Earlier this month, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art took hold of more than 100 donated artworks.
This may not sound like a big deal, but for a small-ish museum like SMoCA, whose permanent collection numbers around 2,000 pieces (comparably, Phoenix Art Museum hordes 18,000 works), the Eason Collection addition is a significant boast to the museum's permanent stash.
The pieces were donated by Carolyn Eason of Santa Fe, Mexico. Along with her now-late-husband Don Eason, the two collected works by known creative types (Ken Price, David Levinthal) as well as not-so-known artists (Lalla Essaydi, John Tinker). Many of these works will be displayed in SMoCA's "Thirty Years of Collecting: A Recent Gift to the Museum," scheduled to open on September 4.
Timothy Rodgers, who replaced former SMoCA director Susan Krane in November 2009, worked as a chief curator from 2004 to 2009 at the New Mexico Museum of Art (NMMoA) in Santa Fe. During his stint at NMMoA, he got to know the Easons through Santa Fe's tight-knit contemporary-art community.
"Carolyn is a very generous person who believes that art should be seen and enjoyed by as many people as possible and, therefore, she is happy her art will be viewed in the museum and in public spaces throughout the city," says Rodgers. "She also knew that the permanent collection at the museum is relatively small because of the age of the institution, so she thought that her donation would be more significant and more likely to be used at SMoCA."
Here are some more images from the Eason Collection, courtesy of Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art:
