Bylee Massey’s Innovation and Spirit Created Herman Maril Collection at University of Maryland University College

When Bylee Massey arrived at UMUC’s Inn and Conference Center in 1978, something didn’t seem quite right.

Dr. Benjamin T. Massey, her husband, who had been named president of the University, recalled in a 1999 interview with the Baltimore Sun, “My wife looked at the walls and said, ‘My, this looks like a hospital.’”

That impersonal, antiseptic atmosphere was about to change, very quickly.
“This is a rather splendid facility,” she told Baltimore Sun Art Critic John Dorsey “It was crying out for something to make it whole. I kept thinking of what we might do that would be beneficial for the community and for UMUC.”

Bylee Massey, who died on December 17 in Durham, North Carolina. at age 84, discovered the answer by enriching UMUC’s walls with artwork. She founded the Herman Maril collection at the college and went on to launch the university’s Maryland Artist collection without funding or a paid staff.

“University College didn’t have a development office at the time and there was no mechanism for fund-raising,” she recalled.

“But the collection quickly developed when we learned that there were collectors and supporters of the Maryland artists who were very happy to donate works, and that’s when the focus changed. There were people like Jules Horelick, who had been buying works by Baltimore artists for years and years, and he was most happy to share.”

Bylee Massey was extremely proud of the fact that artists were being given the opportunity to have their work seen by the public. While most of the work in art collections owned by public institutions is in storage, she emphasized three-fourths of the UMUC collection was on public view most of the time.

“We like to hang as much of it as we possibly can,” she explained. “That’s one of the things we are trying to do for the artists. Often the artists will come and visit and bring friends.”

Before arriving at the UMUC conference center, art had become a major interest for Bylee Massey when she and her husband were living in London, Germany and Japan. “I was taking courses in art history at the City Literary Institute, connected with the University of London,” she explained in the Sunpapers interview.

She recalled spending her Saturdays in London perusing the commercial galleries and then spending afternoons at the National Gallery and the Tate.

“When we came to University College, I came up with the idea of trying to locate Maryland artists who would be interested in having their work here and the idea just gradually developed” Bylee Massey recalled. The timing to begin a collection of work by Maryland artists was perfect. This was a period where the Baltimore Museum had alienated the regional artist community by eliminating the annual juried exhibitions and was in the process of closing down the rental gallery. Both had been considered a boost to local artists gaining exposure. The chance to have work permanently on display to the thousands of visitors at the conference center was very appealing.

In 1983, Bylee Massey approached my father, Herman Maril, about establishing a collection of his work at UMUC. I remember him being very impressed with her concept and philosophy in developing a collection. My father, who had been a full professor in the art department at College Park for three decades, just a 10-minute walk away, was agreeable to supporting the idea of a UMUC collection. Both Ben and Bylee Massey visited my father in Baltimore several times and in 1985, he was awarded a Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts and spoke at the UMUC commencement.

After my father’s death in 1986, my mother, Esta C. Maril and I worked very closely with the Masseys in expanding the Maril collection and encouraging other artists and collectors to donate work.

I can remember Bylee and my mother spending long hours in Reuben Kramer’s studio, convincing him to give pieces of his sculpture and paintings by his wife, Perna Krick, to the collection.

“The art made a tremendous difference to the university and it was Bylee who convinced Ben to begin and establish the Maryland art collection,” Dr. Allan Hershfield recalls.

Hershfield was executive vice chancellor at UMUC from 1980–89. He left Maryland to serve as dean of Metropolitan College, Boston University before becoming President of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York from 1991–97.

“What a difference her efforts meant,” says Hershfield, now retired and living in Amherst, Massachusetts. “The collection of art brought so much to the university, transforming those bleak walls into something that was beautiful for the UMUC community. I watched her work very hard, determined to establish the collection.”

The Masseys were committed to making the overall collection grow in a careful, non-commercial manner. They set high ethical and academic standards and most of the changing exhibitions were linked with lectures and forums.

Bylee Massey had a very gracious, elegant southern charm and a warm sense of humor. She was always checking on the art whenever she walked through the building. I can recall many times talking with her while walking through one of the UMUC hallways and then suddenly seeing her veer off to push a potted indoor tree over a a few inches because it was blocking the view of a painting.

When Ben Massey retired in 1999 and the Massey left UMUC, the overall art collection had grown large enough to hire a director, curators, expand storage space and establish an art advisory board. Without Bylee Massey’s vision to establish a Maryland art collection, the rooms, walls and halls would be barren today instead of enhanced by oils, works on paper and sculpture.

Today, UMUC has 40-50 Herman Maril oils paintings, watercolors, drawings and prints on display.

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