About the Collections

The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries are stewards of the University Art Collection of over 1,500 art objects including Self-Taught Art, Faculty and Alumni Art, Public Art, Global Folk Art, and art associated with ODU's history.

Our collection of Self-Taught Art was principally collected by Baron and Ellin Gordon during their travels through the United States in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The collection consists of widely known self-taught, folk, and outsider artists, as well as regional artists working in the Tidewater. Over 160 artists are represented in the collection that includes Thornton Dial, Howard Finster, Mose Tolliver, Lonnie Holley, Nellie Mae Rowe, James Castle, “Prophet” Royal Robertson, Purvis Young, Herbert Singleton, and many more.

Out collection of Faculty and Alumni art consists of works by notable faculty and alumni of ODU’s Art Department including Charles K. Sibley, Alexander Brooks “A.B” Jackson, Florence “Fay” Zetlin, Ken Daley, Wallace “Wally” Dreyer, Ernest Mauer, Solomon Isekeije, Robert Vick, and Josef Schützenhöfer.

The University Art Collection also includes works of art that have been donated to Old Dominion University over the years. Noteworthy features include global textiles like Korean jogakbo and a 17th century Iberian dossal curtain, photographs by Margot Blank, archival prints of university exhibitions, and a Ginny Ruffner sculpture Color Poem of a Vertical Landscape (2002) currently on loan to the Barry Art Museum.

Information about donating to the University Art Collection and access to the collections is available to researchers and ODU classes in coordination with the Gordon Art Galleries Curator.