This is the sixth and final episode in the fourth season of WYSO's original series, Studio Visit.
The series explores artists and the inspirations behind their work. Susan Byrnes, a WYSO community voices producer who has been making art for over 30 years, created it.
This season, Byrnes explores ideas from her latest show, "Lightness and Weight," which was on display at the Contemporary Dayton Gallery. In today’s final episode of this season of Studio Visit, producer Susan Byrnes takes us inside Cincinnati collector Sara Vance Waddell’s art-filled home.
Studio Visit is produced for the ear and designed to be heard, not read. We strongly encourage you to listen to the audio by clicking on the blue "LISTEN" button above, which includes emotion and emphasis not on the page.
Susan Byrnes: Sara Vance Waddell has an extensive collection of art that inhabits every room in her house and even the garage.
I first met her when she bought my artwork at a show in Cincinnati, but I already knew about her. Her collection is a big deal, full of artists who have inspired me since I first started making art.
When I arrived to interview her, I stepped inside a huge room that is an actual art gallery. But the art that surrounded me wasn't necessarily beautiful. Here’s how Vance Waddell described it.
“I definitely, you know, don't collect beautiful, pretty, easy things. That's not what really excites me or what really, you know, gets me to want to acquire a piece of art." Vance Waddell said, "I acquire work that is difficult, is political. That says something.”
She showed me a bronze sculpture called "Memorial to a Marriage" by Patricia Cronin. Two nude female figures lie embracing in bed. The piece honors the enduring love of Cronin and her life partner, even though same-sex marriage was not legal when the sculpture was made in the early 2000s.
The art actually is beautiful, but the issue is what drew Vance Waddell to it, because it’s personal for her and her wife, Michelle. The sculpture was on public view in a show last year at the Dayton Art Institute called “Riveting: Women Artists from the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Collection.” That show included art by internationally known art stars like Yoko Ono and Cindy Sherman, alongside women artists from Ohio and the surrounding region.
“Since becoming a collector, I've wanted to support marginalized artists. And sometimes local artists don't get their due, by collectors in particular, sometimes." She said, "So I have found that Cincinnati and the region have some amazing male and female artists, and I believe that every collector in the area should support them. I have a lot of work by local artists.“
I acquire work that is difficult, is political. That says something.Sara Vance Waddell
One local artist who’s particularly important to her is Tyra Patterson, a name that might sound familiar.
“Tyra served 24 years in prison for a crime she did not commit." Vance Waddell said, "She went in as a teenager. And since she's been out for almost seven years, we've just grown close.”
Last year, after Patterson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Vance Waddell asked her to make a piece about her incarceration and cancer diagnosis. Tyra responded with a painting of a headless figure with pink and black boxing gloves, surrounded by razor wire and glimpses of Tyra’s face through broken glass. The pink boxing glove is also meant to reference Vance Waddell’s wife, Michelle, herself a breast cancer survivor.
“Tyra wanted to do it as like a boxer with boxing gloves, that you've fought this battle and you've won it. So it's a really... It's an important piece to her." She said, "It's important to me because it talks about things she went through, things my wife went through, and coming out on the other side.”
Vance Waddell told me she collects because she enjoys it and to support artists. But the collection has started to take on a life of its own.
“We've had work at MoMA, we've had it in the Tate in London. I mean, it's been everywhere. Who would have thought this little girl from the little podunk rural community would be an art collector." Vance Waddell said, "And to have work that is important work. So, it's kind of fun, but it's also... it's just an honor to be able to do it. To be quite honest, I just feel like blessed that I can do this.”
And I think I can speak for many area artists when I say, we are pretty lucky too.
Studio Visit is supported by The Contemporary Dayton Gallery and produced at The Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.
