersection my role has constantly been between what I think of as almost two polar opposite extremes. 

One, the art world preserving the cultural heritage, whether it's for museums or for private collectors, or even for commercial artists on the one extreme, where I think about the art and the objects. And then at the other end of the spectrum, the financial services side of insurance, which is around protecting balance sheets, deploying capacity, managing aggregates, very technical, but I kind of sit at this very unusual intersection of the two extremes, which makes it a lot of fun, a lot of problem solving, and no two days are the same, it's never boring. So I've always enjoyed toggling between the two. 

Yeah, no, I bet. And you must come across lots of very different people, you know, with that kind of connections to the art world as well, collectors, collectors, artists, curators, and so on, you know, do you enjoy that side of things? Absolutely. And that's always been the most fun side of this role that I've had meeting the artists and the creators is the most exciting. 

And then with all due respect to my colleagues in the insurance side, that's much more formulated business, and a little bit more predictable, but the meeting the creative minds, the creators, and even some of the collectors, that's definitely a colourful aspect that's always been exciting. Yeah, I bet. So can you tell us a little bit about sort of where you are right now in your world as it were, and maybe something about where you think you might be in five years time? Sure. 

I've been in London now for about three and a half years, which was a fantastic change after many years in New York, another exciting city, but they're so different. So I've really had a fabulous time being in London, both for the city itself. And of course, as so many Americans love the proximity to Europe, the ability to travel to the rest of the world so easily. 

I do travel a lot, which is fun. It puts me sometimes not in the right place at the right time. You can't be everywhere. 

But it's really exciting to be in London to be meeting new people all the time. I have made a real effort to try to get to know people as much as I can in London through the art world, through some of the museums that I either support personally or support professionally. So it's been amazing. 

And in terms of five years time, I'm not sure, but I do have a sneaking suspicion that it won't be terribly long before I start pivoting back towards the pure art side of my world. I began in studio art, then art history, and then kind of stumbled into insurance and found it a great opportunity. But increasingly more, I'm thinking about getting back to the practice of art. 

I do a lot of painting when I have spare time. So carving out more spare time, doing more studio work, I think will be the next phase in a couple of years' time. Ah, so you do painting yourself? Yes. 

Wow. Tell us a bit more about that. I've always done a lot of drawing and painting in just a hobby sense. 

But I started in a fine art foundation academic program in university and decided maybe, frankly, looking back, maybe it was a little daunting coming up with the content and feeling like I really had something to say versus just technically being capable of painting properly or realistically. But I've done a lot of portraits over the years. I take classes regularly, either at the Royal Academy, or in the past, I did a lot of continuing education work with the New York Academy of Art. 

And I've done even a few little commissions of portraiture. So I'm thinking that's an area I want to pursue more. But oil painting, a little bit of abstract landscaping, and lots of drawing and pastels as I experiment with techniques. 

So that's kind of a fun side hobby. Yeah, I love that. And then what do you do to kind of get yourself in the mood for it? Because you've got your, as you say, quite formulaic, not necessarily formulaic work, but you know, quite ordered work, then that's a very different space that you want to get into for your art. 

So what do you do to kind of ease that transition? It's a challenge, just finding the time is the first step, carving out time to sit down, be quiet and think about creative pursuits is the first step. I also do try to do as much sketching as I can. So even if it's not a full blown project or a painting or something substantial, just trying to keep the ideas coming out of the mind and onto a piece of paper. 

And then I read a lot about creativity, when I can't simply be sitting in a studio environment. There's a fabulous book called The Artist's Way, which has been reissued many times and is apparently a really popular tool in a variety of creative circles. But it's really about how to pursue and nurture your creative process. 

So a little bit of everything to try to get myself out of that formulaic, you're exactly right, that structured, ordered, traditional corporate mindset. It takes a little work though. Do you think you'll stay in London or, you know, with the access to Europe? Yeah, I do. 

I'd love to. I still have loads of friends and family in the US, but I also have a network here in London and a growing network in Europe. So London remains both a fabulous city, as they said, in its own right, but central to everything. 

So, yes, I hope to stay long term. Well, we hope you do as well. But, you know, you've been a member of Forum, I think, since you joined, since you came to London. 

Have you always been a London member? Yeah. Joined actually in New York, just before coming to London, but that's right. So you got to meet all the London members. 

And has anything surprised you about your time as a member? I think a pleasant surprise was the cultural and geographic range of members. Even before the more recent openings of new chapters in foreign cities over the past few years, even before the pandemic, I was very impressed at the few events I attended, at how diverse the members were, whether it was their 

profession, where they were from, how they got involved, what they were up to. So that diversity of mindset of where people come from, how they think about things, that's always pleasantly surprised me and been probably my favourite aspect of being a member. 

I know that's something that, you know, that diversity really comes up a lot. And it's kind of really the thing that we most enjoy really is that everybody brings something different to the table at Forum. Do you find that, you know, has Forum helped you kind of either professionally or personally? I would say almost more personally than professionally, because the industry I'm in is very regimented. 

There isn't as much opportunity for entrepreneurial, creative collaborations with some of the members, which is not a bad thing. But personally, therefore, what I've gained, I think, is a little bit greater just in terms of meeting different people, learning about different mindsets, learning about different industries that I had no great knowledge of in the past. Some of the lectures and panel discussions always open up my mind. 

And I think it was the very first event I attended in New York, one of the dinners, it was, if I recall correctly, a few speakers about a sports documentary, a FIFA scandal. And I remember thinking how great the depth of expertise of the speakers was in fields that I would never be exposed to otherwise, even if I had watched the documentary. That was different than hearing the producers and the creators. 

So I've always really enjoyed just having my eyes open by the Forum. That's absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for talking to us today. 

Really appreciate you giving us your time. And thanks to everybody for listening to Forum Radio. Please remember, you can connect directly with all the members, including Jennifer, wherever they may sit. 

Just go to forum.club, go to the members directory, and use the search filter to find people either by professional or personal interest. And also, please do keep an eye on the news feed for member news, as well as events happening in the chapter where you are, or wherever you might be travelling to. So once again, thank you very much, Jennifer. 

Thank you. And until next week, goodbye.