This From the Vault post was originally published in 2011 and was sponsored by Fleisher Art Memorial.
Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz have amassed an extraordinary art collection of work by self-taught artists like James Castle, Martin Ramirez, William Edmondson and many more. The Bonovitzes — Jill is a respected ceramic artist and Sheldon Bonovitz is a lawyer and emeritus chairman of Duane Morris LLP — collect for the love of the art, not for the investment benefit. In the future they will be donating their collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They explain how they make decisions on what to buy and talk about the earliest piece they bought–and one of their most recent purchases. Five years ago the collectors created a foundation, called Foundation STAART, to educate people about self-taught American artists and through the foundation they produced a documentary movie about James Castle.
This episode is edited by Peter Crimmins. The music is by Eric Biondo. Thanks to the Knight Foundation and our series sponsor, Fleisher Art Memorial, for their support of this project. And thanks also to our partner WHYY NewsWorks.org. You can listen to Artblog Radio on Apple and Spotify.
