Alexandra Schafer, founder and principal of VELVENOIR, whose work bridges contemporary art, hospitality, design, and cultural strategy. With over a decade of experience, she has developed an international consultancy that curates art collections for private residences, luxury hotels, real estate developments, and wellness spaces, collaborating with an interdisciplinary collective of curators, advisors, and artists worldwide.
Her professional path began in hospitality, first studying at the Vocational School of Tourism Klessheim in Salzburg before moving to London, where she gained firsthand experience at luxury hotels and events. Relocating to Sydney, she continued her studies in event management and marketing at ICMS while working with global lifestyle brands including Merivale, HSBC, and The Star Sydney. These early years in hospitality shaped her intuitive understanding of how spaces can affect emotion and memory, an approach that underpins her art advisory practice today.
In 2014, Schafer founded VELVENOIR to integrate art into spaces in ways that go beyond the normal placement of art. She is treating each project as a dialogue between identity, architecture, and culture. Her consultancy works at every scale, from commissioning bespoke installations and sourcing international artists to developing communication strategies and managing entire collections.
Her philosophy is influenced not only by her professional experience but also by her passion for Ayurveda, slow living, and holistic well-being. These values inform her sensitive and deliberate approach: art as a form of connection, a catalyst for dialogue, and a lasting expression of meaning within a space.
Schafer regularly travels to international art fairs, biennales, and studios, keeping a close connection to the pulse of the contemporary art world while nurturing long-term relationships with both emerging and established artists. For her, advising collectors, hoteliers, and designers is about more than acquisitions, it is about cultivating legacy, building trust, and weaving cultural narratives that endure.