Rachel Elizabeth Bethlahmy was born in 1984 in Manhattan and raised on the Upper West Side. Her father worked as a documentary editor. Her mother was a librarian specializing in historical archives at the New York Public Library.

Her childhood was surrounded by books, film reels, and museum visits.

“We didn’t just visit museums,” she recalls. “We talked about why something was in the museum.”

Weekend trips to Westport, Connecticut added a second cultural layer. She visited regional art festivals and small historical institutions across Fairfield County.

“I started to notice that the artists in Connecticut were connected to New York galleries,” she says. “There was always movement between the city and the shoreline.”