Vivian Lowery Derryck ‘67 and her husband recently donated a collection of more than 200 pieces of African art to Chatham University. Derryck’s collection adds to the more than 600 pieces of African art that the University already owns.
After going through the appraisal process last December, the collection is now being accessioned. Each piece of art will be assigned a number to help keep track of it.
Though the appraisal showed several valuable pieces, the current value of the collection is confidential to the University. The last time the collection was appraised in 2015, it was valued at about half a million dollars. Chatham underwent the appraisal process again for insurance purposes attested Dr. Beth Roark, associate professor of art history and the main contact for Chatham’s African art collections in an interview. Derryck and her husband funded the appraisal process.
Derryck, a past collaborator with Roark, had been interested in donating the collection to her alma mater for some time before reaching out to University President Rhonda Phillips in early October.
“Vivian [Derryck] and I had been talking for probably 8, 10 years that she had this collection, and we actually borrowed several works from her when we did an exhibition of the Olkes collection at the August Wilson Center,” Roark said. “[Derryck] and her husband had just moved from this huge house where they kept their collection into kind of an assisted-living situation, she’s older, and so they had the collection storage, and they wanted to give it to Chatham.”
The Derryck collection introduces new African cultures to the Cheryl Olkes ‘70 collection that was posthumously gifted to the University in 1998 and aims to give students more opportunities to gain hands-on experience working and curating African art.
Sully Pelles ’25 is one of those students. Minoring in both art history and museum studies, Pelles joined Roark to help unwrap the Derryck collection and take photos when it first arrived.
“I know when I was helping with the Derryck collection being here, being able to recognize some of the art objects just based off what they look like, it felt rewarding,” Pelles said.
While the collection adds an additional layer of depth and diversity to the African art already owned by the University, it also draws questions as to why a predominantly white institution holds more than 800 collective pieces of African art.
“Chatham’s not unique, but, like, historically white institutions, right? Why do they have collections of African art, and where did that come from, and how did it get there? And I think that those are very appropriate and meaningful, important questions that we have to ask,” Louks said. “This is maybe one of the thornier things that you could really get into, because it is uncomfortable confronting histories and this isn’t necessarily a pleasant one.”
The Olkes collection has been the subject of conversations about the potential repatriation of the objects. Much of the artwork lacks provenance, the paper trail connecting the art to an artist or its background, which makes repatriation difficult.
“When you have no official provenance, it’s nearly impossible because the works have no demonstrated link to where they came from. Museums that are repatriating their African objects also have provenance researchers who can do the research needed to make sure the works end up in the right hands,” Roark said in a follow-up email. “Also, because both collections are gifts, we’re bound by the wishes of the donors, who wanted their works at Chatham for students to learn more about the culture and art of Africa.”
Some Chatham students weigh the factors: the benefit to Chatham’s curriculum versus the impact of keeping African art that is not rightfully the University’s.
“We don’t know where [a lot of the objects] came from or how we got them, which is problematic, and I don’t know, I think if we can’t repatriate these items,” Pelles said, “we need to find a middle ground.”
Pelles is working alongside Roark to find a solution that brings more accessibility to the collection by photographing each piece of the Olkes collection to publish on the Art and Design Center’s website.
“There isn’t a visual record that’s public right now with these art objects,” Pelles said. “A lot of people don’t even know that we have this collection. So, I think at least what I would like to do, and what I would like to see Chatham do, is be a helping hand in making sure that if we have these objects, let’s at least make it worthwhile that we have them.”
The Olkes collection is currently stored in the curating room of the Susan Bergman Gurrentz ‘56 art gallery located in Woodland Hall on the Shadyside campus and occupies all of that space.
“I think that our biggest issue is that we’ve run out of room, you know, and our newest addition, the newest pieces, are now over at Eastside,” Associate Professor James Louks, the director of the Gurrentz art gallery, said. “Space, I know, is a premium on Shadyside campus.”
The first showing of the Derryck collection is set to be in spring 2026, the next time that Roark will be teaching the class, Curating African Art.
