Catherine Whalen and students from her seminar, American Collectors and Collections, which explores the history, theory, and practice of collecting in the United States from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present, visited the Molina Collection in East Harlem on December 1. Run under the auspices of the NYC Department of Sanitation, the collection is also known as the M11 Gallery or ‘Treasures in the Trash.’ The tour was hosted by Nelson Molina, the retired sanitation worker who founded the collection, and Robin Nagle, an NYU anthropologist who has been instrumental in advocating for its continuation and preservation.

Whalen said the collection sets an intriguing example for studying how collectors select, arrange, and sequence objects. “When Molina retrieves items from New York City streets,” she said, “he is already thinking about how he will present them in the space, where he carefully organizes displays that range from tables massed with objects of similar type, color, and material to humorous vignettes, such as a pair of ceramic cups decorated with winking faces placed so that they seem to eye one another.” The class observed that Molina is not only a collector but also a curator and designer, even though he prefers to describe what he does as rescuing, repairing, and reusing.

BGC faculty members Deborah Krohn and Meredith Linn also attended along with writing tutor Helen Polson. The collection is not open to the public but tours are available by special arrangement.