Collecting Art: Europe and the United States, a Cross-Cultural Perspective June 20, 2009

On Saturday, June 20th Debbie Rindge and Mireille Dohmen will present their joint lecture “Collecting Art: Europe and the United States, a Cross-Cultural Perspective” at the Rio Grande Theatre, beginning at 12:30 pm. Presented in conjunction with the “Las Cruces Collects” exhibit currently on display at the Las Cruces Museum of Art, the lecture will discuss the similarities and differences between European and American collecting sensibilities. A short history of collecting (on both sides of the Atlantic), images of collectible works of art, stories about well-known collectors and the legacies they left behind will be included.

Debbie Rindge is an art historian and the owner of Mirari Fine Art Consulting in Las Cruces. She received her Ph.D. in American Art History from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her publications include catalogues of the collections of American art in the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Mireille Dohmen worked as a kindergarten teacher for over 20 years. After marrying surrealist Leo Dohmen (1929-1999), she managed the Gallery Den Tijd and organized exhibitions of contemporary art. For the past ten years, she has been working on a retrospective of her late husband’s work for the Museum of Photography in Charleroi, Belgium.

The Rio Grande Theatre is located at 211 N. Downtown Mall in Las Cruces. Exhibition hours for “Las Cruces Collects” are Monday-Friday, 10AM – 4PM, and Saturday, 9AM – 1PM. Admission is free. Funded by the City of Las Cruces, the Las Cruces Museum of Art is located at 491 North Main Street, at the north end of the Downtown Mall. Call 541-2137, or visit http://museums.las-cruces.org, for more information on museum exhibits and Studio Program art classes