The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts’ Peter and Joni Webb Petschauer Permanent Collection supports the mission of the Turchin Center and Appalachian State University by acquiring, documenting, preserving, and exhibiting artworks of aesthetic, cultural, and historic significance. The Permanent Collection began in 1975 with the purchase of two-dimensional objects of works on paper from a popular regional exhibition program known as the Appalachian National Drawing Competition (ANDC). Since 1975 the collection has been built through drawing competition purchases, gifts from artists and Appalachian State faculty and staff, as well as through generous gifts from local, national, and international patrons of the arts.
Prior to 1985, the collection was housed under the auspices of the Catherine Smith Gallery (CSG). Management of the CSG was transferred to the Office of Cultural Affairs between 1985-1986, along with the existing collection. When the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts (TCVA) was established by the Office of Cultural Affairs and opened its doors in 2003, the collection of approximately three hundred objects was transferred to the new facility and is now housed by and known as the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts’ Peter and Joni Webb Petschauer Permanent Collection. The Turchin Center has increased its collection holdings since 2003. The collection is comprised of an eclectic group of two and three-dimensional works of art, including large outdoor sculpture, and currently maintains an inventory of over 2,000 objects. It is available for research by university classes as well as individual researchers and is a resource for loaning artworks across campus through the Campus Loan Program.
The Permanent Collection includes work by significant regional artists, and by artists whose work has been exhibited at the Turchin Center, supporting and creating a record of the Turchin Center’s exhibition programing. Regional artists in the collection include, but are not limited to, William Dunlap, Warren Dennis, Sherry Edwards, Steve Ferguson, Lowell Hayes, Noyes Capehart Long, Margaret Polson, and Wayne Trapp. Artists who have exhibited at the Turchin Center and whose work is in the permanent collection, among others, are Bart Vargas, Joan Myers, Hui Chi Lee, and Jenny Irene Miller. The collection also contains a wide range of artistic styles and mediums, providing many opportunities for study and research.
Turchin Center supporters Peter and Joni Webb Petschauer have established a generous fund devoted to the care and maintenance of works in the collection. Although the Turchin Center does not currently have an acquisitions budget, one of the high priority goals, outlined in the center’s strategic plan, is to establish an acquisitions fund to be used for purchasing artwork from regionally significant artists as well as artists exhibiting at the Turchin Center. To request details pertaining to giving opportunities in support of this effort, please contact weissbergdr@appstate.edu
Images on this site may be subject to copyright restrictions. For information regarding the use of images for publication, please contact schwanzmp@appstate.edu.