Watch Donald and Mera Rubell talk to genConnect about how they went from small-time art aficionados to world-class collectors:

WATCH: ‘Clarity Always Arises Out of Questions’ With Design 

When the couple began buying works from emerging artists in 1964, Donald was a medical student and Mera was a Head Start teacher.

“We would take walks in our neighborhood, at the time it was 8th Avenue and 24^th Street (in New York), and discover artists (working) in these storefronts because the economy in the ‘60s was pretty rough,” Mera told genConnect.

The Rubell family

Donald says the artists welcomed into their studios the enthusiastic newlyweds, who were basically penniless. “What we discovered was being an artist is a very lonely activity,” he says. “So that they would do anything to have us come back again. So we said, ‘We’ll pay you $5 a week (for an artwork)’ and they said, ‘Fine you have to come back for the next 120 weeks.’”

He says the couple did pay the artists a fair price for their works, many of which are now considered masterpieces. “We just took longer to pay for them.”

WATCH: Bella Gaia – An Artistic Performance of Earth From Space

Mera says she and her husband established long-term relationships with emerging artists and helped establish community.

“It’s just about trusting time and passion,” she says.

“The most important thing we understood early is all art was once contemporary,” Donald says of the beginnings of the couple’s art journey. “There was a moment when they (internationally known artists) were making their young art, and their best art, frequently. I remember we were at the Whitney Museum (of American Art) at the (Robert) Rauschenberg retrospective and we were walking around with him; and he looked at some of his incredible young work and said, ‘I wish I knew the artist that made that work.’”

Related: ENGAGE – Tiffany Shlain’s New Cloud-Sourced Film (VIDEO) 

Exhibited in a 45,000-square-foot repurposed Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated goods facility in Miami, The Rubell Family Collection also actively acquires, exhibits and champions emerging artists working at the forefront of contemporary art. The Rubells also created The Contemporary Arts Foundation in 1994 to expand their collection’s public mission within the framework of a contemporary art museum.

• For more daily expert updates, follow genConnect on Twitter and Facebook
• To stay on top of the latest contributions from experts: Sign Up for genConnect