Want a Picasso? UChicago students borrow original art for their dorms

Students returning to college this fall are busy with the usual activities—getting to know their professors or studying in the library. At the University of Chicago, some students lined up for a different experience: the chance to borrow an original work of art from the school. Smart Museum of Art.

Art to Live With debuts

event Art to live with It started almost 70 years ago, in 1958 Joseph and ShapiroA prominent art collector in Chicago.

The premise of the program was simple: Shapiro thought students would come to appreciate art if they could live with it. So, he gave the university fifty works—mostly by European and American artists—to start a loan program open to all students in campus housing.

It was a big hit from the start, and within four years, the collection grew to more than 500 pieces—including many contemporary works that Shapiro thought would be attractive to students.

Despite its popularity, in the late 1980s, the program became dormant.

Industrial credit is a new era

The program was rebooted in 2017, thanks to funding from Art to Live with Greg Wendt, a University of Chicago alumnus, and participants. Smart Museum has taken over the program management.

Current debt collection, separate from Smart's overall holdings, is done entirely on paper. The pieces keep turning over the years. Beginning in the fall quarter, Smart offers an online and in-person preview of works available from the collection, which this year numbers 134 pieces.

Students have about a week to browse the collection and identify their favorites among color lithographs by luminaries such as Joan Miró, Marc Chagall and Yves Tanguy, iconic prints by Gordon Parks and Jenny Holzer, and even a few Picassos.

Contemporary artists such as Takashi Murakami and Robert Indiana abound, and Chicago artists including Nick Cave, Amanda Williams and Carl Wirsum are well represented.

In previous years, some enthusiastic students would pitch tents in the small courtyard outside the museum and in some cases hang out for two or three days. This year the university launched a New policy It states “No person shall use any place of the University, indoor or outdoor, for lodging or sleeping (either open or in structures or tents).”

Instead, Smart implemented multiple check-ins into a two-day long weekend “art match,” where students can secure a spot in line and demonstrate they're committed to attending.

Still, early in the morning on the first day of check-in, a warm and sunny Saturday, it was clear that many students had spent the night. Instead of tents, they pulled together outdoor benches and piled them with pillows and blankets to make beds, or sat in chairs to while away the hours with their laptops, books and, in some cases, art supplies and knitting projects.

Lined up along a concrete wall, in clusters or on their own, they looked like attendees at a plein air slumber party.

Raffaella Greco-Freeman, at the very front of the line, first met Friday evening and had a quiet night, saying, “Nothing too scary.” In his second year studying mathematics and economics, Greco-Freeman was a huge art enthusiast and had his eye on a work by an old master, Francisco de Goya. When he first heard about the program as a freshman, his immediate reaction was disbelief.

“I was like this is not real at all, like it's somebody making something up, I'm getting fake news,” he said. “It's amazing to be a part of it and find them like priceless, you know works of art and like pieces of history… just in a dorm room!”

“There aren't many programs like this — it's a lot of work,” said Vanja Malloy, director of SMART. His hope is that it gives students a deeper perspective on art and life.

“It can be something when you drink your morning coffee every day and you look at it differently and you notice something you didn't before,” says Malloy. “So living with work allows you to have this depth of experience that you can't if you're just scrolling on your phone.”

Students play the waiting game

As the day wore on and the sun set, Smart Museum staff prepared snacks and drinks. Some students were playing cornholes or hitting volleyball back and forth.

Chris Wong, a first-year engineering student from Hong Kong, said he only showed up for the experience—the industry was almost secondary. Still, he was eyeing the works of Chagall and Miró. He said he wasn't nervous about the museum-quality art in his dorm because he believed the university was “taking all necessary steps” to make up for any loss, adding that he considered it “a great honor to live with such greats.” works.”

Lauren Payne, who directs Art to Live With, said Smart expects students to be “good stewards of the work and that they take it very seriously.”

“Accidents are bound to happen,” Payne said. “We recognize the nature of what we're doing here. Sometimes it can fall off the student wall and the frame can be damaged or a hinge can slip. But you know, no harm done.”

Many of the students are not art history or even humanities majors but are studying science or engineering. Museum director Malloy feels the program shows students that art can be a part of their college experience regardless of their academic focus.

“It encourages them to look closely at a work of art, to learn more about it, to have a curiosity that then develops throughout their lives,” Malloy explains. So I think it can have a lifelong impact, but it's something that brings down barriers in a very important way.”

Payne added that students who participate in Art to Live With become more involved in the museum. Some do internships and others join a committee that helps select new acquisitions for debt collection, prepare proposals and present them for consideration.

Getting ready for the big reveal

Sunday morning students return to collect their art; Lined up outside the museum. Lauren Payne advises on their process and how to get art out of museums.

“When you pull it off the wall, you're going to hold it with both hands,” Payne says. “Never carry the artwork from the top rail. Once your artwork is off the wall, you'll go to a table to sign your loan agreement.”

The museum provides all the pieces and supplies students need, including instruction packets and command strips so they can hang the art without damaging the art or their dorm walls.

The door opens, the students hesitate, still unsure, and then rush in.

Isha Mehta is excited to receive a brightly colored lithograph of her first choice, pop artist Mel Ramos. A second-year economics and human rights student, she says the program has changed her. “It made me want to learn more about art and go to smart museum exhibits, and it encouraged me to take a specific art history class last year.”

Chris Wong also finished with a lithograph—one of Miró's. Wong said he didn't know much about the industry and made his selection based on instinct.

“I think it's something unspeakable that draws me to it,” she recalls. “I'm some form, little monster, bird oddity, whatever you call them.”

The potential impact of the program is currently up in the air. Even as Smart celebrates its 50th anniversary, the funding that brought Art to Live With Back will run out after next year. For now, students are happily heading home with an original piece of artwork to hang in their dorms.