Islamic Art at the Denver Art Museum—Why?

BJ Averitt

Bj Averitt recently retired after more than 30 years of volunteer service as a staff aid in the Denver Art Museum’s Asian art department. During that time, she focused almost single-mindedly on building the museum’s Islamic art holdings. Bj is quick to credit the collection’s success to the freedom given to her to grow it by Asian art curator Ronald Otsuka.

As a child in Connecticut, Bj’s father was fascinated by Islamic countries. His enthusiasm transferred to his daughter, who says she was always interested in anything “ancient.” She has not taken a single class in Islamic art, but this passion for the ancient led her to study and learn on her own, much to the DAM’s benefit.

When she came to the DAM, she realized that a sizable portion of Asia was not represented in the Asian art collection. She set out to acquire enough objects and enough background information about them so that they could put a show together to teach visitors about this major contributing culture. Her dream was to have enough objects that they could put in a rotation—so they didn’t all have to be on display at the same time. This dream has certainly been achieved.

Through a slide presentation, Bj shows some of her favorite objects from the collection and shares the stories behind them. Through relationships with dealers, scholars and collectors, she’s learned a great deal and delights in relating the information. She tells tales about the several pieces with those gathered at the Curator’s Circle lecture, including those of an Indian marble dedication panel, a Pakistani wooden prayer board, Iranian ceramics and more.

For those interested in collecting these kinds of objects, Bj says they have to study and learn all aspects of the culture. Relying on good advisers and buying up other’s small collections will help collectors acquire things they can teach others about. Knowing the languages of these cultures isn’t necessary—translators and specialists are an invaluable help in this regard.

Bj relates that because of the U.S.’s current political situation, interest in these cultures has been aroused. Because of this, she thinks there will be a big market for such objects, and that many smaller museums like the DAM have an opportunity to acquire these fantastic objects and educate visitors on their importance.

The next day in the workshop portion of the program, Bj shows attendees four objects from the Islamic art collection that she’s chosen from storage. These include a Turkish leather puppet, a leather Iranian book cover, an Egyptian glass goblet and a paper prayer talisman. Next she invites the attendees up to the Asian art gallery to show them many of her favorite items on display, and she relates the stories behind many of them. Bj clearly relishes the opportunity to share the anecdotes of each object’s history and acquisition, and her interest for these subject spreads to everyone who listens.

Return to top