Cabinets of Curiosity special exhibit at SUNY Brockport About a year ago, shortly after east Tennessee native Tim Massey arrived at the SUNY Brockport Art Department where he is an associate professor, a group of faculty were tossing around ideas about how to get to know one another better. Out of that discussion, "for which I take the blame or credit - as the case may be," says Massey, came the current exhibit of personal collections of about 30 faculty and staff members. "Most everyone collects something," says Massey, "some people just don't think of themselves as collectors." "For us, it was a natural way to satisfy our curiosity about one another and at the same time generate some interest in our programming in the art department." Massey's studio art background is as a print maker, but he's been primarily involved in gallery management for eight years and is the current gallery director for the college. Cabinets of Curiosity: Brockport Collects opened January 28 and will run through February 23 at the Tower Fine Arts Gallery on Holley Street. Gallery hours are Monday - Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is free. Faculty collections on display include Roman coins, antique license plates and Soviet propaganda posters. Also exhibited is a grouping of clear Depression glass, hand-crafted wooden walking sticks, theatrical performance posters, Inuit caribou skin masks, and two collections of rocks and minerals. While being careful not to court favorites amongst his colleague's collections, Massey says, "Everyone of them has something about them that holds one's interest, whether the pure size, or the curiosity or eccentricity of what one might collect. I find the pencil sharpener collection to be very interesting, knowing the collection is from an art faculty, because of my design interest -- in terms of the evolution of design -- the changes in the shape of the objects over the years." Another collection that particularly catches Massey's eye -- because of its color and variety - is English professor David Hale's group of license plates. On display are just 20 of hundreds of license plates Hale has collected since 1964. Dr. Hale and Massey decided, finally, to exhibit ten New York plates, including a black and tan 1910 issue that is unique because of its porcelain-on-steel composition, and ten culled from plates representing other states. Hale has every New York plate issued from the very first made 1908. He also has at least one plate from all 50 states, one from every Canadian province except Newfoundland and a smattering of plates from foreign countries. Jim Dusen, SUNY Brockport's much-honored photographer and manager of photography services, collects rocks and minerals. His stunning sparklingly colorful collection is only a representation of this entire collection which, he estimates, numbers in the hundreds. Growing up in Batavia, Dusen began collecting by gathering curiosities that any young boy might stumble on while about on the land. Dusen fondly recalls finding some fossils near LeRoy which he especially prized. Over the years, Dusen's collection has expanded to include non-native specimens he buys or trades for while attending rock and mineral shows. Leslie Locketz, an assistant professor, and chair of the SUNY Rochester Educational Opportunity Center, has collected folk art from Latin America for nearly 30 years. Her collection was first inspired by gifts from her parents following a trip to Mexico but has since expanded to a life-time passion for folk art fashioned from pottery, ceramics, leather, weavings and other textiles including decorative fabric like batik. Her's is a living collection informally integrated throughout her home. Since the seminal beginning, her collecting has expanded as Locketz travels extensively throughout the Americas collecting handmade objects from Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador and Argentina and other regions. Other collections of note include Wendy Meyer's Muppet dolls, theatrical programs by Jim Morris, Mickey Mouse memorabilia by Robert Haywood, a collection of glass slippers by Nancy Cox of the theater department and some superb caribou skin masks from Alaska collected by anthropology professor Margaret Blackman. |
