January 28–March 11, 2016
Over the past ten years, students at the University of Maryland have been working energetically to assemble one of the region’s most thought-provoking collections of contemporary art. Every two years, the student-led Contemporary Art Purchasing Program (CAPP) conducts extensive surveys of art markets in Baltimore, DC, and New York, visits numerous artists’ studios and galleries, and endeavors to shape by consensus a public collection of lasting significance. Today the CAPP collection comprises more than forty works of art spanning photography, sculpture, video, printmaking, mixed-media, and painting. This anniversary exhibition presents that collection nearly in its entirety, filling the Stamp Gallery and nearby lounges on the first floor of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union—Center for Campus Life.
Students seek to make selections that speak to the most pressing concerns of a campus population with wide-ranging interests, while thinking hard together about which works of art will best represent their current moment many years into the future. They take great care to include work by artists of diverse backgrounds and at varying stages in their careers whose work represents a range of creative processes. This responsive, improvisational approach is reflected in the fresh and open character of the collection. At the same time, broadly interconnected themes have begun to crystallize: the shifting nature of memory and perception, ecology and changing world environments, and the profound complexity of human relationships and identities.
CAPP was established through the leadership of Dr. Gretchen Metzelaars, Dr. Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, and Brian Sykes. Jeff Rhodes and Jackie Milad have been instrumental in advising the students and nurturing the collection.
Made possible by the talent and dedication of student committee members—
2006–07 Dara Koppelman, Rachel Kurinsky, Emily Newton, Fernando Ramirez, Dominique Ryan, Lindsay Smilow
2008–09 Sana Javed, Ophra Paul, Alison Reilly, Ali Stuebner, Megan Wickless
2010–11 Michele Briley, Mara Duvra, Erin Kim, David Phelps, Eldis Sula
2012–13 Sarah Buchanan, Jennifer Clifford, Nathalia Gabriel, Hanna Kelly, Alexander McCormick, Zulekha Sayyed
2014–15 James Boyle, Zoe Copeman, Melissa Rogers, Lauren Jeyoon, Korey Richardson, Makeda Solomon, Charlotte Zhang
And through the service of Rex Weil and Advisory Board members past and present—
Sarah Buchanan, Laurie Cameron, Mary H. Donatelli, Brandon Fortune, Prof. Dawn Gavin, Sana Javed, Karyn Miller, Dr. Sarah Newman, Megan Rook-Koepsel, Dr. Joshua Shannon, Brian Sykes, Henry Thaggert III, and Betsy Thomas
Special thanks to the entire staff of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union