{"id":22931,"date":"2017-12-15T13:42:44","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T18:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=22931"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:37:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:37:18","slug":"the-peck-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=22931","title":{"rendered":"Art Changes Everything: The Peck Effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Carolina alumnus Sheldon Peck and his wife, Leena, gave a rare collection of 17th<\/sup>-century European masterworks \u2014 including seven Rembrandts \u2014 to the Ackland Art Museum, it became\u00a0the nation\u2019s first\u00a0<\/em>public<\/em>\u00a0university art museum to own a collection of Rembrandt drawings and one of only two universities to do so.<\/p>\n

\"Sheldon
Dr. Sheldon Peck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The gift further established the Ackland as a premier destination for art collectors, lovers and scholars, and punctuated the University\u2019s momentum ahead of the public launch of\u00a0For All Kind: the Campaign for Carolina<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Carolina\u2019s most ambitious fundraising drive ever.<\/p>\n

The Pecks\u2019 gift also included the Peck Collection Endowment Fund and the Sheldon Peck Curatorship Fund, dedicated to the care and enhancement of the collection, as well as funds to acquire other European and American masterworks created before 1950.<\/p>\n

The endowment also helped create the Ackland\u2019s first endowed position, the Sheldon Peck Curator of European and American Art and Curator of the Peck Collection.<\/p>\n

For the Pecks, the gift was more about sharing the pleasure and awe these works inspire, especially with Carolina\u2019s students.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s precisely why Tatiana String, Associate Professor of Renaissance Art History in UNC\u2019s Department of Art and Art History, refocused her research seminar, \u201cThe Art of Drawing in the 17th Century,\u201d to a study of the Peck Collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Peck gift was announced, I was thrilled and moved,\u201d String said. \u201cI focused my course on it immediately; what an amazing opportunity to expose my students to truly great and poignant art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally we would be looking at digital images in the classroom, which are removed from the original piece,\u201d String said in a recent\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0on UNC-TV\u2019s\u00a0North Carolina Weekend<\/em>\u00a0program featuring the Ackland. \u201cHere our undergraduates are working with original material, studying the hand of an artist to whom books and exhibitions have been dedicated. [It\u2019s] an opportunity for my students to have their own voice and use their own eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy
Jeremy Howell \u201918, Professor Tatiana String and Dr. Sheldon Peck following presentations in the research seminar \u201cThe Art of Drawing in the 17th Century.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The class used Ackland\u2019s study galleries for their work \u2014 examine select pieces for scholarship. String\u2019s students had direct access to the genuine artifacts, unhindered by barriers or reproductions.<\/p>\n

Sheldon Peck, an expert on every work, witnessed the collection\u2019s impact firsthand when he visited String\u2019s class on Nov. 14 to hear their presentations. \u201cThese students have done remarkable work, and seeing these pieces through their eyes makes them even more special to me,\u201d Peck said. \u201cI\u2019m glad to see these Dutch masters\u2019 drawings still have the power to surprise and delight 400 years after their creation, and equally thrilled that Professor String has incorporated these works into her curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Howell \u201918, who also appeared in the\u00a0North Carolina Weekend<\/em>\u00a0segment, examined \u201cStudy of a West African woman\u201d and related his experience this way: \u201cTo come in and see a Rembrandt out of the glass every day really puts a spring in your step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peck echoed his enthusiasm. \u201cI\u2019m overjoyed to see these students\u2019 reactions to such treasures. No student had ever been so close to such powerful and old works before; to see their excitement and scholarship is priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peck began collecting art at the urging of his brother, who set a high standard for quality and authenticity. \u201cWe certainly began modestly, focusing on drawings because they gave a clearer picture into the artist\u2019s mind and life at the time.\u201d He has donated art to the Ackland since 1988 and served on its national advisory board since 1987.<\/p>\n

A Durham, North Carolina, native, Peck earned bachelor\u2019s and D.D.S. degrees from UNC in 1963 and 1966, respectively, and a master\u2019s degree from Boston University in 1968. He completed an orthodontic residency in Boston, then entered private practice and academics. Peck spent 20 years as a clinical professor of developmental biology at the Harvard University School of Dental Medicine and served as an adjunct professor of orthodontics at Carolina\u2019s School of Dentistry.<\/p>\n

Story by\u00a0Hope Baptiste, University Development<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Carolina alumnus Sheldon Peck and his wife, Leena, gave a rare collection of 17th-century European masterworks \u2014 including seven Rembrandts \u2014 to the Ackland Art Museum, it became the nation\u2019s first public university art museum to own a collection of Rembrandt drawings and one of only two universities to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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