Refining the Imagination: Tradition, Collecting, and the Vassar Education

“Refining the Imagination” attempts to demonstrate in an empirical fashion what many people have known intuitively—that the emphasis on honing a student’s abilities to discern quality in the world of ideas or the world of art has built a network of perceptive art collectors with something in common—a Vassar education forms the foundation of their connoisseurship. The assemblage of almost one hundred and fifty works of art borrowed from private Vassar collections indicates that the impetus to collect art with such a knowledgeable foundation is a Vassar tradition that will continue into the next century.

Acknowledgments by James Mundy; Essays by Pamela Askew, Elizabeth A. Daniels, James Mundy; Catalogue Entries by Lisa Gail Collins, Francesca Consagra, Rebecca Lawton, Candace Lewis, Karen Lucic, James Mundy, Claude Piening, Ingid Schaffner, Justin Spring, Frances P. Taft, and Lubangi Muniania and Carol Thompson.