Opening their homes, alumni shared their personal art collections with students — and, ultimately, the university community.

The exhibition Colgate Alumni Collect was the resulting work of student curators pairing with their predecessors to select pieces for display in the Picker Art Gallery last summer.

The variety of artwork — from American prints to outsider art — represented the individual stories of the three alumni who participated. Here, art history major Claire Pandaleon ’18 interviews Andrew Brozman ’72 about his story.

What got you into collecting? How has your collection developed since you began?

My wife, Tina, and I always had a passion for the arts. She was an accomplished pianist and played the viola; I sang as a visiting student in the University of Michigan Residential College Choir. We frequently attended concerts, operas, art museums, and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. Translating those interests into an art collection was a natural evolution. We began by purchasing the works of local artists whose paintings we found visually attractive. As our interest grew, our desire to learn more about the field grew correspondingly.

In 2005, my wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. We decided to put art on our walls that she enjoyed and would appreciate throughout the course of her illness. It was during this time, to her death in 2007, that our collection was built to its current state.

What qualities do you look for when you are acquiring a work?

Ultimately, art is extraordinarily personal in nature; what captures my heart’s eye is unique to me. We never purchased a work that didn’t evoke in us an emotional and sensational (in the pure sense of the word) response. We had to be beguiled by the art. Although our collection travels well beyond the confines of the impressionist and postimpressionist periods, it is most heavily focused on the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During that time, a dramatic evolution in artistic substance occurred.

What advice would you give to others who are interested in collecting art?

As with the pursuit of any endeavor, the most important factors in achieving an art collection are passion, preparation, and curiosity. Without each, the pursuit is bound to fail.