2023 Gala to Host African Artwork Auction

Pieces donated by the estate of renowned animal behaviorist Dr. Richard Schuster

Attendees at the Medgar Evers College Second Annual Legends & Legacy Social Justice Scholarship Gala to be held on Thursday, December 7, will have the unique opportunity to bid on an array of unique African artwork pieces that will be part of the event’s silent auction. The artifacts were donated by Adriane Schuster, whose late husband, Dr. Richard Schuster, was an avid collector up until his passing in January 2018. A Harvard University graduate with a PhD in Experimental Psychology, Dr. Schuster first went to Africa in 1971 to teach Animal Behavior and Evolution at the University of Zambia before going on to work for the World Wildlife Fund, where he studied the environmental effects on the lechwe antelope and subsequently became a world expert on this species. During the educator’s six years living in Zambia, the Far Rockaway native traveled throughout Africa, fueling his interest for the art of this continent while collecting roughly 400 pieces of tribal artwork. For his widow Adriane, this passion reflected her husband’s love of the cultures and country’s he spent so much time roaming through.

“Richard’s specialty was animal behavior and evolution and as an adventurous person and an iconoclast, living and working in Africa was ideal,” she recalled. “That was the pull and he felt it was the ultimate freedom—being out in the bush and carrying on.” While Dr. Schuster’s later life found him landing on the faculty at the University of Haifa in Israel, Africa continued to draw him back. He not only won a grant to study a pride of lions in Botswana, but he took his wife on a safari she described as “…an experience like no other.” During this whole time, that passion for African art only deepened as he expanded his knowledge base, understanding, and sophistication in the impressive and inspired collection Dr. Schuster wound up with. The expertise of his collector’s eye led to a number of pieces being housed at the Bedford Stuyvesant Museum of African Art along with a number of private collections. Given the importance of this collection, Adriane Schuster felt it only right that Medgar Evers College be the beneficiary of her late husband’s aesthetic sensibilities.

“I Googled HBCU colleges in New York City, because I couldn’t start packing things and mailing them and the school’s name came up, so I called,” she said. “I am also a graduate of Queens College, so there’s a connection there. And talk about dating myself—I remember when Medgar Evers was shot. I think Richard would wholeheartedly appreciate those who appreciate this art the way he did.” Dr. Patricia Ramsey is also appreciative of the impact this donation of African art for the Gala’s silent auction can make in helping out MEC students.

“I greatly appreciate Mrs. Adriane Schuster for donating the African Art pieces of her husband, the late Dr. Richard Schuster, to our Gala fundraiser,” Dr. Ramsey said. “This donation to the auction will be of great help in supporting our Medgar Evers College students who are in need of financial assistance to complete their respective degrees.”