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Mission: The Roundtop Trust is a charitable trust, created by a group of arts patrons, to preserve for posterity a collection of works by Pennsylvania artist Rob Evans. Bringing together key works spanning the breadth of the artist's career, this collection is available for study, museum exhibitions and to provide insight and education about the themes dealt with in the artist's work such as sustainability, environmental preservation and the cycles and artifacts of the natural world as metaphors for the human experience.

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The collection has recently been expanded to include an extensive cross section of works featuring Susquehanna River imagery spanning 4 centuries. The collection includes Susquehannock artifacts, engravings, lithographs, aquatints, etchings, drawings, transferware ceramics, books, maps and paintings as well as period watercolor, engraving and lithography tools and materials.

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Background: Named for "Roundtop", the artist's maternal grandparents' homestead located on a ridge (in eastern York County) overlooking the Susquehanna River, the trust was formed in 2014 with the help of several patrons interested in helping preserve Rob Evans' legacy as an artist. The initial goal of the trust was to purchase major works by Evans as they became available on the secondary market or directly from the artist’s personal collection, forming the nucleus of a larger permanent collection of the artists' work. Over the last decade sufficient funds have been raised to acquire nearly 2 dozen of Evans important works.

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In 2004 Evans organized the touring exhibit, "Visions of the Susquehanna" exploring his roots as a Susquehanna artist. The exhibit, which traveled to 5 museums in the mid-Atlantic region, featured major works, on loan from museums, by some of the most prominent landscape painters from the last 2 centuries, as well as works by nationally known contemporary painters.

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The Roundtop Trust Collection: During the last three years sufficient funds have nearly been raised to acquire the following works for the collection (click here to see images):

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March Dig I, 1985, graphite on paper, 21 x 25 inches

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March Dig II, 1985, mixed media on paper, 21 x 25 inches

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Late Dinner I, 1987, graphite on paper, 8 x 12 inches

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Late Dinner, 1988, stone lithograph, 8 x 12 inches

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Late Dinner II, 1989, mixed media over stone lithograph, 8 x 12 inches

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Gravity Air, 1992, graphite on museum board, 40 x 60 inches (promised gift)

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Moth, 1993, acrylic on panel, 24 x 72 inches (triptych)

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Metamorphosis (study for "Cicada"), 1996, charcoal and conte on paper, 40 x 30 inches

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Study for Fossil, 1996, charcoal on paper, 9 x 13 inches

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Fossil, 1997, mixed media on paper, 27 x 38 inches

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Beach at Night, 2001, watercolor, 31 x 31 inches

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Trillium, 2002, manipulated pigment print, 9 x 13 inches

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Elizabeth Quinn Sleeping, 2005, 6 color hand pulled lithograph from 1 stone and

5 plates, 10.3 x 10 inches

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Origins, 2007, oil on museum board mounted on aluminum panel, 84 x 76 x 6 inches (altarpiece/triptych)

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Study for Movement, 2010, mixed media over pigment print, 37 x 33 inches

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Convergence, 2012, pastel on museum board, 18.25 x 32.5 inches (promised gift)

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Resting Swans, 2018, pastel on museum board, 12 x 17 inches

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Over the next two years the goal is to acquire additional key works and studies (through bequest, gift or purchase) both from the secondary market and from the artist’s own personal collection (including important new works created during that period).

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Use of the Collection: This collection would be available for study by students and interns as well as for loans to museums for group or solo exhibitions. In the future, the trust would support working with students or interns to archive and create a catalog raisonne of Evans' output as an artist including paintings, drawings, prints, sketchbooks as well as letters, articles, books, etc.

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The collection is currently on long term display in the farmhouse gallery at the Historic Hellam Preserve, in Hellam, PA. Appointments can be made for a private tour of the collection through the contact page on this website.

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Touring Exhibit: Starting in 2021, a touring exhibit of the trust collection (plus other loaned works from museums and private collections) will be available to travel to museums nationwide. A full color exhibition catalog will be published to document the exhibit and educational programs and lectures will be developed as part of the tour. Custom shipping crates will be built to facilitate transport of the collection. Marketing will include advertising in major arts magazines and journals as well as online promotion in social media, arts blogs and forums.

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Contributions: All new contributions to the trust will provide for ongoing purchases of specific works, curatorial management and care of the collection, as well as costs associated with the upcoming touring exhibit (including insurance, marketing, crating and transport, catalog publication, etc).

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Additional Benefits: It is important to note that purchases of works directly from the artist’s personal archive provides unrealized compensation for time spent on these works which were held back from sale over the years. This income will provide the artist some extra financial security enabling unencumbered studio time to devote to new and more ambitious projects including large scale multi-panel works. The extra financial stability also will allow Evans to continue contributing his time to community arts activism and local arts initiatives.

 

Please note: although the Roundtop Trust is a charitable trust, it is not a 501c3 non-profit, and therefore any contributions are not tax-deductible.

 

To contribute to the Roundtop Trust please send a check payable to “Roundtop Trust” to:

 

Rob Evans Studio

7152 Roundtop Lane

Wrightsville, PA 17368

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Or you can make a contribution here through Paypal:​​​​​