A Love of Giving

Top: Harvey, Sheldon (born 1978 Gallup, New Mexico; lives Window Rock, Arizona) Nilinigíí Baadáádoolyeed, 2005 oil on canvas, 28 x 22 1/4 in. (71.1 x 56.5 cm) Albuquerque Museum, gift of Eason Eige. PC2014.16.2

Below: Maiolica, glaze, earthenware, 1650 – 1750. 7 3/4 x 4 3/8 in. (19.7 x 11.1 cm) Albuquerque Museum, gift of Eason Eige. PC2014.2.1

Far Right: Matthew Charley, Diné Concha Belt, ca. 2015 stamped silver on leather 44 7/8 x 3 1/8 x 5/8 in. 2 7/8 x 3 ¾ in. (buckle), 3 in. diam. (each concha). Albuquerque Museum, gift of Eason Eige. PC2021.28.15

Collector and curator Eason Eige has donated 399 objects to the Museum.

AS A BOY, EASON EIGE’S GRANDMOTHER KEPT A COLLECTION OF GLASS ANIMALS IN A DRAWER IN THE LIVING ROOM. She allowed him to take them out one-by-one, slowly unwrapping them from the paper that protected them. Young Eige—only eight years old at the time—was careful with the precious collection, even as he was creating imaginary parades and zoos. He would grow up to be an expert on glass, a curator, an artist, a collector, and a donor. That childhood experience “taught me to take care of things that were fragile and unusual,” he says.

Eige, originally from Iowa, has spent a lifetime of collecting—and donating— precious, fragile, and stunning objects. Today, he’s a major donor to

EASON EIGE

museums in New Mexico and beyond. His massive collection over the years reflects eclectic interests, and many of these objects are now part of the Albuquerque Museum’s permanent collection, including jewelry, prints, paintings, Zuni fetishes, sculpture, and of course, glass. “His keen collecting eye, finding masterworks in all sorts of unexpected locations, has benefited the Albuquerque Museum so richly,” says Museum Director Andrew Connors.

As a teenager, Eige began collecting Japanese stamps and toy lead soldiers from England from stores visited during his job delivering the newspaper. His route ended at the largest auction house in the Midwest. There, he learned about the objects and their stories. He gradually became a more sophisticated collector, helped by reading voraciously about American glass, which would become his specialty.

During college, Eige volunteered at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, where he learned about curation by bringing his own objects into the museum to show the staff. Once, he showed the director a 17th Century Blanc du Chine piece (white Chinese porcelain). “[The director] asked, ‘Hey, can we borrow that?’ and he did that for a number of things I brought in, and that gave me a taste for collecting and for museum work.” Eige later took a job at the Huntington Museum of Art (then called Huntington Galleries) in West Virginia where he worked for 21 years.

Over the years, Eige has collected thousands of objects for the Huntington Museum of Art, including over 5000 works in glass. But he really started thinking about giving his collections to museums after visiting with another collector. “Someone asked him, ‘why did you give it to the [museum] before you die? Why don’t you just loan it to them?’ And the man answered, ‘Because I want to be at the party.’ That really resonated with me.”

The secret to a good donor-museum relationship? An honest dialogue with curators, Eige says. With his gift of 301 pieces of Native American jewelry in 2010 alone, the long-time donor worked with Museum curators closely. “We had all the pieces spread out on a table in the basement. I told them, ‘Take everything that you will use and nothing more. … I want to be responsible for giving you objects that are special.’”

Unsurprisingly, donors such as Eige and Museum staff share a mutual enthusiasm for these important objects. “I just gave them a handwoven manta (Diné shawl). Andrew [Connors] took me to the vault and showed me a Zuni manta that was similar, but 100 years older.” Connors notes that, of the 399 objects Eason has given, each reflects his personal passion for human creativity and his desire that his local museum preserves them and shares them with scholars and the general public. “It is Eason’s sincere hope that his generosity to the collection will inspire other major collectors to similarly improve the Museum’s holdings,” Connors says.

For Eige, the joy in donating also comes from the knowledge that museums protect and provide context for works of art. “It’s a pleasure to give things to museums—it’s like [the items] are old friends and they’re okay now.”