Students to reveal 2021 contemporary art acquisitions tonight
Every four years since 1963, a small group of students has traveled to New York City, with University funds, to purchase art for Wake Forest’s Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art. 
Student ambassadors are charged with choosing works that reflect the times. The group’s priority in selecting this year’s art has been adding diversity to the collection. Research has focused heavily on exploring artists’ backgrounds to help in selecting broad and inclusive works for the University community – both now and for years to come.
Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the 2021 art-buying “trip” became a virtual art-buying experience. Students connected virtually with galleries nationwide to view artworks and learn about each artist’s personal history and the lived experiences influencing their work.
On Wednesday, April 28, at 6 p.m., the Student Union Art Acquisition Committee (SUAAC) will unveil their purchases in a virtual presentation. All are invited to see the artworks and learn more about what influenced students’ choices.
Register here to join the free, virtual event.
Read more about the challenges and pleasures of buying art during the pandemic in “Art for impact: Students purchase works for WFU to reflect the times” on the University news site.
Categories: Events, Inside WFU
During the pandemic, WFU's student art-buying "trip" has gone virtual
Did you know that every four years since 1963, a small group of students has traveled to New York City, with University funds, to purchase art for Wake Forest’s Student Union Art Collection? This year was different. There was a pandemic. The 2021 art-buying “trip” has become an art-buying “experience.” 
The pandemic, while restricting travel, inspired some positive outcomes. More than double the number of students are participating this year, and the geographic boundary has expanded. Instead of boarding a plane for the Big Apple, 13 students virtually visited 16 galleries in six cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver and Detroit.
The students are charged with selecting works that reflect the times. Since the 2016 art acquisition trip, “reflecting the times” has included four years of political polarization, the pandemic and isolation, the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, Me Too, and gender identity and queer liberation. The priority for students this year has been adding diversity to the collection – to select broad and inclusive works for the University community – both now and for years to come.
As senior business major Mikey Mattone says: “Art can create community and create a sense of belonging. And if you see people that look like you or works by people like you, it’s going to make you feel a lot more welcomed.”
You can read more about the students, their extensive research and the group’s virtual gallery visits in “Art for impact: Students purchase works for WFU to reflect the times” on the University news site.
Categories: Inside WFU
WFU Student Union Art Collection on exhibit at SECCA
The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art is hosting “With Open Eyes,” an exhibition featuring nearly 60 works selected from Wake Forest University’s Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art. The exhibition will run through Oct. 2. Admission is free.
Works on display are from among the more than 160 pieces purchased by students during University sponsored student art-buying trips that have taken place every four years since 1963.
The buying program, where students are given the opportunity to make the final decisions about which works of art will be added to the University’s collection, is believed to be the only one of its kind in the country. The goal is for the students to use the available funds to purchase works that reflect the current times. From Picasso’s L’Ecuyere (1960) to Jasper Johns’ Flags (1967-68) to Alex Katz’s Vincent with Open Mouth (1970), to Keith Haring’s Untitled (1982), to Christian Marclay’s Memento (Hearing is Believing) (2008) the collection include paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and photography.
During the 2013 trip, students purchased three photographic works: “Grazing Incidence Spectrometer” by Thomas Struth; “Lightning Fields 143” by Hiroshi Sugimoto; and Andrew Moore’s “Courtyard, Cass Tech High.”
Students participating in the trip are selected through a competitive application process. After much study, research and debate, the group hones in on artists whose work they like. They write to galleries asking to see what works are currently on the market by these artists. During the trip, they view the top choices, negotiate with gallery owners and decide as a group which works will become the newest additions to the collection.
“Over the course of their experience, students learn not only about choosing and purchasing contemporary art, they learn about themselves,” says art professor Jay Curley. “When they start the process of preparing for the trip, they are overwhelmed and slightly intimidated by the New York gallery world. By the end, they are on their mobile phones walking through Chelsea bargaining with these same galleries.”
Curley and associate teaching professor Leigh Ann Hallberg will be leading the 2017 trip next spring.
Mark Reece (’49), who was dean of men and College Union adviser, developed the idea for the trip before the University even had an art department. In 1963, Reece, and then faculty members Ed Wilson (’43) and J. Allen Easley and two students drove to New York City, explored the contemporary art galleries there, and came back with a dozen works of art for the University.
Learn more about the Wake Forest University art-buying trip by watching this three-minute excerpt from the exhibition video.
SECCA is located at 750 Marguerite Drive off Reynolda Rd., just five minutes from Wake Forest.
Categories: University Announcement
Professor’s works to benefit art collection
The late Bob Knott dedicated much of his time during his long career teaching art at Wake Forest to helping students build the Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art.
Knott, who also was an accomplished studio artist and photographer, left behind a collection of digital photographs made in Venice, Italy, and sculpture made from remnants of the Maine fishing industry, when he died in 2010. Read more
Categories: Events
