In conversation with Anna Maja Spiess

“…the majority of people are looking for one thing above all else. Community.”

 - Anna Maja Spiess

Anna Maja Spiess. Image credit Lilika Strezoska. Courtesy of ROOM13.

With more than two decades of experience across the art world, Anna Maja Spiess has seen the industry from almost every angle, from private and public collections and blue-chip galleries to art start-ups, cultural partnerships and arts publications. Today, she brings that breadth of experience to three distinct but interconnected pursuits, strategic advisory UponRequest.art, international art-world member club ROOM13.art, and her own conceptual and performative artistic practice.

Based outside Berlin in the woods but frequently in transit, Spiess has built ROOM13 around something she believes the art world needs more of, genuine community. Conceived in Miami in 2024, the club has since brought together artists, collectors, curators and the art-curious across cities including London, Paris, Miami, Marrakesh, Berlin, New York, Basel and Aspen. We spoke with Spiess about connection, kindness, the art world’s unwritten rules, creating meaningful experiences, and why sometimes the best thing you can do is simply bring people together.

You have experienced the art world from many different perspectives, both as a creative and through your work across digital art platforms, cultural partnerships, media and now ROOM13. Looking back, what have all those chapters taught you about what people in the art world are really looking for?

People in the art world broadly - are looking for the same thing people everywhere are looking for, maybe with a little more time and money to ponder such questions but they want to be seen and understood, in their joy or struggle, in their identities or contexts.

They are at times looking for a validation of their existence, and that can either be monetarily - as in I can afford this very expensive piece and people will respect, admire, celebrate me for it, or I found a little inexpensive work by a young creative that pulls at my heartstrings and therefore I wish to take it home with me. And across all these different roles and positions within the art world I came to understand that the majority of people are looking for one thing above all else. Community.

ROOM13 team (L-R: Max Mallows, Anna Maja Spiess and Mike Holford). Image credit Lilika Strezoska. Courtesy of ROOM13.

ROOM13 was dreamed up in Miami in December 2024 with Max Mallows and Mike Holford, and since then you have created events from London to Paris, Miami, Marrakesh, Berlin, New York, and Aspen. What was the original idea that made you think, “This needs to exist”?

Orlando Whitfield recently said in Monocle: “In my experience as a gallerist, buyers were seeking human connection as much as they were looking to build a collection.”

The art market is a giant game of make-believe, only because we collectively within our culture agree that a certain painting from a certain period is worth a certain amount of money: it is so. And we all play along. Therefore it is hard to enter as an outsider because similar to children playing that game, unless the toothy 4 four year old tells you she is actually a ferocious shark, you might not be able to tell from her running around the lawn. You need someone to let you in on the secret.

I deeply believe in kindness, the kindness shared between strangers, that one moment, where someone notices you might lack something as mundane as a light and offers one, and you were seen and noticed in a tiny want. To create a community that helps you navigate international art world events, that allows you to make friends in a new city ahead of the busy schedule is a core element of ROOM13. We host often ahead of the Preview day and it’s wonderful to see people, after having met at our event, across town together. ROOM13 is an amalgamation of, by now, 20 years in the art world. All the openings, fairs, biennales etc. I attended and I took what I loved, left what I didn’t and created this.

So in short: The original idea was: let’s bring people together, let’s remind them we ought to have fun, let’s be playful, intentional and kind. Everything else will follow and then we actually just got started. Too often we let the good ideas stay just that: ideas. Just do it people ;)

Image credit Lilika Strezoska. Courtesy of ROOM13.

There are already countless art fairs, openings, dinners, and networking events around the world. What do you think ROOM13 offers that those more traditional art-world formats do not, and why has the idea of bringing people together around shared experiences become so important to you?

What I hear often from first time attendees is “this feels so genuine and intentional” almost said in surprise. We pour a rather large amount of our energy and love into finding the right tonality, kind of event, time and place in each city. While we work with brands we always own the overall vision, so the way we host it always feels like us. And while each city has its own incredible network ROOM13 spans across different fair ecosystems and regions. To give the art curious a nomadic home that feels both surprising and delightful each time, yet also has an element of “aaah yes, it’s ROOM13 - I am home”.

We also ban cell phone photography across all our events, have the incredible talented Lilika Strezoska snap us all in editorial quality and we make a little keepsake booklet, sometimes a limited edition with artists prints (Berlin w Simon Mullan) or refreshing your memory of the rules of lawn croquet (Aspen) and we always have a bite. I personally always eventually get hungry and I do leave when I am not fed.

ROOM13, Aspen, 2026. Image credit Lilika Strezoska. Courtesy of ROOM13.

Your events seem deliberately designed around place and atmosphere, from A Night of Dreams in London to the Parisian soirée and the Miami sunset cruise. How do you decide what a ROOM13 experience should feel like in each city?

I’ve worked quite globally for the past two decades and so I have called many cities home in the sense that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, if memory serves me right, defines home. A place where you know the advantages and shortcomings of your gender, racial identity and where someone also knows your coffee order. In addition I am incredibly humbled to have this wonderful network of incredible friends around the globe that I can always ping and ask for thoughts on where to host, who to collaborate with, and bring in for a project. Due to ROOM13’s global nature we always add local freelancers to the core team, not only for the support but also to keep in tune with nuances of places.

So we usually start with a team brainstorm, then we see what inbound applications we might have for partnerships and then we decide on a place. From there we decide the number of guests, format and little details everyone loves so much.

ROOM13, Paris, 2026. Image credit Lilika Strezoska. Courtesy of ROOM13.

You are also an artist yourself, having studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. Does making your own work change the way you curate experiences, work with artists or think about the role of art in a social setting?

My experience studying art at the Academy was - as the system is quite unique -, in my opinion a delicious preparation for life in general but particularly life in the art world.

You are not studying with a curriculum, you do not have tests, you are in the class of a professor who has the right to evict you from their class at any point during your studies if they feel there is no artistic development.

Once a week you meet with all your fellow classmates and discuss - taking turns - the work you are currently developing.

You have to self-motivate. You can attend workshops but no one makes you. You can learn skills such a glassmaking endless waitlist, woodworking, metalsmithing or attend lectures on mediaeval manuscripts or building preservation, but you have to decide yourself.

You can get entirely lost in an idea only for your classmates to tell you through cigarette smoke thick air that it’s completely bullshit. You can catch your professor on a good day, in a good mood and he will support you all the way, or in a bad mood on a bad day and all you do is insignificant.

It’s not easy, but those that figure out their language within their chosen discipline, to thrive in this unstructured at times chaotic environment, to choose again and again to make art, to find ways, to finance an artistic practice, are well prepared for the art world that is often cited to be nebulous, driven by few in power, and hard to understand and navigate.

My artistic practice is conceptual and performative. So surely some elements of that seep into my hosting. Generally I believe it’s nearly impossible if art plays a significant role in how you move and perceive the world, to completely separate yourself from it.

Maybe ROOM13 is one series of performance pieces with Maja performing the role of art world big sister and hostess ;)

ROOM13, London, 2025. Image credit Lilika Strezoska. Courtesy of ROOM13.

One of the things that feels distinctive about ROOM13 is the emphasis on genuine connection rather than simply collecting contacts. After the first year of bringing this community together, what has surprised you most about the relationships and conversations that have emerged?

As the crow flies one member traveled the distance of over 15.000km (about 8,700miles) for one dinner. That moves me to no end. Of course people need to possess the privilege of time, money and a passport that permits them such movements, yet that they still do and choose that over doing something else.

Another member recently said he has attended a handful of our events, and does not necessarily come from an artworld background, that our events feel less daunting, that while there is always a bunch of new people he recognises a few faces and feels truly comfortable at them. An attendee with a fashion background said after Marrakech that he rarely was in a room which felt so genuinely nice, and that people actually were open to chatting, connecting etc.

We ban cellphone cameras for a reason. Once you are no longer focusing on the perfect angle for social media, you start being present.

I’m a thinker - so I did play with all possible scenarios for this when we started, of course factoring in the idea that this could end after two or three events, but also dreaming big and entertaining the idea of people truly make friends, invest time, and find a space that feels right to them in what we do. And all of these aspirational best case scenario goals have come through.

Anna Maja Spiess. Image credit Lilika Strezoska. Courtesy of ROOM13.

You have built ROOM13 from an idea into a growing international community in a remarkably short time. What is next for you, and what would you love ROOM13 to become over the next few years?

I always say if you want to build something that lasts forever, build it slowly - not sure where this quote originated, but I’d say this is what we will continue to be doing for the next few years. Grow the community, maybe add cities to the current London/Paris/Miami/Marrakech/Berlin/NY/Basel/Aspen Cycle. See if our community would like to explore traveling together in a more organized way and explore off the beaten track in small groups? I recently sailed the Nile on a small boat with seven friends seeing temples, tombs and quarries along the riverbank. It truly was the journey of a lifetime and I could see doing similar things with ROOM13. Generally my own very high standard of what I would serve friends in my home/ or ask them to do with me seeps into what we do at ROOM13. If I would not drink this wine, you will never find it at ROOM13. Same goes for food or brand partnerships with products.

ROOM13, Basel, 2026. Image credit Lilika Strezoska. Courtesy of ROOM13.

The [Quick] #FLODown:

Best advice you’ve ever received?

“There are no real emergencies in art” - said by a pediatrician ER Doctor. Perspective ppl!

Favourite art city, and why?

I pondered this for quite a while. It is Aarhus in Denmark. I had the best 48 or so hrs there from incredible local scene, a magnificent contemporary art museum Aros (that actually shows really nice installation work in their basement - and yes it got a Skyspace now but my love for it predates that) then, a short drive from the city centre there is the Moesgaard, an archaeological and anthropological museum (their permanent show on the Stone Age is titled “The first Immigrants” ;) you can eat very well in that little town, it’s fun to vintage shop, it has a cute planetarium, we even ended up getting matching tattoos. 10/10 art trip.

What’s your perfect day in a city you love?

NY/Manhattan. Morning coffee near home in the Village preferably outside as its coffee and cigarettes for me. A few meetings with my incredible people in town uptown/downtown I don’t mind riding the subway or walking if time and distance permit. A lunch preferably at Thai Diner or Lure. More meetings, or a museum or a gallery show. Dinner and depending on the season home to a recap of the day by the fire.

What’s your go to way to unwind?

A forest walk. Always.

What’s the last song you listened to?

刘宇宁 · 无双-《且试天下》电视剧原声带 · #wykyk

What should the art world have more of, and less of?

More kindness and slowness, less pretend cool.

Experience the magic of ROOM13 for yourself at upcoming events in London Oct 12th, Paris Oct 20th or Miami Dec 1st.

Website:room13.art / annamajaspiess.com / uponrequest.art

Instagram:@room13.art@theserendipist

LinkedIn:anna-maja-spiess