Dana Martin Davis

When I first met Dana Martin Davis at a fashion event, I liked her flair.

She came across as a woman who knows what she likes, and she treats herself well. Davis is well-known in the art community for her charitable contributions as an individual and for the work she does as chief communications officer of Davis Steel & Iron Co. The company provided the steel fabrications for the Levine Cultural Campus.

On the inside of some of those buildings, pieces of artwork from Davis' personal collection grace the walls. She's donated works to be displayed in the Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture and the Mint Museum Uptown. She recently won the Mint Museum's Spirit Award.

"I like to buy artwork from living artists," said Davis. "If you bring attention to someone who is doing living work, it encourages more of that quality of work to be made."

Davis' eye for art extends into fashion. Whether she's purchasing a painting or a designer dress, her collecting philosophy is the same.

"Once a designer or artist dies, I don't buy it anymore," she said.

It's her way of preserving the integrity of what the designer created.