COLLECTOR INTERVIEW - THE STEVENS

Partners in Life and in the Arts
an interview with rebecca and gary stevens

By Clara Nartey
​Ghanian-born writer and figurative artist working with digital tools, threads, and textiles to celebrate Black hair in contemporary art.
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Rebecca and Gary Stevens are partners in life and in the arts. These high-school sweethearts have been friends for sixty plus years. They have shared interests in many things including contemporary and ethnic crafts and have both been members of the same organizations for decades. Although they each have their own individual hobbies, their joint interest in collecting art, which was initially started by Rebecca, has resulted in an extensive collection. I had tons of questions about their collection and they had answers for me. Let’s meet The Stevens. 

CN: Can you give us a little background about who you are?
The Stevens: Gary and I [Rebecca] are high school sweethearts from Oklahoma. We met in ninth grade Latin class in 1961 in Tulsa. We have been married for 54 years. The Latin has faded but not our relationship. We are still best friends.  
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​Gary has degrees from Fordham University, Oxford University and Michigan Law School and is now retired from 40 years of the private practice of law in Washington DC. He grows orchids, volunteers in the orchid greenhouses (of course) at the Hillwood Museum and Gardens in DC, listens to a variety of podcasts, and watches on-line college lectures on the Teaching Company website. (He thinks he is still in college.)    

I [Rebecca] graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and later earned an MFA from Catholic University. I was a practicing fiber artist at the Fiber Workshop in the Torpedo Factory, and showed my work in a few galleries, and worked for one year at the Renwick Gallery as an Artist-in-Residence. I then worked for a year assisting Lloyd Herman and the education department researching craft history and organizing programs. Then, for 37 years, I was the Consulting Curator, Contemporary Textiles at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington DC.  

I am now also retired, but still write articles about contemporary fiber art and other crafts, and occasionally jury exhibitions.  

Gary and I both have been members of the Renwick Alliance for many decades and from time to time we have been officers in that organization. As part of our interests and hobbies, Gary and I have been in the same couples’ book club for over 30 years. We also share an interest in contemporary and traditional international crafts.

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​CN: When and how did you start collecting?
The Stevens: I [Rebecca] started collecting when I was in college before we were married. Gary soon joined in with me.  

In college I majored in art history and studio art. The college art museum sponsored visiting print shows organized by private dealers. The students were encouraged to collect reasonably priced works from these traveling shows. I bought one or two pieces each year when I could afford it.  I also collected artworks created by my fellow students and by faculty members.  

I had two college friends whose parents were serious collectors and whose houses were replete with works of famous artists. One in particular I remember because I did not find one of the works appealing.  It was a painting by the Irish-English artist Francis Bacon. I became determined to understand why they collected such an ugly painting! This was an early lesson for me in how great art needn’t be beautiful art.


CN: Can you tell us a story about one of the pieces you have collected?
The Stevens: There are many such stories, and each is unique.  One that stands out for us involves an unusual bamboo sculpture that we bought on one of our trips to Japan. We have several Japanese pieces in our collection, some contemporary, some ethnic objects. This piece was a life-sized and life-like bamboo sculpture of a cicada (only about three inches in length) carefully crafted by a basket artist in a small family-owned craft shop in Kyoto. Getting it home unbroken against all the laws of physics and the vicissitudes of international travel was a challenge. We still have it, and our guests marvel at its intricacy and life-like appearance.

CN: How do you decide what to add to your collection?
The Stevens: Like most collectors, we buy what we like. So, like many collectors, we started off as accumulators rather than formal collectors. After a while we found ourselves buying more than one piece from the same artist over time. We enjoyed seeing how their work was developing. This made our accumulation seem more like a collection. We collect the work of established makers as well as emerging artists. Often, we buy pieces from galleries and craft shows, but sometimes directly from the artists themselves. We have become good friends with many of  these artists, which adds to the pleasure of our collecting. We especially like buying the work of young and/or emerging artists, and we enjoy encouraging them to further develop their practices.  

CN: Do you commission work?  If so, tell us about that process.
The Stevens: We have commissioned a few pieces.  Several of these were commissioned through Veena Singh’s Sansar Gallery in DC (unfortunately now closed). Other pieces were commissioned directly through artists we met and learned about while going to craft shows and other galleries.  We believe that it is generally important to buy through galleries which are critical to artists building their careers.

Our commission buying process usually starts with our becoming familiar with an artist’s work. Once we have decided the general parameters of what we want, we approach the artist directly or work through the artist’s gallery. We believe that it is important for the artist and the buyer to be on the same page, but it is equally important that commissioning art be a collaborative effort with the artist free to exercise significant creativity. 

One of our commissions comes particularly to mind. We commissioned a wall installation of ceramic cherry blossoms from Laurel Lukaszewski, a Washington DC based ceramic artist. We became aware of Laurel’s work when it was featured  in a review in the Washington Post.  

After seeing her work which included a spray of ceramic cherry blossoms in a local  exhibition, we approached her with the idea of her replicating the look of cherry blossoms on a branch winding around a doorway and corner in our downstairs room which is devoted mostly to craft art. Since we are especially fond of Japanese, global and contemporary work, this seemed perfect for us. And it was.  

Since each blossom had to be installed with a drill and the wall we had in mind turned out to be solid plaster, not drywall, the installation was much more labor intensive than Laurel or we first had envisioned. Still Laurel soldiered on, and the result has been a real crowd pleaser for all of our guests.

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​CN: Are there a few artists that you have your eye on that you would be willing to share?
The Stevens:  Because my expertise is in contemporary  fiber art, we have several works by pioneers in this field. Some of these works were bought by us from galleries and artists, and others we found on the secondary market which can be a good place for starting collectors to go to find works by established artists at good prices.  

There are too many established and emerging artists that we follow to list them all, and to list only a few would seem to be unfair to those inadvertently omitted. We suggest that those who are interested and want to know about established and emerging artists read periodicals like American Craft and join craft support organizations like the James Renwick Alliance for Craft. That will be their best window into the field.

CN: What advice would you give to new collectors just starting out?
The Stevens: We think that we pretty much covered that in our responses to the preceding questions. But in addition, we would suggest that people starting to collect, buy what they like, and stretch themselves financially to acquire work they think is special. We, of course, can recall too many works by now established artists whose work we thought was just beyond our budget years ago and whose work now has skyrocketed in value. One way to stretch out the payments is to inquire with the gallery or the artist if you can work out a payment plan over time.

CN: Earlier, you mentioned the secondary market. Can you elaborate some more on using the secondary market?
The Stevens: The secondary market is the resale of artwork. Primarily it is in the auction market but also some galleries have a resale section on their website.

It is only a follow up to buying at craft fairs, galleries, and from artists themselves. When a new collector who has studied the field knows who they would like to collect, they can search the secondary market for artworks they would like to have. At the moment there are many older collectors who are passing away and their estates are selling their artworks at auction . 

Rago Auctions is a place to start.They have a wealth of experience and expertise in the field. New collectors can also look at the websites of big auction houses like Christie’s. They often have yearly auctions of objects and design pieces that include contemporary crafts.

CN: Are there any misconceptions about collectors that you would like to rectify?
The Stevens: Like us, most people start out as acquirers not as collectors. So, don’t over think your process of acquisition in the beginning. Your knowledge and aesthetic sensibility will grow over time, and what you accumulate may very well  grow into a collection, but if not, it really doesn’t matter. Enjoy the journey. And collectors don’t have to be wealthy, but they do need to embrace their passion for art and find ways to buy what they like even if it takes a little stretch of their budgets.