More than 150 pieces of contemporary art grace the halls of Wake Forest University’s Benson Center. As with many galleries, names such as Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, and Kiki Smith can be found among the artwork.

But unlike any other known collection, the Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art is unique in that it is student-planned, student-selected, and purchased entirely with university funds.

Every four years since 1963, Wake Forest students and faculty have traveled to New York City to add to the collection, which includes such media as photography, sculpture, paintings, and prints. Each group has a like goal: to collect works indicative of the contemporary-art scene at the time of their journey.

Professor Emeritus of Art Robert Knott has accompanied buying trips for 30 years. “The significance of this program is visible in the sheer responsibility it places on our students,” he says. “Their selections are not only aesthetically successful, they also have historical importance.”

For the next few weeks, the public is invited to the Charlotte and Philip Hanes Gallery in the Scales Fine Arts Center and Reynolda House Museum of American Art, where they can view selections from the past 13 buying trips. In addition to showcasing a half-century of art, these exhibits will shed a deserving light on the university’s commitment to the growth of its students.

An Engaging Experiment
Ted Meredith, a 1964 Wake Forest alumnus, fondly recalls being asked to participate in the first buying trip to New York in June 1963. At the time, Wake did not have an art program, and from the start, Meredith says, “I knew I was joining something special.”

Started largely as an experiment by the late founder Mark Reece, former Dean of Men and Dean of Students, the collection began with a linoleum cut by Pablo Picasso, the first of 15 pieces purchased on the inaugural trip. Meredith says the committee — made up of himself, Reece, Dr. Allen Easley, Dean Ed Wilson, and President of the College Union David Forsyth — collected representative art from a variety of mediums, setting a precedent for future trips and launching a widely successful student experience that Meredith easily deems life-changing.

“I gained an appreciation for the great minds in the art world, and I’ve carried it with me throughout my career,” says the Wake Forest trustee and current member of the Reynolda House board of directors.

From Plan to Purchase
“The students begin with a massive task that can be quite intimidating,” says Assistant Professor of Art Jay Curley, who joined the Wake Forest faculty in 2008 partially, he says, because of this program. “But by the end of the week they are walking through Chelsea talking to gallery owners on cell phones. I literally watched my art students blossom into art professionals in New York.”

Students’ buying success can be largely attributed to their preparation. Lucy Zimmerman, a 2009 art-history graduate, took Curley’s required contemporary-art course last fall, and was one of the seven students selected for this year’s buying group. Zimmerman notes that she and fellow students spent months scouring art magazines, The New York Times, gallery catalogs, and the Internet.

Her team made presentations on worthy artists, debated the merits of different mediums, researched purchasing trends, considered the logistics of space parameters, and evaluated the demands of budget distribution.

Of course, all research aside, the real work begins when the group reaches Manhattan.

How each generation arrives at its decisions says as much about the evolution of the American college student as it does about the changing scope of the art-collecting world.

J.D. Wilson, a 1969 alumnus, participated in the program during a tumultuous time both in college campus culture and in the history of the country. “We were young, we were impressionable, and we were determined to find works that could convey this iconic point in history,” Wilson recalls.

By day, students visit galleries, meet owners, peruse art, and take copious notes. Zimmerman’s journey last March included opportunities to interview two artists, including Corin Hewitt, whose artistic process inspired the group to purchase his work.

In the evenings, the student committees sit in hotel rooms, debating their finds and strategizing the next day’s work.

Mary Leigh Cherry, a 1997 art-history graduate, recalls passionate conversation, and at times even tears, as fellow committee members debated favorite pieces late into the evening. The final decision-making process is quite challenging, Cherry says. “Every group has a different set of choices that they must make — quantity versus quality; known names or budding artists.”

Along the way, the students are supported by faculty mentors, school alums, and other New Yorkers with local ties. The 1969 trip included a visit to Barbara Babcock Millhouse’s (founding president of Reynolda House Museum of American Art) Park Avenue apartment where a slide projector displayed contemporary artwork on the walls. “Barbara wanted us to feel connected,” Wilson remembers. “She wanted us to know that our work was important.”

A Lasting Impact
Ultimately, the impact of the journey is undeniable. “I didn’t come from a family that collected art, but suddenly I found myself working hands-on with gallery owners in New York,” explains Cherry, owner of Cherry and Martin in Los Angeles. “Now I’ve had my own gallery for 10 years, and I’ve met many of the artists in Wake’s collection. From that first experience to my current endeavors, I’ve learned that the art world is wildly intertwined, and that Wake Forest’s program is incomparable. I truly believe that it got me to where I am.”

Cherry is not alone. Meredith, who was publisher of Architectural Record for many years, has made lifelong commitments to the arts, and visits the Student Union Collection whenever he’s in town. Likewise, Wilson, who recalls starting his own art collection shortly after returning from his buying trip, serves as chairman of the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and of the Board of Directors at Reynolda House, and is a board member of the Winston-Salem Arts Council.

From bold beginnings to its current world-renowned reputation, the collection’s heartbeat has been the support of the university and the passion of its students and faculty.

“Wake Forest is a place that empowers students to make decisions, to take risks, and to embrace entrepreneurship,” Wilson adds. “Without a doubt, this collection helps define what the university has been and will always be.”

APPROACHING A COLLECTION
Allison Slaby, managing curator at Reynolda House Museum of American Art, co-curated Now/Then: A Journey in Collecting Contemporary Art at Wake Forest with Wake Forest Assistant Professor of Art Jay Curley. In order to best tell the story of this impressive collection, the pair chose to organize the exhibition into four parts: Collecting Names, Collecting Styles, Collecting History, and Collecting Stories.

These four organizing models help emphasize the importance of the collection as a whole. Collecting Names showcases the best-known artists from the students’ selections. In some cases, the choice was made to allocate a larger portion of the budget to a well-known talent. In other cases, the students proved to be successful in selecting pieces from budding artists.

Collecting Styles evaluates the tension between abstract and figurative art. In this section, pieces are presented in an alternating pattern — abstract, figurative, abstract, figurative — to effectively highlight art’s shifting trends.

Collecting History presents the 19 works purchased on the 1969 buying trip. This grouping challenges the viewer to get into the mind of a 1969 college student, with such scene-setters as a Life magazine, The Beatles’ Abbey Road album, and a 1969 Wake Forest yearbook.

Rounding out the exhibit with a more reflective grouping, Collecting Stories focuses on the recollections from student participants — with textual accounts of the passionate debates and educated decisions that resulted in the current collection.

“Our goal from the beginning of this project was to get people thinking about the process of collecting in a new way,” Slaby says. “We didn’t want to just bring the ‘best’ pieces to Reynolda. The students’ eclectic decisions are what make this exhibit particularly interesting.”

If you go
Reynolda House Museum of American Art will be presenting Now/Then: A Journey in Collecting Contemporary Art at Wake Forest through December 31 in the Mary and Charlie Babcock Wing. Additionally, Gallery Talks will take place throughout November. For more information, call 336-758-5150 or go to reynoldahouse.org.

New acquisitions to the Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art from the spring 2009 buying trip will be on exhibit in the Hanes Art Gallery in the Scales Fine Arts Center through December 9.  For more information, call 336-758-5585.