At the entrance to the American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan there is a dedication to the contribution of Joyce Berger Cowin, the Museum’s board member, who recently pledged $2 million to ensure its future.
“I always knew that when the time came and the Museum needed an angel, I would step forward,” Mrs. Cowin said about her gift. “I never wanted our collection to go into storage, which is what may have happened if we were acquired by a larger institution.
For fifty years, visitors have enjoyed this small, admission-free museum. It was Mrs. Cowin who had championed the opening of a satellite Museum at 2 Lincoln Square, on Columbus Avenue near Lincoln Center, and today it is the American Folk Art Museum’s home. Here, thousands of people have attended changing exhibitions that elucidate the broad scope of folk art, which includes traditional American works, or the art of contemporary self taught masters from both the US and abroad or beautifully designed utilitarian objects such as intricate quilts and whimsical weathervanes.
Mrs. Cowin’s interest in American folk art came about as a result of a stroll through a street fair with her late husband some forty-five years ago. Her husband worked at Burnham & Company at the time, and one of his co-workers was manning a table with his wife. The Cowins felt they had to make a purchase. “There were several items on the table and this one box just jumped out at my husband,” she said. “It was very small but beautifully designed, and we bought it. That was the start of our interest in folk art.”
The box turned out to be tramp art. This style of wood carving flourished from the mid-1870s through the 1940s. It is characterized by ornate and layered whittling of objects such as cigar or fruit boxes, which are then embellished with notched or chip carved edges. It’s a vernacular folk art form that continues to intrigue collectors to this day.
