Hundreds of Oberlin College students recently said goodbye to some unusual temporary roommates: Borrowed works of art created by famous names such as Andy Warhol, Rembrandt and Henri Matisse.
For second-year student Paige McCallion, it meant parting ways with Tom Cruise.
No, not the seemingly ageless Hollywood actor. It’s what she calls the dark-haired man wearing a crown of leaves depicted in an untitled art piece by artist John Clem Clarke.
He’s the focal point of the work McCallion checked out through the college’s art rental program. Each semester, students, staff and community members can borrow original and reproduced works from the college’s Allen Memorial Art Museum for $5. Think of it as a library offering art instead of books – in fact, a library card on the back lists all of the people who’ve checked out the piece before the current renter.
McCallion shared news of the piece on her Instagram story when she initially got it. Another student quickly replied: Hey, we had that in our house last year! We called him Tom Cruise.
The name stuck. As this semester ticked on, she developed her own affection for the art, “even though it’s a huge, kind of crazy painting.”
But “Tom,” and most of the 351 other pieces rented out this spring, had to be returned to the museum last week. McCallion said she’s already wondering what her room will look like without it.
That kind of connection is what college employee Ellen Johnson had in mind when she started the program in 1940. Art, she believed, was best appreciated when you lived with it. Now, decades later, it’s become a beloved ritual at the liberal arts school, giving a way for its 2,900 students to integrate fine art into their daily lives.
“It’s sort of amazing that Oberlin lets us just take these things and trusts us with such expensive pieces of art,” McCallion said. “But it’s like, ‘Why shouldn’t you hang expensive things in your home? Why shouldn’t you enjoy beautiful things?’”
The do’s and don’ts of hanging art in a dorm room
Each year, Oberlin’s Allen Art Museum employees select what pieces can be rented, curating a combination of original pieces, prints and works on paper. The museum keeps the rental options separate from the museum’s permanent collection. A handful of museums at other schools, including the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota, have similar programs.
At Oberlin, the art seems to fare well when it leaves the Allen’s walls. Additional insurance isn’t required. Museum staff have seen a few damaged frames over the years, but no artwork’s been harmed.
Renters receive a list of guidelines about how to handle the art. The “do’s” include choosing a location to hang that’s not filled with light or humidity, using hardware provided by the museum to hang the piece. The “don’t’s” on the list are more obvious: Keep the piece away from kitchens and bathrooms – and don’t trust Command Strips.
For years, renters lined up outside the museum on each semester’s designated rental day in order to get their pick of pieces. The process changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, each person can select one of the five randomly chosen pieces presented to them.
Once, when third-year student Francis Gallagher and his friends were waiting in line to make their selections, another student ahead of them was presented with a work by Pablo Picasso. (Six lesser-known pieces by the artist are in the collection.)
The group held their collective breath.
“Like, ‘Please don’t pick it, please don’t pick it,’” Gallagher said, hoping the work might fall to them. But a museum employee gave the other student a nudge towards the piece. And just like that, the Picasso was gone – for a semester, anyway.
Gallagher and his friends rented pieces again this spring. They displayed them in the living room of their shared house, though Gallagher’s roommate Ben Bushman admitted he wasn’t a huge fan of this semester’s selections.
“It was still nice to have something,” he said.
Oberlin students plan to rent art again
Perhaps the best case for Oberlin’s rental program would be turning students into lifelong art buffs. Maybe the worst is just an opportunity to jazz up bland dorm room walls. A random sampling of this semester’s renters all seemed to fall somewhere in between.
First-year student Aurora Allen didn’t end up actually hanging her painting – a manuscript page with some gold leaves – this spring. She didn’t want to deal with putting a nail in the wall. Instead, she propped it up near her desk and surrounded it with flowers.
“It’s from 1520, which is just super sick,” she said of the work. “The fact that it could be in my room with all of my new stuff was so interesting and fun.”
On art return day, Allen and two friends lugged their rentals up a set of stairs, walked along a narrow hallway, and waited in line.
Museum employees quickly checked the pieces back in and returned them to a small storage area. Afterwards, the trio bounced down the stairs, opened a back door, and returned to one of the last days of the spring semester.
They’ll be back to the museum soon, though. Each said they plan to rent more art in the fall.
