Meetings, Dues + Benefits

The Acquisitions Circle holds two meetings a year, one in the fall and one in the spring, each joined by members of the ICA’s curatorial team.

The fall Acquisitions Circle meeting discusses the ICA’s collecting priorities, goals for acquisitions and growth for the collection, and forthcoming exhibitions.  The group will gather for dialogue and close up looking at artworks proposed for acquisition consideration by the curatorial team and discuss the works presented.  Members cast a vote determining the allocation of funds for acquisition to the ICA permanent collection.

Annual dues provide a pool of funds to purchase artworks and are 100% tax-deductible:

$1,000 – First Year Acquisition Circle Member
$2,500 – Member
$5,000 – Principal
$10,000 – Exemplar

The Acquisitions Circle is open to all active ICA Members​. We ask that you consider a membership at the Friend level ($250) or above. Participation ​​​in the Acquisitions Circle includes:

  • invitations to ICA exhibition opening receptions
  • a private collection tour and artist studio visit
  • the opportunity to reserve VIP Passes to international art fairs, as available

Artworks acquired through the Acquisitions Circle

In its inaugural year, 2015, the Acquisitions Circle collected funds to purchase Hito Steyerl’s Liquidity Inc., 2014, a video installation using water as its guiding theme. The piece was on view at the ICA in conjunction with the exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today in 2018.

In fall 2016, the Acquisitions Circle voted and approved the purchase of all three of the proposed acquisitions, paintings which stretch the limits of the medium and materialize the everyday: Henry Taylor’s i’m yours, 2015;  Sadie Benning’s Crowd, 2015; and Laura Owens’s Untitled, 2015. All were shown at the ICA in 2017–18.

In 2017–18, the Acquisitions Circle voted to acquire Frank Benson’s bronze sculpture Juliana, 2014–15, a highlight of the ICA’s landmark exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today. Juliana was purchased through the generosity of the Acquisitions Circle, together with support from the General Acquisition Fund and from Acquisitions Circle Vice Chair Patrick Planeta and Santiago Varela.

In 2019, the Acquisitions Circle acquired Toyin Ojih Odutola’s Heir Apparent, 2018, and with additional support from individual patrons, Tschabalala Self’s Lite, 2018. Both paintings have since been on view in the ICA galleries.

In 2020, the Circle convened virtually and acquired nine photographs from the series Faces and Phases by the photographer Zanele Muholi, and, with additional support from individual patrons, John Akomfrah’s monumental film installation, Purple, 2017. This work was the landmark installation at the ICA Watershed in 2019.

In an effort to provide support and visibility for Boston artists during the pandemic, the Acquisitions Circle acquired works by three local artists: thosebutterflyboys, 2017, by David Antonio Cruz; Jahnae Wyatt as Queen Poku, 2018, by Stephen Hamilton; and Space Poem #1, 2007, by Renee Green.

In 2022 the Acquisitions Circle supported the addition to the collection of a work by Celeste Rapone Pack Animals, 2021. Rapone is a Chicago-based abstract figurative painter known for illustrations of mostly women subjects. This is the first work by Celeste Rapone to enter the ICA’s permanent collection and fulfill the museum’s priority to collect from its exhibition program, feature women artists, and highlight new modes of figuration. During the 2022–23 Acquisitions Circle year, the membership elected to acquire, with the assistance of some outside funders, Simone Leigh’s Jug, 2022, which the artist made for her ICA-commissioned presentation at the U.S. Pavilion as part of the Venice Biennale. The work is a large-scale face vessel jug with cowrie shell shapes on the front side. It is an example of how Leigh uses aesthetic languages and ceramic traditions in a relationship that crosses time and reflects forgotten histories. This is the second work by Simone Leigh in the ICA’s permanent collection and marked a historic moment in the ICA’s history.

The Acquisitions Circle is Chaired by Fotene Demoulas and Vice Chair Patrick Planeta. To learn more about the Acquisitions Circle, contact the Development Office 617-478-3183 or acquisitionscircle@icaboston.org.