The Sentinel

In pursuit of art, the importance of building your personal collection

by Ian Wang

Photo provided

People who have experienced living and working far away from their hometown may feel the same: The farther away and the more time since you have left home, the more eager you are to know and to learn any and every detail that relates to your homeland. You feel so dear, so deep, and so emotional towards anything and everything, big or small, from your homeland. That was why I started collecting artworks created by artists of my homeland as a medium or vehicle for communication, expression, and socio-cultural exchange when I studied at Oxford University.

While serving as the president of Spurlock Museum's Board of Directors, I researched the history of the University of Illinois' first art collection at the museum. I learned how and why the University's first president, John Gregory, collected art and established the first art gallery/museum on campus.

From day one as UI president, John Gregory firmly believed that “man should be primarily educated as a human being and only secondary for his occupation.” Therefore, Gregory called for a university to produce “clear-headed, broad-breasted scholars, men of fully developed minds who would be valuable citizens capable of taking their places in legislative assemblies or other positions to which they might be called from their normal occupations.”

In other words, the University was to cultivate real men rather than technically trained professionals. His desire was to establish an institute firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition.

Profoundly influenced by Gregory’s vision and deliberation, I started focusing on collecting, researching, and exhibiting UI art (artworks created by University faculty, staff, and students) for the same purpose of cultivating “real men”.

After more than 25 years of pursuit, I have collected multiple thousand pieces of UI art, studied and written/published a few hundred articles in local, national, and international newspapers and magazines. So far, I have curated almost 100 art exhibitions at the University and local community galleries/venues. In the process, I have learned and enjoyed much about art in general and our UI art in particular, and developed a personal doctrine for collecting art. Concisely, my philosophy is:

1. Collect art interactively with artists is the most important and enjoyable way of studying/learning art deeply and directly from its creator.

2. Collect art systematically.

3. Collecting art comprehensively.

4. Collect art creatively.

A long-time resident of Champaign-Urbana, Ian Wang is an art historian and curator. Wang is currently providing an informative lecture series entitled "150 Plus Years UI Art Creation" for Tuesday At Ten at the Champaign Public Library at 10 am on Tuesdays through December 12.

Heading out for Thanksgiving break

Two busses load passengers on Illinois Street on lovely fall morning in front of the Levis Faculty Center on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus on Saturday morning. Nearly a half dozen additional charter busses were waiting along South Gregory between Krannert Performing Arts Center and the faculty center to take travelers to the Chicago area for the week-long Thanksgiving campus break. University of Illinois students will return to campus this coming weekend to resume classes before finals and the fall semester break.

Photo: PhotoNews Media

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Guest Commentary | Any can value their home for whatever they think it is worth

by Glenn Mollette, Guest Commentator

Many years ago I took out a second mortgage on my home. The house had grown in value and had at least $30,000 of equity. At that time, I had multiple reasons. The second mortgage added a second monthly payment to my already very tight budget. I made both the original payment and the second mortgage payment for a couple years until I was able to refinance both loans into a ten-year fixed interest rate loan. Fortunately, I was able to pay off the ten-year loan in about six years.

Let me hasten to say I would never want to do a second mortgage on my house again. Looking back, it was a bad financial decision. This type of loan is an option if you are in dire straits. At the time, I thought It was something I needed to do and it worked out.

My bank did ask what I wanted the money for and I told them my numerous reasons. Essentially, they didn’t care. They only cared that I had the financial ability to pay it back. They cared if my property was valuable enough to cover their costs if I defaulted on my loan. They wanted to verify my income, any other loans, and review my previous three years of income tax reports.

After the deal was made, I didn’t hear anything from the Attorney General or any federal judges about my loan from the bank. No one hounded me about my interest rate or the fixed number of years I would pay back the loan. The arrangement was made between my lending institution and me. It wasn’t anyone else’s business.

Let’s say I determine my house today is worth a million dollars. It’s not, but I can say it is based on what it means to me.

Anyone can value their property for whatever they think it’s worth. Let’s say I go to the bank and want to borrow $600,000 against my one-million-dollar house. At this point the bank has to begin their process of determination. They will do an appraisal of my house. They will then look at my income and any other assets. They will determine if they think the loan is in their favor to make.

If in reality my house is only worth $400,000 then they may say we can’t loan you the $600,000 but we can loan you $200,000. It then becomes the decision of the lender as to how they want to proceed with the loan and how much they want to loan. If I falsify my financial records in order to get the loan then that becomes problematic. If the lender does a good job in verifying the value of the property, there shouldn’t be a problem.

If the lender for some unlikely reason determines to loan me the $600,000 because I’m a good customer and they like me, then the deal is between the lender and me. Can you imagine a judge or Attorney General saying they don’t like your loan arrangement?

Are the lending institutions after Donald Trump? No. If they think he has done something bad or they aren’t receiving their money they will go after him. The most recent national courtroom scene in NYC is another political sham.

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He is the author of 13 books including Uncommom Sense, the Spiritual Chocolate series, Grandpa's Store, Minister's Guidebook insights from a fellow minister. His column is published weekly in over 600 publications in all 50 states. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily representative of any other group or organization. We welcome comments and views from our readers. Submit your letters to the editor or commentary on a current event 24/7 to editor@oursentinel.com.

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