The UWI, new home of the Michael Campbell Art Collection

Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has negotiated for and obtained the private art collection of the late Michael Campbell for The University of the West Indies (UWI) to commemorate the institution’s 75th anniversary.

The UWI will formally become the home of the renowned Michael Campbell Art Collection (MC Art Collection) today during an intimate ceremony to be hosted on The Mona Campus.

Businessman, philanthropist, and collector, the late Michael Campbell, according to The UWI, had a deep appreciation for the magnitude of the Caribbean cultural heritage, expressed through the visual and performing arts.

The avid collector amassed the impressive private art collection of 261 Jamaican artworks over more than four decades, and the mission of Campbell’s estate is to facilitate his desire to enhance the development of cultural heritage tourism and new areas of skills related to the creative arts.

In a release, The UWI said the donation also aims to encourage and foster a tradition of patronage and philanthropy for The UWI that will reflect the current world economic resurgence and contribution of the creative industries.

“The MC Art Collection represents superlative paintings by over 65 Jamaican artists who can only be described as pioneers of the Jamaican art movement and reflecting the most vibrant 40-plus years of Jamaican art, with the oldest piece created in 1944,” The UWI stated. “Notably, this period saw the establishment of the National Gallery of Art and the Cultural Training Centre, now the Edna Manley School for the Visual and Performing Arts.”

Reacting to the impending handover, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of The UWI Mona Campus Professor Densil A. Williams stated that, “The UWI Mona thanks Prime Minister Patterson for the vision to engage Michael Campbell to have his collection housed at The UWI Mona campus. But more importantly, we the UWI Mona family would like to thank Michael Campbell and his family for the generosity of spirit in gifting this remarkable collection to the Mona campus”.

Williams added that the donation aligns with the operational ethos of the tertiary institution, which “aims to cultivate an environment that nurtures creativity, innovation, and cultural appreciation”.

He said the MC Art Collection would offer opportunities for UWI students, scholars and enthusiasts to “engage with and learn from the rich heritage encapsulated within this body of work”.

Campbell’s desire and a condition of the donation is for the collection to be housed in a purpose-built, well-appointed museum or gallery space on the Mona campus with a view to enhancing the campus while providing a visitor-friendly space for researchers, students, and the public. Such a gallery will be a lodestar for national and international cultural visitorship, its role being to honour and underscore, in equal measure, the growing recognition and magnitude of Jamaica’s artistic footprint on the world.