THE PHILIP AND NANCY KOTLER GLASS COLLECTION

OPENING NOVEMBER 18, 2013 Museum of Art, Searing Wing

We spent time with Phil and Nancy to learn how their passion for Studio Art Glass began, which is their favorite piece they’ve collected, and why they chose The Ringling as the steward of their great collection:

How did you first become interested in Studio Art Glass and when did you first begin collecting? We started collecting contemporary studio glass sculpture in the mid-1980s. We were no strangers to collecting because we had been fascinated by small Japanese objects called netsukes and were also captivated by paper weights. However, we had never seen sculptural work made of glass.

When Nancy started work as an attorney, the lawyer in the office next to her had amazing works in his office. When Nancy asked about them, he and his wife invited us to their home to share their collection. That dinner was the beginning of our love affair with glass. The first piece we purchased was a glass bag within a bag by John Littleton and Kate Vogel. This piece remains in our personal collection at this time, but has been promised to The Ringling.

What is your favorite piece you’ve collected? When we are asked “what is your favorite piece,” it is like being asked “who is your favorite child.” It depends on the day, but you love them all. Certainly when we contemplated the first gifts to The Ringling, we wanted to be sure that powerful, large, demanding works would be part of the gift. The Libensky

Volcano and the Mares Fan fulfilled our wish. We also wanted to show that classic figurative work could be achieved in glass and this can be seen in the Nicolas Africano seated figure. For beauty in abstraction, we thought that Seguso’s Scultura No.2 would engage the view. In our initial gift to The Ringling, it was important to incorporate these pieces to show the diversity of glass art.

Why did you choose to donate your collection to The Ringling? Perhaps the first question to be addressed is why give the collection at all—why not sell it at auction? From the beginning of our collecting experience, we wanted to share our enthusiasm for the work. As time went on, we realized the best way to share and educate the public would be to donate the work to an important museum. There are really three reasons we chose The Ringling as that museum to gift our collection.

First, we were tantalized by the fact that The Ringling has placed a new focus on contemporary work—a very courageous move by its director, Steven High, because the Museum has been famous for its holdings in European art collected by John Ringling.

We were also delighted that Matthew McLendon was hired as the Modern and Contemporary Curator and that Matthew was intrigued with the art glass form. Having listened to many collectors’ experiences with museums, we knew the most important aspect of the gift is that the museum director and curator are enthusiastic about the art and are committed to showing it.

Finally, we wanted the work to be placed in a highly visible museum that has many visitors so that our goal of educating the public can be realized.

We are delighted that our collection has found its proper home at The Ringling.