Let’s ReCollect!
With April, Editor-in-Chief of PatronageDAO
PatronageDAO is diving into the fascinating world of collecting, and what it means to be a collector today. Behind every great collection in the world is a collector’s vision — and every great collector had to start somewhere! Most of us, usually as kids, had something that obsessed us — something we had to have — maybe it was baseball cards, maybe it was a rock from every place we visited, the latest football kit for your favourite team, or ticket stubs, autographed programmes, matchboxes… Many of us still feel compelled to own and collect certain things, and a few of us might go on to make it a life-long pursuit…. Likewise, most of us have been to a museum at some point and seen some amazing things gathered in one place — just to be marvelled at…
So our mini-series Q&A, Let’s ReCollect will invite collectors, art-lovers and art world professionals to share their memories and musings on unforgettable collections, how they got started with their own collecting, and the top three pieces they would love to own (or perhaps already do!). Answers will be posted on our social media for all to enjoy!
Welcome to Episode 6 of Let’s ReCollect with, April, Editor-in-Chief of PatronageDAO
Hi April, we’d love you to ReCollect what got you started…
What’s your earliest memory of collecting?
It would have to be stickers, or maybe worms…. I used to pick them out of the dirt in our garden and my friends’ gardens and keep them in empty yoghurt containers (with holes in the top so they could breathe of course!) I don’t think my mother was much of a fan of that one!
What was your first experience of a collection?
Growing up, I was really into this 1988 movie called ‘Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler’, in which Tommy and his friends discover the magic of ‘stamp travel’ where they can quite literally travel around the world on stamps. That made me start to think about stamps, postcards and passports in a whole new way.
How did that lead onto what it is you collect now?
I don’t know if I would consider myself a true collector, but I suppose I do like to acquire things from my holidays abroad — namely stuff for the house. My living room now resembles a Middle Eastern souk — with colourful cushions on the sofa and hand-made tapestries in the shape of poufs on the floor.
What is your favourite thing about collecting?
I suppose it’s that I can see my life’s adventures through the things I own. Every time I look at a picture, postcard or textile I picked up abroad it takes me back to a special time and place. Those items really do enable me to relive the experiences I enjoyed so much.
If you could own any 3 works of art, what would they be?
That’s a tough one. I studied Jean-Michel Basquiat in high school and probably know his art better than anyone else’s, so it would be great to have a piece of his work. I find Rothko’s paintings absolutely spellbinding — and my gosh I would love to have the wall height to be able to hang one of the large ones! ‘Ennui’ by Sickert is my husband’s favourite painting so I suppose it would be nice to get that one for him ;)
If you could spend a night in any museum, which would it be and what would you do?
Trying on the costumes at the MET would be a fun time. Or an enormous game of tag at the Tate Modern with all my friends!
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