Louise Blouin

Louise Thérèse Blouin (born October 15, 1958), is a French-Canadian magazine publisher and philanthropist. She is the CEO and President of Louise Blouin Media, and the founder and chairman of the Louise T Blouin Foundation.

Early life

Louise Thérèse Blouin was born in Montreal, the youngest of six children. Having worked part-time as a book-keeper whilst at school, she went on to McGill University to study commerce, later switching to Concordia. She did not graduate but she did study at the Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School. In the early eighties, she met and married David Stewart, a member of the Canadian MacDonald tobacco family. The marriage was annulled within a year for unknown reasons.

Media career

Having later married John MacBain, the two acquired Auto Hebdo, a classified car trading magazine, in 1987. The business grew into Trader Classified Media, which acquired around 400 classified-advertisement publications and – as an early adopter of the internet – 60 websites over the next ten years, with sales rising from $2m to $400m, and focus expanding from cars to include boats, real estate and jobs.

Hebdo changed its name to Trader.com NV in 2000 after holding IPOs on NASDAQ and the Paris Premier Marché. It continued an acquisition spree that impacted its operating profits for two years, before becoming profitable in 2002. Blouin however, had exited the company in 2000 and not long thereafter divorced her second husband.

She later became CEO of international auction house Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, resigning the position after a year, before setting up Louise Blouin Media in 2003, and moving into art publications, acquiring Art+Auction, Gallery Guide, Museums, Culture+Travel, and Modern Painters within three years. She also founded ARTINFO (www.artinfo.com), an online portal for access to the world of arts and culture. The company, formerly known as LTB Media, is currently in a dispute with numerous freelancers who were hired for work which then was not paid for The disgruntled freelancers from artinfo have banded together to form an ad hoc group that they've dubbed WAAANKAA -- which stands for Writers Angry At Artinfo Not Kidding Around Anymore.

Philanthropy

Louise Blouin founded the Louise T Blouin Foundation in 2005, with the aim of raising awareness about the role culture and creativity can play in resolving global issues. The foundation's website lists its two core aims as:

• Encouraging a better understanding of foreign affairs and culture beyond borders through international cooperation, exchange and dialogue for the 21st century.
• Exploring the broader practical significance of creativity and the creative potential of the human brain.

The foundation's projects since its inception include:

• being the principal supporter for the staging of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale at The Old Vic theatre, London, in 2005; a collaboration between Iraqi and European actors
• 'Bring Back New Orleans' – support for a research project into rebuilding the cultural infrastructure of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
• '4 Generations' – a multi-part TV series, chronicling the stories of two families, one Israeli, one Palestinian, in partnership with the Film School of Tel Aviv University and the Royal Jordanian Film Commission
• 'Making the Case for Culture' – support for a research project with the OECD which investigates the possibility of a link between the quality of life in a country and the amount of its GDP spent on culture
• cultural exchange programmes with China and with The Middle East
• 'Art and the New Biology of Mind' – a think-tank at Columbia University, New York City in March 2006, featuring debate between artists (such as David Salle, Richard Meier and George Condo) and scientists (such as Richard Axel, Eric Kandel and Joseph LeDoux) toward a clearer understanding of the ways in which the brain responds to art
• 'Music and the Brain' – a research review exploring how the brain processes music and how music can affect psychological development.

The Global Creative Leadership Summit

The Louise T Blouin Foundation's flagship event took place at Harold Pratt House, New York City in November 2006. Its stated aim was:

By bringing together influential leaders in business, technology, government, science and the arts, the Global Creative Leadership Summit, hosted by the LTB Foundation, hopes to unleash insights that will have practical implications for problem-solving across disciplines. How can business and government leaders benefit from knowing more about how the brain works? How can those who see the world differently come together to break through today’s complex challenges?

Notable speakers included:

• Nobel Laureates Henry Kissinger, Richard Axel, James Watson and Eric Kandel
• Scientists V.S. Ramachandran, Mehmet Oz and Lisa Randall
• Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
• Journalist Arianna Huffington; chess grandmaster Susan Polgar; then-Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Turki Al Faisal; artists Chuck Close and Richard Serra; CEO of the Blackstone Group and Stephen Schwarzman.

The Louise T Blouin Institute

In October 2006 the foundation opened the Louise T Blouin Institute in Shepherd's Bush, west London. A gallery space combined with a centre for the foundation's work, its opening exhibition featured light installation pieces by Californian artist James Turrell. Lecturers organised to speak on the theme of art, light and science in tandem with the exhibition included Professors Semir Zeki, Martin Kemp and Sir Michael Berry.

The foundation's website lists the philosophy of the institute as follows:

The philosophy of the Institute will be experimentation, questioning, debate, learning, and there will be two focuses of activity. The first is to present the work of individual artists through temporary exhibitions, installations, performances and screenings. We will also promote a lively programme of events such as lectures, debates, workshops, think-tanks and summits related to the Foundation’s areas of interest.

Trivia

• She is known to have dyslexia, and has often stated her belief in the enhanced creative abilities of those who have the condition.
• The Sunday Times Rich List 2005 placed her at equal 192nd place, estimating her fortune at £250 million.

External links

• The Louise T Blouin Foundation website (also contains information about the Louise T Blouin Institute)
• Website for the Global Creative Leadership Summit
• ARTINFO.com
• Louise Blouin Media website
• Art+Auction magazine
• Gallery Guide magazine
• Modern Painters magazine
• Culture+Travel magazine
• MYARTINFO.com a social networking website for artists
• Interview Guardian interview, October 2006