Go to College, Get a Masterpiece!
I was speaking the other day to my colleague — and increasingly friend — Rebecca Uchill, who is headquartered at MIT, and she told me that one of the perks of being at MIT is that you can take real art home (or to the dorms, anyway) as part of some glorious art lottery known as the Student Loan Art
I was speaking the other day to my colleague — and increasingly friend — Rebecca Uchill, who is headquartered at MIT, and she told me that one of the perks of being at MIT is that you can take real art home (or to the dorms, anyway) as part of some glorious art lottery known as the Student Loan Art Program. WHAT?!?! Really? Yes, it’s true. MIT offers works by John Baldessari, Richard Artschwager, Ida Applebroog, Louise Bourgeois, Romare Bearden and others for students to love in the privacy of their rooms. All in all there are 500 framed works, primarily prints and photos, to be had and the institution adds 15 more each year.
“My first year in the lottery I received my first choice — a Sol Lewitt wall drawing. A friend and I executed it by hand in my bedroom,” Uchill said. This year she grabbed an Oldenburg at the annual event where students can submit their names for an opportunity to choose a work.
When I told another friend about the project with amazement, his response shocked me. “Yeah, our college had that too,” the Oberlin College alumnus said. Was I the only person not to have gone to a college with a windfall of art to loan out? Was the University of Toronto really that art poor? Who else has this unusually wonderful perk for students?
