A Texas couple donated 25 pieces of African artwork valued at just under $1 million to Philander Smith College on Friday.
The pieces -- sculptures, masks and ceremonial works -- will start an African art collection, which will be named after the couple, Melissa and Kevin Katz of Dickinson, Texas. They said they hope the donation will be used as educational tools for the private, 567-student college in Little Rock.
"Sociologically, we can learn a lot through the art," said Kevin Katz, 62. "It's the idea that you can try to track cultural behavior historically back to its origins. You can see how these people thought and behaved and if that culture has transgressed."
For Philander Smith's president, Roderick Smothers, the collection will help kick-start his goal to revive the humanities and arts programs at the historically black college. Smothers, who took the helm of the college Jan. 1, has put together a task force to create a plan to carry out the arts and humanities revival during the next five to seven years, he said.
"As we look at arts and humanities across the board, this gives an excellent addition to our learning laboratory to really begin to have our students focus on the historical aspects of art and what they mean for our cultures," he said. "This is very timely."
The collection will be exhibited in the Donald W. Reynolds Library during Smothers' Aug. 27 inauguration, according to a news release. The pieces will be available for the public to view -- and touch.
Most of the pieces are at least a century old and made of wood or bronze, he said, adding that the pieces came from residents of western and central Africa. They include a "nail fetish" piece, a baboon with real monkey hair and a door post.
Kevin Katz was born in South Africa and came to the United States in 1976 to attend Pacific University in Oregon and the University of Houston. It was around that time that he and Melissa Katz, both optometrists, began buying up African artwork from dealers in the United States, he said.
"I really buy them out of having a connection with it," Kevin Katz said. "It's been more of an emotional attachment."
The couple have given other African pieces to Huston-Tillotson University, Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University, all in Texas. They struck up a friendship with Smothers, who worked at Huston-Tillotson as the vice president of advancement and development.
When the couple learned of Smothers' move to Little Rock, Kevin Katz called up the new college president to congratulate him and to ask what he wanted for his inauguration. Smothers said he only expected a couple of pieces of art.
The next thing he knew, Smothers said, the Katzes had packed a moving van full of the works, wrapped them in blankets and headed to Arkansas' capital city. The couple had owned some of the 25 pieces for more than three decades.
"We're trying to downsize," Kevin Katz said. "We've owned and enjoyed it, but somebody else can make better use of it."
The pieces will join the college's existing 50-piece African art collection, which Smothers says places the four-year, liberal arts school in the running for one of the largest African art exhibits in the state.
"We are extremely proud to receive this thoughtful and generous donation from Melissa and Kevin Katz," Smothers said in a prepared statement. "We will take great pride and care to showcase these impressive works as part of our extensive art collection housed on campus in the Donald W. Reynolds Library."
Metro on 07/25/2015