February 11, 2009 5:29 PM
- Text
The Passion Of The Collector
(CBS)
Bernard Kinsey has a passion for art and for history. He owns an eclectic collection of artifacts that traces the history of Africans and their descendents in North America. The collection is temporarily housed at the African American Museum in Los Angeles, but most of the time, the art offers him personal solace in his home.
"This is the first place that I come to when I come home," he told Sunday Morning correspondent Bill Whitaker. "I come and this room speaks to me. All these wonderful black people that have done all these wonderful things. And many of these stories have not been told."
His Los Angeles home is filled with marvelous things. Art hangs on every wall and is in every nook. It greets you from the moment you walk in the door. Kinsey is lucky: He has a wife, Shirley, who shares his passion for art. They have been married for 40 years.
"Shirley and I have a thing. I buy the dead artists, she buys the living artists," Kinsey said. "Because I'm looking at the historical part of this thing and she's looking at what she likes."
Their collection isn't only African American, but mostly. It contains paintings, sculpture, and even letters — like one from Malcolm X to Alex Haley — some from the distant and not-so-distant past. Kinsey's motivation to collect comes from a desire to explore his people's history in the United States — a history that the couple actively participated in during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
"When we came to the Americas from Africa, how did we evolve?" he said. "And that evolution is both painful and wonderful. And putting that together is what we try to do here."
The Kinseys met as college students at the predominantly black Florida A & M in 1963.
Shirley was arrested for her participation in a protest and both were active in marches and sit-ins.
Both are now retired from Xerox, where Bernard rose to become a vice president. He's now a much-in-demand business consultant. In the wake of the L.A. riots in 1992 he was tapped, along with Peter Ueberroth, to run "Rebuild LA."
"Over the last 10, 11 years there's been over $2 billion invested in South L.A.," Bernard Kinsey said.
The Kinseys are at a stage in life where they can afford to indulge their passions - one even greater than collecting: sharing. Together they have raised more than $22 million for scholarships at historically black colleges.
"I grew up with my grandmother," Shirley Kinsey said. "I mean, I think about her and I say, 'Mama would not like this if I didn't share this with others.'"
"We really are more keepers of this art and historical documents, rather than owners, because frankly, no one can really own this in a sense," Bernard Kinsey said.
So recently, dozens of their treasured pieces were carefully taken down from their walls, packed and moved across town, where they were hung on the walls of the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, first stop on a two-year tour of museums around the country.
"It's a very special collection," executive director of the museum, Charmaine Jefferson said. "Some collectors focus on one type of work, one type of artist, one particular period; they're looking at the total picture. The story, the feeling, the sensation for African Americans about who we are and where we come from and what we don't know about ourselves comes from being able to look at this collective work. And so this collection is powerful for that reason."
Bernard Kinsey says some day he'll bequeath most of his collection to a museum so it can educate generations to come. But for the next two years, he's really going to miss his pieces.
"I may have to buy some more or something," he said.
"This is the first place that I come to when I come home," he told Sunday Morning correspondent Bill Whitaker. "I come and this room speaks to me. All these wonderful black people that have done all these wonderful things. And many of these stories have not been told."
His Los Angeles home is filled with marvelous things. Art hangs on every wall and is in every nook. It greets you from the moment you walk in the door. Kinsey is lucky: He has a wife, Shirley, who shares his passion for art. They have been married for 40 years.
"Shirley and I have a thing. I buy the dead artists, she buys the living artists," Kinsey said. "Because I'm looking at the historical part of this thing and she's looking at what she likes."
Their collection isn't only African American, but mostly. It contains paintings, sculpture, and even letters — like one from Malcolm X to Alex Haley — some from the distant and not-so-distant past. Kinsey's motivation to collect comes from a desire to explore his people's history in the United States — a history that the couple actively participated in during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
"When we came to the Americas from Africa, how did we evolve?" he said. "And that evolution is both painful and wonderful. And putting that together is what we try to do here."
The Kinseys met as college students at the predominantly black Florida A & M in 1963.
Shirley was arrested for her participation in a protest and both were active in marches and sit-ins.
Both are now retired from Xerox, where Bernard rose to become a vice president. He's now a much-in-demand business consultant. In the wake of the L.A. riots in 1992 he was tapped, along with Peter Ueberroth, to run "Rebuild LA."
"Over the last 10, 11 years there's been over $2 billion invested in South L.A.," Bernard Kinsey said.
The Kinseys are at a stage in life where they can afford to indulge their passions - one even greater than collecting: sharing. Together they have raised more than $22 million for scholarships at historically black colleges.
"I grew up with my grandmother," Shirley Kinsey said. "I mean, I think about her and I say, 'Mama would not like this if I didn't share this with others.'"
"We really are more keepers of this art and historical documents, rather than owners, because frankly, no one can really own this in a sense," Bernard Kinsey said.
So recently, dozens of their treasured pieces were carefully taken down from their walls, packed and moved across town, where they were hung on the walls of the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, first stop on a two-year tour of museums around the country.
"It's a very special collection," executive director of the museum, Charmaine Jefferson said. "Some collectors focus on one type of work, one type of artist, one particular period; they're looking at the total picture. The story, the feeling, the sensation for African Americans about who we are and where we come from and what we don't know about ourselves comes from being able to look at this collective work. And so this collection is powerful for that reason."
Bernard Kinsey says some day he'll bequeath most of his collection to a museum so it can educate generations to come. But for the next two years, he's really going to miss his pieces.
"I may have to buy some more or something," he said.
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