Let's play a game of "I Spy" on campus. I spy with my little eye an Andy Warhol print, a John Singer Sargent painting, a pair of Picasso etchings, some Salvador Dalí sketches and several Walker Evans photographs. Can't find them? Most students have a hard time locating these precious items as well, even though some are placed right under their noses. The Permanent Art Collection at Tufts is a mystery of sorts, scattered throughout the campus and still a puzzle for those who haven't spent considerable time looking. But the rich, eclectic smattering of pieces is worth the effort of sleuthing, and with a little effort, discovering Dalí and others may not prove so challenging.
The collection
The permanent acquisitions at Tufts comprise a collection of some 2,000 works spanning from Mediterranean antiquity to the present. While almost every artistic medium is represented, Director of Galleries and Collections Amy Ingrid Schlegel said that photography is one of the collection's strengths. Dedicated donors over the years have gifted portfolios of major 20th-century names like Evans, Lee Friedlander, Sally Gall and Richard Misrach to the university. Tufts holds no acquisition fund for artwork, so the permanent collection has been built exclusively through donations. According to Schlegel, that doesn't mean that faculty, administrators and gallery staff can't be proactive in seeking out and screening proposed gifts.
Schlegel receives a constant barrage of solicitations by artists hoping to exhibit at the university galleries. "I'm always on the lookout, even if acquisition isn't the artist's original intent," Schlegel said.
When artists can't afford to donate, sometimes a friend purchases the piece and donates it on their behalf. "It really ends up being a win-win situation," Schlegel said.
Unlike some other universities, Tufts has never had a freestanding museum on its grounds to house its permanent works. As the joint degree program with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA) grew exponentially, donors Alex and Shirley Aidekman offered funds for the arts center that now bears their name. They did so with the desire to see the SMFA program, as well as curated exhibitions, have a polished, professional space. While the galleries house rotating contemporary shows, the permanent holdings are sprinkled throughout academic buildings and a few private offices.
While some off-site storage for larger works exists, Schlegel stressed that keeping pieces elsewhere is expensive, cumbersome and not in line with the mission of Galleries and Collections at Tufts. "That's really not our goal, to have things go into deep storage where people can't appreciate them," Schlegel said. "Our goal is really to circulate as much — especially of the new, incoming acquisitions — as possible." She estimates that about 60 percent of the entire collection is currently on view, while storage is utilized mainly for works awaiting conservation.
Public and semi-public sites
Many of the works displayed in public areas simply go overlooked. "The work is very dispersed, so you really need to be cognizant and look around, take note of what is on the walls," Schlegel said. Labels mark all works within the permanent collection around campus, from the aluminum Frank Stella sculpture right outside Cohen Auditorium to the colorful splash of forms by Albert Alcalay in the recently renovated Packard Hall.
There are three locations — Gifford House, the President's office and suite, and the Provost's office and suite — that contain permanent pieces and are, as Schlegel says, "quasi-public," meaning that students can't necessarily walk in at any time but can make an appointment to view the works or be invited to an event held in the space.
The artworks placed in the semi-public locations came out of a negotiation between the director of galleries and the inhabitants of those private spaces. When the Bacows moved in to the Gifford House, they had researched the works and were ready to decorate their new home.
"My very first day being here — literally, the movers were at our house in Newton where we used to live ... and I said to the movers ‘Lock the door when you're done; I'm going to meet with the curator at Tufts,'" said Adele Fleet Bacow, who also serves on the Art Advisory Board for the Tufts galleries. Fleet Bacow, who came close to pursuing an art history degree at Wellesley before she discovered her passion for architecture and urban planning, is no stranger to aesthetic studies — and has a markedly modern taste.
The orange-splashed Helen Frankenthaler painting in the entrance of Gifford House is evidence of her love of vivid, contemporary imagery and is one of Fleet Bacow's favorites. "It was very bold to put here and very large, but I just love it," she said. "I try to use art to bring in a diversity of styles and flavors to the house."
From the Hale Woodruff linocut prints in the bathrooms to the pre-Columbian ceremonial mask resting in the sitting room, the pieces in Gifford House benefit from a secure, high-profile home. Fleet Bacow looks over her shoulder at the curled figure of a Rodin sculpture and then at the stately John Singer Sargent oil painting on an adjacent wall. "Some of the pieces that are here are not what you'd want in really public spots just because they're so valuable," she said. "We have good security here, and plus, we have 9,000 people a year who get to come in and enjoy it."
For current students, senior dinners, a tradition established by the Bacows, allows undergraduates to view the pieces on the main floor of the house before they leave Tufts. Other opportunities may present themselves through various courses, and students have occasionally e-mailed the Bacows in the past to ask for appointments. The access to the work may seem restricted — and in many ways it is — but the pieces are also some of the most actively viewed.
"The work at Gifford House arguably is the best exposed," Schlegel said. "It might seem a little counterintuitive, but in fact I think more people see the work at Gifford House each year than anywhere else on campus."
Maybe that's because Fleet Bacow is eager to show off the work in her home. "I'm not exaggerating when I say that within two minutes of people walking in I'm going, ‘Let me show you this!' and ‘Let me show you that!'" she said. "We're always giving impromptu tours of the collection."
Increasing accessibility
Lauren Lanster, a graduating senior who worked at the Tufts University Art Gallery in Aidekman Arts Center, said that she constantly faced inquiries about the permanent collection — and for a while, didn't know exactly how to address them. While working within the archives of the Tufts Galleries and Collections last year, Lanster learned more about the permanent acquisitions and wanted to do something about the lack of awareness among students. "I went through and realized we have so much art, and it's all over campus," she said. "I think it adds to the prestige of the university to have such a nice collection. People should know about it."
To make the collection more accessible, Lanster created for her multimedia arts minor senior project a website that catalogs the permanent works as well as other pieces displayed across campus. The site, which is linked to the Tufts University Art Gallery website, is now live and includes an interactive map, a section of collection highlights and a printable walking tour with a suggested route that starts at Aidekman and circles back. Lanster said that as she snapped photos for the website, students studying in the library were suddenly made aware of the works situated just above them — a testament to the importance of her project. "You're in the library for a large percentage of your undergraduate experience, and here's this really cool art that you're in the midst of and don't even know it's there," Lanster said.
A walking tour designed by Schlegel is also in the works for use on any handheld PDA such as an iPhone. Though it won't launch until September, the tour will be available through an application called "eXhibit" and will focus on closer examination for particular pieces. "It will provide some context — the artist, the work you're looking at — but it probes and poses questions that ask you to look more carefully," Schlegel explained.
While the Galleries and Collections staff updated its collection management system two years ago, and conservation assessment for permanent artworks is underway for the summer months, a huge digitization project would require another dedicated staff person and probably federal funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Lanster, who wishes the works in the Gifford House and other semi-private locations were more readily available to students, hopes that a tour program might someday be created. Unfortunately, Schlegel said that regular tours of the Gifford House are not as feasible as the gallery staff might like. "We're not really equipped at this point to do regular standing tours for the public," Schlegel said. "And it would be have to be synchronized with when [the Bacows] are not home, which would be tricky."
Schlegel admits, though, that with the proper initiative from the student body and careful planning, art-centered events providing undergraduates with extra opportunities to view the less-accessible pieces in the permanent collection could work. In the meantime, students can look up from their books in the Tower Café, where Lowell Nesbitt lithographs add moonscapes to the walls and Hollis Perry's bulbous cup sculpture oversees studiers.
