Short Film Spotlights Clinton Hill Resident Eric Edwards — And His Rare African Art Collection

Long-time Clinton Hill resident Eric Edwards’ apartment holds a collection of African art that rivals the collections of small and medium-sized museums — and actually goes on occasional display in major museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where his Nigerian Palace Drum goes on display beginning tomorrow (Wednesday, May 20).

The drum is just one in a 1,600-piece collection that Edwards has accumulated over his 44 years collecting, spanning all of Africa’s 54 countries and dating back to the fourth century and the Nubian Empire.

Although his collection — worth an estimated $10 million — has often been the subject of attention, now Edwards himself is in the spotlight a bit, as the subject of a short documentary, “The Collector,” by New York City filmmaker Mark Zemel, which is available for viewing on Vimeo and was also highlighted in Gothamist.

Explaining his collection, Edwards noted that it is the result of his father’s effort to “inoculate us from feeling less important than anyone else” through racism. “His way of doing that was to teach us African history, which later in life led me to collecting African art.”

Edwards is currently seeking backers for an African art museum in Brooklyn, which he hopes to open next summer under the name The Cultural Museum of African Art. He’s already secured architect Rodney Léon for the project, who designed the African Burial Ground National Monument in Manhattan.

With the museum, Edwards hopes to secure his collection, long after he’s gone. But for now, “I live with my art,” he says. “It’s part of what gives me sustenance, and direction, and sanity. All of the pieces that you see around here represent my psyche.”

Watch “The Collector” below: