Jeane Hamilton Building Collections With Love

When it comes to art, there’s no denying that Jeane Hamilton is an expert. Her love of art collecting dates back to the 1940s, and she has played an important role in supporting and building the Little Rock arts community, especially the Arkansas Arts Center.

“The old museum needed improvements and Carrie Dickinson, president of the Junior League at the time, asked me to serve as the arts chair on her board, and we elected to create a community arts center as our next project,” Jeane recalls. “We went before the city and they gave us a year, June of 1959 to June of 1960, to raise money. Do you know what was happening in Arkansas during 1959? Schools were closed. Here we are a group of ladies asking for money for the arts when schools were closed, but we did it with the help of Winthrop Rockefeller, business leaders and even school children across the state who would show up and give us Mason jars filled with coins. Everyone was giving.”

Hamilton came to Arkansas in 1952, after studying art in college in Indiana. She bought her first piece of art in the 1940s while vacationing in Palm Beach. Through her dedication, the Arts Center has become a cornerstone of cultural enrichment for our state. She recalls the AAC’s grand opening event in 1963.

“The Beaux Arts Ball was like nothing Arkansas had seen before. We had a tent on the grounds and inside the museum The Metropolitan Museum had loaned us Five Centuries of European Paintings,” Hamilton says.

Hamilton is the 2013 Honorary Chair of Tabriz, the successor of the Beaux Arts Ball. Through her affiliation with the AAC, Hamilton has traveled extensively, racking up 90-plus trips including many “behind the Iron Curtain.” Decorative pillboxes dot tables as travel souvenirs and each painting has a story. She pulls from the wall a framed piece of scrap paper, a prize from her Cuba trip.

“We had to walk through the artist’s kitchen and down a hall to his studio. While most of the group was focused on his larger works, I was drawn to a phone niche in the hallway where the artist had scratched these faces onto a piece of paper. I asked if I could buy it and the artist allowed me to give him $50 U.S.”

And like a good curator, the back of each frame is labeled and often accompanied by a photo of the artist with Hamilton. Roberto Fernandez Martinez smiles broadly in the photograph holding what was most likely a doodling made while on the phone.

Tips for Building a Collection

“When Jeane asks you if you want to go on an Arts Center trip to Cuba, you don’t think, you go,” says Greg Thompson, owner of Greg Thompson Fine Art, who has known Hamilton since 1970. “That was a trip of a lifetime.” To a novice collector, as well as the pro, Thompson’s No. 1 rule is: “Buy what you love.” Hamilton has certainly followed that rule over the years.

Mac Murphy of M2 Gallery says, “It’s never too early to start collecting artwork. Don’t worry too much about the work being an ‘investment,’ just find an artist or type of work that appeals to you and find pieces within your budget.” Murphy says that for weddings, a great idea is to register at a gallery for a work of art.

Most of Hamilton’s art was purchased through travels and AAC exhibits or fundraisers. “I’ve picked up a lot of these at Tabriz over the years,” says Hamilton as we walk down a corridor of her home. “Every year I try to give a piece for the auction and, you know, the other day I stumbled on that piece from the 1940s in Palm Beach and I’m considering giving that one this year.”

Thompson, however, points out that local galleries are a great source for building a collection. “A gallery, if it has been around for a while, has established relationships with important artists, other collectors, other dealers,” says Thompson. “If the owner has a good eye, he has done a lot of the heavy lifting for you. If they have one great artist in their stable, they have probably looked at more than 100 artists who are not worth your consideration.”