Going Back to the Dance

As in the Big Dance- a.k.a. the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It is my custom each year on Selection Sunday to note how many of the field of teams in the tournament have an official connection to my art, such as an exhibition, collection, or artist visit. This year I have four that are part of the tournament. In chronological order of my connection they are Illinois (9 Seed Southwest Region), Villanova (9 Seed East Region), Texas (4 Seed West Region), and Syracuse (3 Seed East Region). No one is picking any of them as a likely Final Four team, but I'll hope that a few of the at least make it to the second weekend.

There are unofficial ways I can increase my number. For example, I have had exhibitions at two schools that are not part of the tournament, but are in the same city as two schools that are in the tournament. These would be a print in a juried show at Columbia College (Columbia, MO, home of West Region 11 Seed University of Missouri) and a solo show at the Princeton Theological Seminary, just a stone's throw from East Region 13 Seed Princeton University. And there are three schools in the NIT that have seen my art- Northwestern (group show), Harvard (museum collection), and Fairfield (technically nothing official, but my brother borrowed a few old paintings to decorate his residence one year). But almost no one cares about the NIT these days, so I'll likely only follow up on the four in the first paragraph at the end of next weekend's games.

Update- Not a good year for schools that support printmaking. Villanova lost their first round game, and the other 3 lost their second round games, so none of them survived the first weekend.