14 / December 1999 Illinois Issues

State universities collect art. It's not their main business, to be sure, but such collections are extensive and valuable. Yet the art costs Illinois taxpayers very little because most of it is donated.

Ninety percent of the permanent collection housed at the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for example, was donated by alumni and other benefactors. Curator Eunice Maguire says any new acquisitions for the museum are purchased with money donated for that purpose.

Benefactors' gifts have provided some of the state's public universities with collections not generally associated with Illinois. Northern Illinois University holds the largest collection of Burmese art in the country and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale has a Melanesian art collection second only to the Field Museum in Chicago and equal to that of the St. Louis Art Museum. However, university galleries aiming to build a reputation for their collections can also get donations "out of the blue." Recently, SIUC received $2.8 million in original contemporary prints from an art dealer in Canada looking for tax breaks for customers.

Courtesy of the University Museum. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale - Coal Miner, wood sculpture, by Fred Myers

The galleries are maintained by public money as a cultural and research resource for the public, as well as the university community. But they exist, in large part, because much of the art has been given as gifts, often by people connected to the universities, or by artists and collectors who want to share what they have created or appreciated. Eric Barnett, head of the collection at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, says it best: "Like Blanche DuBois, we depend on the kindness of strangers." 

Six public universities helped Illinois Issues by sharing samples of the artwork in their collections: The Krannert Art Center and Kinkead Pavilion at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Western Illinois University Art Gallery, the Northern Illinois University Art Museum, the University Galleries of Illinois State University, the University Museum of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and the University Museum of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

The Krannert Art Center and Kinkead Pavilion at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The Interloper, oil on board, by Billy Morrow Jackson

Northern Illinois University Art Museum Annie Glidden, part of a mural in DeKalb, painted by Chicago artist Olivia Guda and members of the community as part of Northern Illinois University's Museum Without Walls program.

Illinois Issues December 1999 / 15