No birthday is complete without gifts (and cake), and this fall the William Benton Museum of Art marks its 60th with both – an exhibition-sized thank you to the friends who’ve given gifts over the last decade and a celebration that closes an online silent auction (and also includes cake).
“This museum is part of UConn’s history,” curator and academic liaison Amanda Douberley says. “We help UConn tell its story, in part through all these amazing gifts from faculty, alumni, and friends of the museum. They’re like a wish for the future, to say, ‘I’m giving this to you, so it can be part of this institution’s story.’”
The Benton’s own story starts in 1933, when former UConn President Charles Lewis Beach bequeathed his art collection to the University and left a trust fund to allow for the continued acquisition of more.
A hundred years ago, Douberley says, it was even more difficult than today to get to big museums in Boston and New York; back then because travel was slow, and today because life is fast. Places like the Benton, which formally opened in 1966 as simply the Museum of Art before taking the name of the U.S. senator in 1972, offer people a similar experience, only closer to home.
It’s a place now where people can see work from French neo-impressionist Maximilien Luce, whose “Portrait of the Sculptor Albert Marque” is on display; art professor Ray DiCapua, whose recently donated work “Marie” also is on display; and various pieces of African art, also on display, thanks to donations from sociology Professor Emeritus Josef Gugler and his wife Janine Gugler.
They’re all part of the museum’s latest exhibition, “With Gratitude: Highlights from a Decade of Gifts.” With more than 7,500 objects in its full collection, the museum is featuring a fraction of the more recent acquisitions but aims to show visitors the breadth of its holdings.
“We have very limited funds to make purchases, so we rely on gifts, like a lot of museums do, to build our collection,” says Douberley, who curated the show. “We have 17th century altarpiece sculptures from Austria, 18th century illustrated manuscript leaves from India, and 19th century American portraits from Coventry, Connecticut. Across time, across space, and across media, there are so many different kinds of things that come into the collection.”
Collecting Stories …
Those altarpieces from Austria come from Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus Richard D. Brown and his wife, retired human development and family sciences associate professor Irene Quenzler Brown.
The two were in France in the mid-1960s as Fulbright Scholars when they discovered the two statues of St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena from the early 1600s in an antique store in Germany during Christmas break. But they didn’t buy them at first.
“We learned their price and returned to France. But they stayed in our minds and several weeks later we decided to take the plunge,” Richard Brown writes in a “Collecting Story” wall label next to the sculptures by Erasmus Kern.
In 2019, Douberley says, the Browns donated them to the museum.
“We oftentimes don’t have these stories behind the objects in our files,” she says. “We’re not an archive, where you would keep everything together from a single donor in one collection. Here in the museum, we categorize objects by the artist’s nationality, size, and medium, so collections get taken apart.
“One thing we did for this show to highlight our donors and the really interesting stories about the objects was to invite a handful of donors to share the story behind the art,” she continues. “For these two altarpieces, knowing a little more about the life these objects had with these faculty members, from their early career all the way through, is very special.”
… and Sharing Stories
Three circa-1830s paintings from artist Erastus Salisbury Field are enjoying their first time on display at the Benton after having just been restored following their acquisition from donor Pamela Dewey in 2022.
Benton Director Nancy Stula says the three, depicting Anna and Roderick Dimock and their daughter Sophia Ann Dimock, were stored in a private residence in Coventry and were in rough condition, one with a tear in it, when a local antiques dealer working on behalf of the family brokered their donation.
The “Collecting Story” label says Field came to town and sought a room at the Brigham Tavern, where George Washington once stopped for a meal in 1789, albeit some 40 years earlier. To pay for his room and board, Field made the paintings, paying off his debt to Anna Brigham Dimock, who owned and operated the tavern, and Roderick Dimock, who ran the farm.
Dewey, a descendant of the family, owned the three portraits of Anna, Roderick, and Sophia, while another relative owned then later sold the portraits of the sons. The portrait of the servant girl once was on display at the Nathan Hale Homestead, the story label goes on to say.
Another “Collecting Story” label shares details of an exchange program started by printmaking Professor Emeritus Gus Mazzocca with the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. The program brought 12 artists from Poland to UConn and sent eight UConn faculty members to Poland. The program also included UConn students who studied in Krakow.
Douberley says she chose “A Dream About Rock Beach and Big Fish” by Stanislaw Wejman and “Bajka” by Anna Sobol-Wejman for the latest exhibition, etchings that depict a fairytale and a dreamscape and provide a look at Polish art when it was a communist country.
Silent Auction and Celebration
In the neighboring gallery at the museum, where the exhibition “Colors in the Dark: Ellen Carey” shows off the artwork of the abstract photographer who creates her pieces in pitch black darkrooms, Stula says Carey has been particularly generous to the Benton in her donation of a large photo to the museum’s online silent auction. She’s offered her 2026 piece “Dings & Shadows.”
“We have gift certificates to a number of restaurants from Max Downtown to Tree House Brewing, Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse, and Dog Lane Café,” Stula says. “We have paintings and works of art from some of our donors, like Douglas Hyland from the New Britain Museum of American Art. We have items from artists who are on faculty, like Janet Pritchard and Kathryn Myers. We have 70 items total, and there’s something for everyone.”
But there are two items that have Benton staff particularly abuzz: a pair of one-of-a-kind paintings by Jonathan XV, who smeared primary colors onto paper with his nose and tongue, then signed each with his pawprint.
“Those are going to be a real hit because people just love Jonathan,” Stula says.
Other items include: a private violin concert with UConn strings professor and acclaimed musician Solomiya Ivakhiv, a full set of hardcover “I Spy” books signed by author Walter Wick, tickets to the Hartford Stage production of “Dracula,” tickets to The Boston Pops Holiday Concert at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, hand-carved wooden bowls by artist and Benton preparator Kerry Smith, along with many other items.
The online auction is now open and closes at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, with a birthday party at the museum (that, of course, includes cake). Details on how to register for the auction are available on the museum’s website.
“Proceeds from the auction help us to expand the possibilities for education and to fulfill our mission,” Douberley says. “Many of our donors give generously just so students can interact with art. People often ask us after a show where it all goes, because they think it’s in here all the time. It goes into storage, but you can always see it in our database online. Even when it’s not on display, it’s still part of our story.”
“With Gratitude: Highlights from a Decade of Gifts” and “Colors in the Dark: Ellen Carey” are open until Dec. 20.
