Donald Flax used to think that people who stepped into his living room might worry that he and his wife were crazy.
"It was like walking into the middle of Africa, we had so many things everywhere," he says. He and his wife, Serene, have been collecting African art since the late 1960s and always preferred to show it in their house rather than store it.
The bulk of their private collection, almost 70 pieces, has been moved into De Anza classrooms, the cafeteria and the library. The Flaxes donated their collection to the college when they moved to a smaller apartment in Palo Alto that wouldn't fit their acquisitions.
"We really felt strongly that it ought to be displayed because we had enjoyed it so much," Donald Flax says. But the Flaxes had a difficult time finding a place that had both the space and the interest in their collection.
Until they heard about De Anza.
"The educational value was uppermost in our minds. We didn't even know about De Anza, but the pieces fit right into their program, and they were about to hire a teacher who had been very involved in African art."
Cosette Guinn, part-time professor with the InterCultural International Studies Department at De Anza, was one of the original contacts between the Flaxes and De Anza, and immediately realized the unique opportunity.
"Having been a person who has been involved with African art since the 1960s, I was familiar with the objects," Guinn said. "But we were all rather amazed when we first saw the collection. It was certainly more than I had expected. To an unknowing individual, it might not mean as much, but if you're familiar with African art, it was clear what we had."
The majority of the collection is from Western Africa, with a few pieces from the Pacific Islands, according to Phyllis Rutner, co-chair of De Anza's Art on Campus program. There are carved wooden figures, masks, sculptures, some older terra-cotta pieces, and a pair of ibiji twin dolls from Nigeria.
"There's really a lot that schools have to do in promoting African education," Flax said, "and hopefully this will create more interest in a continent that has a lot of problems."
The Flaxes called Stanford's art museum first, which didn't have the space necessary to house the collection, but offered to warehouse the pieces.
"We really don't like the idea of warehousing. If you're going to do that, there doesn't seem any point in having it," Flax said. "Collecting these had been such a wonderful education for us, that we thought other people should get that experience."
The Flaxes found very willing participants at De Anza.
"We were all really interested in people having access to these pieces, and De Anza was able to build display cases so people could see them," said Rutner.
For Guinn, who used to bring pieces of her own personal art collection to enhance her classes, she feels there is no substitute for accessible, original art in classrooms.
"It is something entirely different to see art firsthand," Guinn says. "Even if you're working from good quality, color pictures, there is no substitute for the real thing."
A reception and dinner was planned for Feb. 22 at De Anza in honor of the acquisition.
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