Dyana Williams, Art Collector

Every wall and every corner of her house is a delightful discovery and a treat for the eye: filled with an eclectic mix of paintings, photography, sculptures, furniture, dolls, quilts... (and the list goes on) in various styles by different artists, Dyana Williams is a true collector, in all sense of the word.

Dyana started collecting art with a passion in the 1980s.Growing up in a home where parents stressed culture, whether it was art, dance, music or literature,she acquired a taste and propensity for art early on in life. Her father was very interested in photography, so she learned to appreciate images; her mother took her to the Metropolitan Museum of art, Studio Museum in Harlem. With such background she always had an appreciation for art,but it was in the mid-80s when she really started collecting art; with maturity and acquisition of more information, came a greater passion for collecting.

She first learned more about art and collecting through October Gallery, and started meeting the current and important artists, particularly the artists based in Philadelphia: Barbara Bullock, Samuel Byrd, Richard Watson, and Tom McKinney, to name a few. As Dyana was a radio Disc Jockey at the time, as a presenter of culture she was able to move in that artist circle; in fact she hosted the Philadelphia International Art Expo in the beginning.

Many of the pieces in her collection have themes of the female or music, as she works in the music industry, but she feels it is critical to diversify her collection. She owns pieces by the masters such as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Elizabeth Catlett, as well as pieces by unknown artists. She buys art out of several different motivations: images that are interesting and appealing to her, images that she sees intrinsic values in, images to diversify her collection,and with some practicality, images with investment values. “You identify with pieces that remind you of yourself; initially when I was buying art I bought pieces that resonated with the recollection of my life, memories of my experience; as tastes and interests refined I started buying other types,” says Dyana. To diversify her collection she started collecting hand-painted furniture, ceramics, photographs.

“It ’s important to diversify a collection, so that it’s not too much of any one thing.” Paul Jones, collector of great reputation who has recently donated his magnificent collection of more than 1,500 works to the University of Delaware, has been a mentor to her, and has taught her the importance of diversity in a collection. Dyana serves as a member of the Paul Jones collection advisory board. The advisory board is handpicked by Paul Jones himself. Dyana, often referred to as “Ambassador of African American Music,” traveling all over the world to meet with governors and presidents to promote the value and importance of African American music, is a perfect person to get the word out and generate a buzz about the collection. “I ’m on a mission,” says Dyana. She curates exhibitions and pitches the Jones collection so that the pieces in the collection can be loaned out to various exhibitions to be viewed by a wider public.

Many of her favorite pieces are located in her New Orleans residence, but among the pieces at her Philadelphia home she picks out the Elizabeth Catlett lithograph as her favorite, the reason being “because it was found,lost and then found.” It was her first and only Catlett piece, and during one of her children ’s illness the piece was misplaced. She was upset but let it go with much regret - only to find it again six months later, thankfully undamaged.“They [the paintings] are like my kids though, it’s hard to say which one is my favorite,” says Dyana, laughing. “Also, favorites change, with different interests in different periods of your life.” Dyana ’s recent interests have been quilts, textile and fabric. She also likes glass pieces and collects dolls as well. Her favorite dolls, also kept in her New Orleans home, are handmade rag dolls, like the old mammy dolls. “I saw one at an antique shop in the French Quarters of New Orleans, and they caught my fancy...before I knew it there were 30, 40 of them in my collection.”

The dolls are one of a kind, old dolls that are so fragile one almost can ’t touch them. “Once there were molds on my dolls,and I cried as if they were living human beings,” says Dyana. Barbara Whitman from the Philadelphia Doll Museum advised her to use hot water with soap and vinegar to remove the molds.Some old ones could not be restored, and attached as Dyana was to the dolls she could not throw them away but washed them and put them in a closet. Besides the dolls, she also collects first edition books, particularly from the Harlem Renaissance, and also memorabilia - she is a collector, who just loves to collect. “It is a passion that has developed into something that I derive great pleasure from, but other people appear to as well, including my family who were critical at one point,” says Dyana. Her family started to worry about her when her obsession with buying art was slightly getting out of control, when she started putting art in garages and storages. “I was sneaking art into the house after midnight and that’s when I realized I had to slow my obsession down a little bit.”

She hasn ’t stopped collecting, however, and she knows her collection is a tangible asset that she can leave for her children; “an asset that I pray that they would enjoy as much as I did,and remind them of my joy of supporting the creative people such as I have...” she adds, "and celebrating our culture,and also celebrating the American heritage,because these are black artists, but they are also American artists.”

Dyana defines her collection as an American collection, but with a lot of focus on African American art. She is Puerto Rican and African American, so she wants to collect more of Latino art, and Caribbean and Haitian art as well, also in line with her goal of diversifying the collection. “When you are a collector, you love art, but you tend to focus your interest in one area, and I ’m no different from any other collector. It just happened to be African American art because that is my culture and heritage. ”Dyana expressed her concern about how underrated and under-represented African American art is in “American Art, ”which tends to include just white artists. However, that does not mean she boycotts art by white artists. One of her favorite glass piece is by an white artist: “that didn't matter to me, I just loved the piece. I’m glad I have that piece in my collection.I ’m an Equal Opportunity Collector,” she laughs.

“I will spend the rest of my life promoting African American art, culture, music, dance. It ’s who I am and what I believe in. I love the creativity that comes from our communties, specifically the communities of color,” says Dyana. With the amazing work of preservation and promotion she is doing already in behalf of African American culture, with such energy and enthusiasm, it is only exciting to imagine what her next step might be.