Judy Dayton Q&A

Excerpted from Bloomberg, of course...

When the Walker Art Center decided to build a $70 million Herzog and de Meuron-designed addition, it was no surprise to anyone in Minneapolis that Kenneth and Judy Dayton would be the biggest donors to the project. The couple has donated $16.4 million to the Walker's capital campaign, over $6 million more than any other individual donor.

Kenneth Dayton, who died in 2003, was the former chairperson and chief executive officer of Dayton Hudson Corporation. (Dayton Hudson changed its name to Target Corporation in 2000, and Target gave $5 million to the Walker's campaign.)

The Daytons started collecting art almost 40 years ago. In the 1960s, the Dayton Hudson department store in downtown Minneapolis sold contemporary art out of a space in the store called "Gallery 12." Judy and Kenneth Dayton bought some of their first pieces from Gallery 12, and went on to join the ranks of America's top collectors of modern and contemporary art.

I talked with Judy Dayton at her home in Minneapolis about her family's interest in the arts.

Q: How did your involvement with the Walker begin?

A: In the case of the Walker it started with Martin Friedman who was the most incredible director. At the time Ken and I had a latent interest in art. We were at a Dayton Hudson event at the Walker in honor of Twiggy, the model. As I was chatting with people, I discovered one of the curators from the Walker. I asked, "What goes on around here?" because I hadn't really been to the Walker a great deal. The galleries were closed but he had a key and he let us in and flipped on the lights. There was a show of Minnesota artist Charles Biederman. It turned me on and a few days later we went back and got involved.

Q: How and when did you start buying art?

A: We started in the first year of our marriage by buying a painting on the Left Bank of Paris, a landscape of Montmartre. From there it was never a collection, it was always kind of an adventure. We were never out to build a collection – we think that's kind of a precious word.

Q: And at some point you got interested in Roy Lichtenstein, an example of whom is right behind us.

A: That painting was on the cover of the Sunday Times one day. They did a story on Roy and that painting was in the background of a photograph. We called Leo Castelli and said we'd like to buy it. He said, "But you haven't even seen it, how you can buy it?" Push came to shove and we got it.

Q: You also have a wonderful Richard Serra in your backyard. How did you come to own it?

A: We had fun with that. That was in the Museum of Modern Art in their sculpture garden at one point. That's where we saw it. Some of the curators at MoMA wanted to keep it and some of the curators didn't think it was big enough. So it was for sale, and we just happened to be there when the apple fell.

When it came time to install it at our home outside the city, a contractor made a model of it so we could move it around. The contractor brought out the model, and they dumped it in the middle of this circle we had outside the house because Richard Serra was going to come out the next day to help us place it.

The next day Serra came. We told him to go look and see where you think we should put it. He walked all around creation and then looked at the model in the circle. He said, "I wouldn't move it at all. Put it there." And we did.

Q: Will your entire collection end up at the Walker?

A: Yes. We've tried to be temporary custodians of some of these things  but eventually they'll end up at the Walker because that's the appropriate thing.