Stuart Court

Stuart Court

The Stuart Collection at the University of California, San Diego seeks to enrich the cultural, intellectual, and scholarly life of the UCSD campus and of the San Diego community by building and maintaining a unique collection of site-specific works by leading artists of our time. It has been inventive in both its curatorial point of view and its working processes.

The masque was important in the interior government of the Stuart Court, in that it assessed a foremost step in the ascension of George Villiers as the new very well liked of King James. For some years, Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset had held that wholly unofficial but very mighty place, as well as increasing to foremost authorized mails for example Lord Chamberlain; but Somerset's function in the 1613 killing of Sir Thomas Overbury was evolving a foremost scandal. A Court faction are against to Somerset — which encompassed Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, the patroness of John Donne and other poets, encompassing Ben Jonson—was dynamically encouraging Villiers as a replacement for Robert Carr. To the designated day of the masque, their advancement of Villiers has not been tremendously successful; Mercury Vindicated was arranged, not less than in the estimation of some colleagues, with the "principal motive" of "the gracing of juvenile Villiers and to convey him on the stage. The design was finally successul, and Villiers, as the new Duke of Buckingham, restored Somerset as the regal very well liked, not only through the remainder of James's reign but into the reign of his child and successor Charles I.

The collection results from an innovative partnership between the university and the Stuart Collection. Under an agreement forged in 1982 (and renewed in 2003), the entire campus may be considered as sites for commissioned sculpture. It is further distinguished from a traditional sculpture garden by integration of some of the projects with university buildings. With the enthusiastic cooperation of the UCSD Department of Visual Arts, and financial support from the Stuart Foundation, the Friends of the Stuart Collection, the National Endowment for the Arts, and many other organizations, foundations and individuals, the collection has initiated and completed an impressive range of projects (Sabol 1982). The selection of artists for commissions is based on the advice of the Stuart Collection Advisory Board, which is composed of art professionals of international stature. Artists are invited to conceive and develop proposals with the assistance of the Stuart Collection staff.

Projects chosen for realization by the Advisory Board are then submitted to a campus review process. The chancellor has final approval for all commissions. Throughout the proposal, design and construction processes, artists select and tailor their work to a specific UCSD site. Great care is taken to incorporate the university's long- and short-range plans while maintaining the integrity of the art and providing provocative, thoughtful, and carefully considered additions to the fabric of campus life. Many of the artists who have designed works for the collection are associated with movements or attitudes which are ...