Going postal...

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Visual Arts

Going postal...

Two untitled portraits from the Melba Price series acquired by the Collectors' Council Acquisitions Fund in 2009.
Two untitled portraits from a series by Melba Price appear on a new Walker postcard.

We recently featured the Walker’s Collectors’ Council Acquisitions Fund (CCAF) in the July/August issue of WALKER magazine. The CCAF was established in 2006 to create a way for members to participate in the Walker’s acquisition process, including the opportunity to vote on an artwork they acquire as a gift to the Walker each year. The fund is unique in that it’s dedicated to acquiring “first works” – works by artists who are new to the Walker’s collection. In this way, the fund draws on the institution’s long history of engaging artists early in their careers and following them throughout their journey.

This year, we created postcards to commemorate the art purchased by the Collectors’ Council Acquisitions Fund, which for 2009 is a series of five gouache-on-paper portraits by St. Paul artist Melba Price. (Interestingly, Price based the portraits on anonymous digital images that she selected from online photo websites like gettyimages.com.) The Walker will create a new card each year in honor of the new addition to our permanent collection. Postcards featuring Adam Helms’ Untitled (48 Portraits) (purchased in 2007) and Tomás Saraceno’s Flying Garden/Air-Port-City/32SW (in 2008), along with the Price postcards, are all available in the Walker Shop. Stop in and check them out!

Collectors’ Council members met in April to vote on their 2009 selection.
Collectors’ Council members met in April to vote on their 2009 selection.

A special thanks to those who participated in the Collectors’ Council Acquisitions Fund this year:

Front row from left: former Walker curator Doryun Chong, curator Siri Engberg, Tasha Marvin, John Cullen, Collectors’ Council co-chairs Sally Blanks and Randy Hartten, Leni Moore, Walker curatorial fellow Andria Hickey, former Walker curator Yasmil Raymond, and chief curator Darsie Alexander

Back row from left: Director Olga Viso, Alan Polsky, Kate Kelly, Maurice Blanks, Joe Gibbons, Sanders Marvin, David Moore, Jr., and curator Betsy Carpenter

Not pictured: Robert Bras and Julie Matonich, Toby and Mae Dayton, Nazie Eftekhari, Ron Lotz, Tim and Kim Montgomery, Joan and John Nolan, Rebecca and Robert Pohlad, and Susan and Rob White

Thanks also to Lowry Hill, generous long-standing sponsor of the Collectors’ Council.

The Collectors’ Council is open to Walker members at the Patron’s Circle level ($2,000) and is a great way to more deeply engage with contemporary art. For more information, contact the Walker’s development office at 612.375.7642 or e-mail donors@walkerart.org.

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