Cantor gift builds collection, strengthens programming

By Laura Freeman’96

In the movie Sideways, one of the lead characters muses that drinking a bottle of pinot noir connects her, in some cosmic way, with the laborers who toiled to collect and crush the vineyard’s grapes so that she might enjoy a glass of wine one moment years into the future.
For art enthusiasts and collectors Amy Bermingham ’80 and Charlie Wilson ’80, drinking in a painting or a sculpture provides a similar link to artists who have poured their inspiration onto canvas or into clay. Wilson points to the techniques employed by Italian masters of the Renaissance era.

“They would work painstakingly, going frame by frame, spending days sketching the details of a hand alone,” he says. “They’re no longer here, but their passion comes through on that canvas.”

Bermingham and Wilson’s interest in art took root more than 25 years ago, when they enrolled in History of Western Art, a sweeping survey course taught at the time by Rev. Joseph S. Scannell, S.J. They began to see how the study of art intersected with a multitude of subjects—from history and literature, to religion and science, to anthropology and many others. Because the study of art provides a pathway to a fuller understanding of so many disciplines, Bermingham and Wilson believe that visual art is an indispensable part of a liberal arts education.

In recognition of the crucial role art plays in learning, the couple is giving $50,000 to create an endowed gallery fund at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery in O’Kane Hall. Their gift is a robust response to the Cantor Foundation’s challenge issued two years ago, and it is a major step toward meeting the $600,000 total Holy Cross must raise in order to receive an additional $1 million infusion from the foundation.

“The magnitude of this gift clearly demonstrates Charles and Amy’s commitment to visual art and their keen understanding of the ways it affects students, faculty and the College as a whole,” said gallery director Roger Hankins. “Their generosity is an emphatic affirmation of the arts as a vital element in our educational mission.”

Beyond Holy Cross, Bermingham and Wilson have demonstrated their devotion to artistic endeavor in many ways. Bermingham, a trust and estate attorney with Ehrenkranz & Ehrenkranz in New York, has long been engaged in philanthropic activities at museums and libraries. She is a member of the professional advisory committee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Planned Giving Committees at the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library and the American Crafts Museum.

Wilson is the self-described “shopper and gallery wanderer” of the two. When he is not managing two Connecticut branches of Wachovia Securities, he spends a large portion of his free time prowling auctions and purchasing the works that crowd nearly every wall and flat surface of the couple’s home in Scarsdale, N.Y.

Their collection began with the purchase of a pair of drawings by Italian artist Giovanni Guerra—which later were lent to the Met for an exhibition of works by 16th century masters—and has grown over the years to include pieces spanning a wide variety of periods and styles. A stroll through their home would bring you past Toulouse Lautrec’s early rendering of his family’s farm; an oil painting by Anna Mary Robertson (better known as Grandma Moses) depicting a farmer’s Thanksgiving-day pursuit of a doomed turkey; a 2,000 pound solid jade sculpture of a Xi’an general that the couple acquired while visiting China; and a postcard-style drawing that Victor Hugo created in exile and sent to a friend in Paris to mark the New Year.

Wilson and Bermingham applaud Holy Cross for its efforts in recent years to build the gallery’s offerings, providing students with tactile conduits to history and a deeper understanding of the human condition. During her undergraduate days, Amy recalls, “Father Scannell could show us only the slides of the artwork; we never saw anything in its tangible form. It is so advantageous to have pieces on site that the students can see and touch.”

The couple’s gift will enable the gallery to better store and care for its permanent collection, which has grown to nearly 450 paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, and textiles. The gift will also help dedicate funds for exhibitions and the conservation of objects on display throughout the campus; and enable the gallery to work more of its permanent collection into public spaces.

In addition, it will help provide funds to print booklets documenting objects and faculty research generated for each show, and enable the gallery to hire a staff member to handle the technical work of preparing and installing art for display.

Laura Freeman’96 is a freelance writer from Wilbraham, Mass.