Cincinnati residents Sara Vance Waddell and her wife Michelle have created an impactful art collection that focuses on important issues like LGBTQ+ communities and reproductive rights.
For the past 30 years, Cincinnatian Sara Vance Waddell and her wife Michelle have built an enviable art collection.
A new exhibition of their collection, “Riveting: Women Artists from the Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell Collection,” highlights the powerful blend of work encompassing social issues such as LGBTQ+ communities, reproductive rights, as well as racial and gender equality.
Sara says their collection, which is currently on display online at Bader + Simon, is often described by viewers as “powerful,” “riveting,” and “really makes you think.”
Growing up in Ripley, Ohio, Sara wasn’t exposed to much contemporary art, which makes her journey to becoming a prominent Cincinnati collector all the more incredible.
Her passion for art inspired her to take a media buyer position at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
The Vance-Waddell Collection began with Sara buying simply what she liked, with no obvious direction. Early acquisitions included pieces by Chagall, Picasso, and Matisse.
But it was Sara’s growing involvement with the local art scene and learning about local creators that helped shift her focus on contemporary art.
Realizing that she enjoyed getting to know the artists and understanding their motivations to create particular pieces, Sara began purchasing work by provocative, living, local artists.
“I like politically charged art that makes a statement and art that talks about uncomfortable situations,” she said.
So, for the past 12 years, the couple has been collecting work by women and artists of color to support those who garner less attention than their white male counterparts.
While choosing a favorite piece is akin to selecting a favorite child, Sara notes Patricia Cronin’s Memorial to a Marriage as her favorite, if forced to choose one.
Cronin’s original sculpture was created 20 years before the legalization of gay marriage and depicts her and her wife, artist Deborah Kass, laying on a shared pillow in a loving embrace. Sara and Michelle have a smaller bronze edition of the original marble sculpture in their collection.
One of the most prominent and conversation-provoking pieces in the Vance-Waddell collection is Pennsylvania-born Carolee Schneemann’s Interior Scroll.
In 1975, the American visual experimental artist pulled a scroll from her vagina and then read it in a provocative performance piece. The event marked an essential moment in the history of performance art and created a monumental milestone in the artist’s body of work.
Scheemann’s performance pushed against the taboos that women faced, made space for women artists to create a dialogue about their bodies, and worked to confront social stigmas of the time. The actual scroll, and there is only one, is in the Vance Waddell collection. Today, Sara, hand-picked by Schneemann herself before she passed away in 2019, serves as the board president of the Carolee Schneemann Foundation.
One aspect of collecting that is important to Sara and Michelle is supporting local artists. As Sara notes: art is not only for the wealthy.
There are accessible entry points for everyone. Supporting local and emerging artists is a way to not only support creators but as a way to showcase original artwork in your home.
Sara advises new collectors to buy what they like without focusing on what they are “supposed” to buy, letting go of other’s opinions. Instead, buy what makes you happy.
