APC Masters Research Scholar van Rensburg graduates

The APC congratulates Jessica van Rensburg on her graduation from UCT with a Master of Arts in Fine Arts (MAFA). Her thesis, entitled “Ethics of the Dust: on the care of a university art collection”, takes as its subject UCT’s Permanent Works of Art Collection.

Abstract:

This thesis considers the role and relevance of the University of Cape Town Permanent Works of Art Collection. It traces the collection’s history, including the events and personalities which shaped its development, from its embryonic beginnings in 1911, to the present, in relation to its contribution to its home institution’s goals through the ‘triple mission’ of teaching, research and public display.

In an era that demands clear correlations between the allocation of resources and relevance to institutional goals, university art collections are required to demonstrate their potential as useful educational and interpretive tools within the academic project, or risk obsolescence, even destruction. Based on fieldwork and a combination of bibliographic and archival research, undertaken between 2011 and 2013, this study establishes that, whereas most university collections were traditionally constituted for the purpose of teaching and research, or for the preservation of historical artefacts pertaining to a university and/or a specific discipline, this collection does not precisely fulfil either function.

The collection had initially been accrued opportunistically, and it was only after 1978, through the formation of a committee to administer the growing collection, that it was actively developed through an annual acquisition budget and the implementation of a one-percent guideline, which allocated capital from building development to the deliberate purchase of artwork to ornament the campus. This text demonstrates that, at present, the collection remains largely divorced from the discipline and its custodianship is almost entirely absent, while the absence of a dedicated gallery sees its contents dispersed across the various campuses and buildings.

This thesis argues that a perception of the collection as primarily ‘decorative’ has compromised its ability to contribute to the mission of the university. In addition, the university’s approach and strategy of display have not been successful in drawing out the university collection’s secondary functions, such as the formation and transmission of culture (bildung) or institutional identity, primarily because of the committee’s inability to effectively articulate its function. As a result, the collection’s apparent irrelevance has had a negative bearing upon the physical condition of the material objects in its care.

The study goes on to argue that a renewed academic interest in the concept of curatorship at the institution may yet hold the potential for meaningful associations to be made between the art collection and research. If recognised, the collection could attain a significance and identity within the university which would, in turn, advance its custodial responsibilities.