Dr. William Eickhorst, professor emeritus of art, was studying at Parsons School of Design in New York in the early 1960s when a friend in his printmaking class gave him one of his pieces. That print became the first acquisition in what was to become a collection of more than 1,000 prints. Last fall, nearly six decades later, Dr. Eickhorst and his wife, Edith, donated that collection to Missouri Western. It will be housed in a newly created gallery on the second floor of Spratt Hall.
Amanda Morrow, University curator, said the collection includes a wide variety of work mostly from 20th聽and 21st聽century artists. It will be stored on campus and pieces will be rotated in the gallery on a regular basis. She and Eric Fuson, artist-in-residence, designed the gallery and storage space.
鈥淲e are so lucky to have the collection for the students and the community,鈥� Morrow said. 鈥淚t will be very educational.鈥�
The collection also includes a small library of monographs of artists, printmaking history and printmaking technique that will be available to students.
For more on this story, see the Spring 2019 issue of MWSU Magazine.