The Rose Art Museum announced its first-ever acquisition under the brand new Sam Hunter Emerging Artists Fund on May 19: David Schutter’s “MMA 636 a2” is the first of what the Rose hopes will be a large collection of works acquired under the new initiative aimed at emerging artistic voices.

Schutter has been featured in solo exhibitions worldwide, from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art to the Gemäldegalerie Berlin to the Logan Center for the Arts in his native Chicago. It was at the Logan Center for the Arts that he debuted a work transposing a room in the Art Institute of Chicago’s 19th century painting wing, including the four paintings therein, in a scale model. In a press release from Art Fix Daily, Schutter said, “The collection of the Rose is an important station on any way to see great painting in the eastern U.S. With its history of collecting new work at the boundaries of the avant-garde, it is a perfect teaching collection not only to students at Brandeis, but to other museums and the general public.”

The Sam Hunter Emerging Artists Fund is named after the Rose’s founder, Sam Hunter, who prioritized acquiring works from new and emerging artists, helping the Rose to rapidly acquire its academic and artistic credibility. The fund is led by a committee of curators, collectors and artists whose job is to acquire works from artists who have not yet received widespread attention, but have the potential to become prominent figures in the art scene.

Outgoing Rose curator Chris Bedford explained the process further in the press release. “Committee members, each contributing a small sum to a collective pot, met monthly to discuss works by artists of interest, and eventually selected an artist who they believe to be the most prominent of the group, and the best fit for the Rose collection.”

—Max Moran