Rackstraw Downes, one of the artists represented in the collection of the Maier Museum, was awarded a 2009 MacArthur Genius Grant in September. There are three criteria for selection of MacArthur Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work. Rackstraw Downes is among the 24 fellows, each of whom receive $500,000.

The Maier Museum’s collection boasts three works of art by Downes: An early work painted in 1968, Two Briches, Salt Pile by the Kill van Kull, after Rain painted in 1997, and Salt Pile with Culverts by the Kull painted in 1998. (View Works) His more recent paintings are minutely detailed oil-on-canvas landscapes which invite viewers to reconsider the intersection between the natural world and man-made objects.

Two previous winners of MacArthur Genius Grants are also represented in the collection of the Maier Museum: Judy Pfaff, who received the award in 2004, and Tara Donovan in 2008.

The tradition of collecting art at Randolph College dates to 1907, when the senior class commissioned William Merritt Chase to paint a portrait of the College’s first president. The Museum makes every effort to acquire the work of artists who represent the breadth and variety of America’s cultural heritage, and to continue the College’s tradition of supporting contemporary artists.