Artful Legacies, Growing Collections
At a moment of growth, new technology and generous alumni giving, Chris Rupp ’00 steps in as interim director of the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. He initially served as a gallery assistant during his student years under art professor emeritus Tony R. Askew.
“Tony placed works around the gallery, and I came in to hang and light the exhibitions,” Rupp says. “This first foray into museum work ignited my interest and passion to pursue this career in conjunction with my work as an artist.”
Rupp assisted in the art department’s move from Reynolds Gallery to Adams Center for the Visual Arts, where he served with former director Judy L. Larson for 16 years.
An Institute of Museum and Library Services grant provided initial funding as he cataloged Westmont’s vast art collection and developed policies and practices for the new museum. A ceramicist, he then became an instructor, curator and collections manager.
Recently, Rupp has worked with Westmont’s Center for Applied Technology Lab (CATLab) to create an online, searchable database of the full art collection, including bios, nationalities, birth and death dates, images, title, medium and much more. “This project makes our artwork more accessible and available to the public, researchers and institutions that may wish to borrow it,” Rupp says. See the work in progress at westmont.edu/museum/inventory/search.
Rupp has expanded an existing museum conference room to create the first Permanent Collection Gallery to showcase works usually locked in the vault. “We can share with the community some of the wonderful gifts Westmont has received, such as the Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and other Barbizon paintings from the collection of Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, our Rembrandt prints from Howard and Fran Berger and other donations,” he says.
The museum has recently received additional, significant donations from alums Kenneth Sampson ’70, Steven Pattie ’74 and Faith Perry ’62. Sampson commissioned Sharon Schock ’06 to create a landscape painting of Butterfly Beach. “Her work so captures the Santa Barbara feel that I remain inspired and refreshed with every viewing of her paintings,” Sampson says. “My life and person have been enriched.”
Pattie, a passionate, decades-long collector, donated important folk and outsider art. “These works enhance our growing collection of self-taught artists, many of whom began their artistry to spread the word of God and minister through their visual art,” Rupp says.
Perry and her late husband, Dewayne, have built an extraordinary collection of nearly 4,000 Old Master prints and hundreds of ceramic works, which they plan to donate to Westmont. The museum dedicates the exhibition, “Between Planes: Exploring Sculpture Through Print,” (November 13-December 20) to Dewayne. The couple established the Dewayne and Faith Perry Print Acquisition Fund at Westmont in 2008, which has added more than 475 works on paper to the permanent collection.
Rupp has begun publishing free, takeaway brochures or booklets with each exhibition. “It’s important for every visitor to take home a tangible reminder of what they saw, which provides additional information about the museum they can share with friends,” he says.
In the spring, the museum will highlight photography, featuring the work of Ansel Adams (January 15-March 28, 2026), focusing on his photojournalism for Fortune magazine in 1940-1941. “He was hired to photograph the lives of aviation factory workers before World War II in and around Los Angeles,” Rupp says. “These works, now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Public Library, have rarely gone on exhibit.”
The museum will also borrow some of Adams’ most famous landscape photos from other institutions, which will offer an interesting contrast in subject matter.
To learn more about the museum, upcoming events or becoming a museum member, visit: westmont.edu/museum.