Art Collectors
This is the first in a series about island art collectors and their collections.
By Laura Raskin
Independent Arts Writer

Michael Hite and Diane Zuckerman are proud owners and collectors of the works of Nantucket's artists; their passion includes a solarium of paintings by Sherri Bustad of their own house through the seasons; "Bacon," their Yorkshire Terrier, prefers the culinary arts.

Diane Zuckerman and Michael Hite are looking for some land to build a new house, preferably one larger than what they own now. One reason is because they are amassing an art collection their walls cannot keep up with.

The couple also owns a loft in Chelsea, fittingly above the well-known Max Protetch gallery. It is partly from there that they stock their Manhattan loft - the 36-year-old gallery specializes in very contemporary minimalist and conceptual art ("not particularly Nantucket," said Zuckerman). Their most recent acquisition was a piece by ceramist Betty Woodman, who shows at Max Protetch.

But in Nantucket, it's all Nantucket.

"The artists' community is thriving here, there are so many wonderful artists," said Hite, justifying frame after frame of recognizable island styles.

"And we do it to support local artists," said Zuckerman, many of whom have become friends.

They commissioned one artist-turned-friend, Sherri Bustad, to paint the four seasons from their home off Madaket Road. Rectangular canvases of fall, winter, spring and summer hang beside each other in their living room, which is also heavily decorated with glass - wineglasses, glass sculpture, glass bowls. They weren't necessarily made by Nantucket artists, but most were bought here at the Dane Gallery.

Hite and Zuckerman's home is a former circa-1900s cow barn, which they bought in the summer of 1997 and added to.

"Hippies were squatters in the barn," said Hite of its earlier decades. Hite and Zuckerman have met some who can personally attest to that - and who now own large homes in 'Sconset and are no longer hippies, they said. The old barn walls serve as the background for many of the paintings, a piece of Nantucket's aesthetic history as well.

On a recent visit to their home, Zuckerman held their docile Yorkshire terrier Bacon for the length of the tour. Bacon is the namesake of Zuzu, a Yorkie featured in one of Bustad's seasonal paintings.

Zuzu died last summer on the island at 14. His favorite food was bacon. Sitting on the kitchen counter, near an antique Parisian butcher's block bowed from the slaying of many an animal, are three perfectly drained pieces of the pork fat on a paper towel.

Zuckerman, who runs a medical communications business with her husband, is dressed like the human embodiment of her home. She sports long chunky earrings with seaglass-like beads and a bracelet adorned with shells.

Beginning with the kitchen, Zuckerman and Hite go through the list. Paintings hang one above another. Almost every major Nantucket artist, or artist who sells on Nantucket, is featured: Heidi Funck, Elizabeth Congdon, Katie Trinkle Legge, Megan Hinton, Illya Kagan, David Lazarus, Joan Albaugh, Bernadette Brown, Piero Fenci and Elizabeth Akamatsu. A large mixed media collage by Kerry Hallam hangs in the kitchen - complete with corks and grapes and the likeness of Wine Festival founder Denis Toner.

"Part of collecting is knowing the people and liking them," said Zuckerman. "I couldn't buy art from someone I didn't like. There's more than just what's on the wall."

Zuckerman and Hite's two oldest pieces are a James Walter Folger from 1843 and a corner wall cabinet in their kitchen painted by Ralph Cahoon. Cahoon was a well-known Cape Cod-based furniture decorator in the first half of the 20th century. He transitioned to easel painting in the 1950s and the mermaid became his signature muse.

The couple confirms that no particular planning went into the displaying of their collection.

"A lot is size and trying to group certain ones together," said Zuckerman. A suite of 12 of George Thomas' island scenes hangs together, four in a row.

"We have a ghost who doesn't like this one," said Zuckerman, leveling out a stubborn one in the middle of the top row.

They continue to acquire paintings, but they are running out of walls, they said. "We thought about hanging paintings from the ceiling," said Zuckerman, seemingly half serious. The frequent sources for their collection are the South Wharf Gallery, the Dane Gallery, the Old Spouter and the Artists' Association of Nantucket.

While they may be moving, they have no plans to downsize or get rid of their collection. What if they leave the island - will a collection of entirely sea and sand-based artwork still have a home somewhere?

"We'll never leave Nantucket," said Hite. "The house is for sale. The art will stay. We don't part with those."

Eventually it will be left to their son who is 20 and grew up on the island.

Hite and Zuckerman are Indiana natives, but met in New York. Friends lured them here in the 1980s and after renting for a while, they bought a house.

"And we never went to the Hamptons again," said Zuckerman.

Even in their New York City loft - in the gallery heart of the city - they have to have a piece of the island. A Sherre Wilson Rae hangs a few floors above the pop-centered Max Protetch gallery, although it might as well be light years away.

Rob Benchley/The Independent