Many university's also have institutional collections of art and other such artifacts (I have once seen a wrestling belt in a university collection that was in the care of a university art museum). For some older Universities, the museum itself was an afterthought in order to manage/display this collection. There are also university collections that began with a a donor seeking to establish a museum at the university, so they give a large art collection and or money to establish such an institution. If this is the case, and the museum is recent, it could be that the donor has no connection to a university's museum since it was not present during their academic careers.
In some contemporary situations I have seen, a university will accept the artwork in order to increase donor relations to the university. This can also benefit the donor who may feel as if they are contributing something great to an institution they love and/or get a tax write-off for donating the artwork (I have worked with an art collector who sometimes found it easier to donate (or gift) his artworks for the tax write-off if the object was not marketable) . These works might not be suitable to the university museum's collection, but since the university's museum cares for the university collection, the artwork (or object) in question will be forced upon the museum's care.
Going back to donor motivation, it is also possible that a donor who gives artwork to a university's hospital could have a connection to that facet of the institution itself. Following the 7 Faces of Philanthropy methodology, they could be a re-payer who is giving to an institution that either contributed to their education and or restored an ill family member to health. It ultimately depends on the donor and their own personal collections why they donate artworks to a university rather than a university's museum. It could also be that they are not aware of the option of donating such objects to the university museum itself, but once again that depends on an individual situation.
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Stephanie Stassi
Graduate Student in Museum Studies
George Washington University
Washington D.C.
Original Message:
Sent: 05-07-2016 09:00 AM
From: Laura MacDonald
Subject: Collections and art donated to universities, not museums?
In the past year, a number of donors have given significant gifts of artworks (or collections) to universities or—in at least one case—hospitals, rather than museums. Have you seen this in your market? Do you have any thoughts about these donors’ motivations?
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Laura MacDonald
President
Benefactor Group, LLC
Columbus OH
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