Conversations with Collectors: Eric Key, Lynn Sylvester, Christina Waddler in conversation with Curlee Raven Holton

A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO ART COLLECTING - 03

Welcome to the first installment of our new series, Conversations with Collectors, a part of our Beginner’s Guide to Art Collecting project, in which we share our insights into the art world, chat with colleagues and explore market trends. In this series, we’ll ask notable collectors questions about their journeys as art collectors, finding their favorite artists, purchasing their first piece of art, and much more. 

Conversations with Collectors: Eric Key, Lynn Sylvester, Christina Waddler & Curlee Raven Holton

This compelling first installment of our latest series, Conversations with Collectors, brings together collectors Eric Key, Lynn Sylvester, and Christina Waddler in conversation with Raven Editions founder Curlee Raven Holton in this video recorded on May 22, 2022, at the Raven Fine Art Editions studio. Together, the collectors discuss their art-collecting journeys and practices over the years. This conversation explores the emotional draws of collecting, efforts to engage in impactful art endeavors with a focus on art patronage that supports African American creativity, and the role of collectors in building a culture of art-making and collecting. The talk also highlights other notable artists, printmakers, and collectors, such as Henry O. Tanner, David C. Driskell, Robert Blackburn, and Robert E. Steele.

“A work of art is a document that must be read; you have to spend time with it.” - Curlee Raven Holton

© Raven Editions, 2022; Collectors visit to studio

Eric Key is the Arts Program Director at the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMUC). Throughout his career, Key has curated over 200 culturally diverse exhibitions. Since joining UMGC, the university has added almost 2,200 individual pieces to its collection and has increased the percentage of works on public display. An avid art collector, Key started collecting shortly after graduate school. He describes his practice of collecting as a journey of finding works that hold a conversation. His collection comprises works that strongly focus on exploring black identity and African tradition. In each piece, Key finds a connection to old African traditions that emphasize art as a vehicle for conversation, within which ancestry and traditions live on. In choosing artists to support, Key discusses how he makes a conscious effort to dispel myths that stereotype Black people as uncreative, untalented, or unworthy of collecting. 

Lynn Sylvester is a retired attorney and law professor. As a child, Sylvester grew up visiting galleries and museums with her father and attending classes at the Corcoran School of the Arts. Sylvester mediated between the law and the creative throughout her 30-year-long career. Since her retirement, she has focused on her work as a textile artist and using her skills to support the arts. She developed the Collector's School for the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland. Additionally, her patronage has emphasized the need to preserve a rich history of African American art through her published articles and public events. Her own journey highlights the dualities between the role of collector and creator. As an artist, she finds herself perpetually confronted with the realities of herself. In her creative process, she says she’ll have an idea floating around within her head, with the meaning often unclear until she’s finished the work, and the final product will highlight different aspects of herself. Sylvester discusses her life–long passion for learning and what inspired her to begin acquiring African American and Japanese art. 

“I didn’t realize I was a true collector until I ran out of wall space, and then I thought, well, maybe there’s something to this, but the works that I have, there are certain ones that I sit and look at every single day…and they still bring me joy.” - Lynn Sylvester.

© Raven Editions, 2022; Left to right: Curlee Raven Holton, Lynn Sylvester, Christina Waddler & Eric Key

Christina Waddler is a retired public administrator with a keen interest in craftsmanship and aesthetics. Growing up in New York City and having attended the High School of Music and the Arts in Manhattan, she was exposed to the arts and art museums throughout the city. In talking about her collecting journey, Waddler mentions the time she spent learning from Dr. Robert E. Steele, a retired professor from the University of Maryland and the former Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center. Steele’s interest in unveiling the contributions of African American artists and printmakers greatly influenced Waddler’s collecting journey. From Steele, she learned to discern how the quality of a printmaker impacts the artistic process and the value of a work. Waddler discusses how her primary interest in three-dimensional, traditional African objects influenced her desire to collect work from contemporary African and African-American artists, although her collection includes works by non-BIPOC artists as well. In collecting, Waddler has found intentionality to be the driving factor in her search for a balance between aesthetics and representation. She even mentions an early collecting experience in which she purchased a work solely because of the artist’s reputation and has never hung the work on her walls. She emphasizes that she purchases works that bring her joy.

Tips for Beginner Collectors:

Eric Key

“Take the analytical out. Listen to your heart first and then your brain. Listen to your heart, purchase that piece, support that artist, and then when you get home and hang it up, that’s when your analytic part can kick in, and you can try to understand it.”

Lynn Sylvester

“I’ve been talking with artists and collector types about this, and there are two worlds of thought - the art world vs. the market. I would advise people to work in the art world because that’s where the real stuff happens, where the real people are, where art hasn’t become just another commodity.”

Christina Waddler

“Buy what you like…but also consider what your intention is. Is it to have beautiful works around you, to support an artist, or just to decorate? Once you stop buying for the love of the art and instead buy for a decorative concept, it’s no longer complimentary to the artist.”

Bonus Content:

Curlee Raven Holton

“I think as informed collectors, you begin to realize you’re participating in a larger project of investing in and trying to sustain a culture, even if that’s not your strategy for acquiring works. And our effort to talk about it should be to contribute to the conversation about the importance of the appreciation and collection of art.”

Henry O. Tanner, Capsized Fishing Boats, Brittany, 1905–1914, printed c. 1950 by Jesse O. Tanner. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Samuel L. Rosenfeld in memory of June S. Rosenfeld

As mentioned in the video, one of the earliest recorded prints from an African American artist was Henry O. Tanner’s Capsized Fishing Boats, Brittany.