Patti & Coop Cooprider - Tony Peters

Patti & Coop Cooprider: art collectors an advocates

Art aficionados from an early age, Patti Cooprider is an artist and art history major with a BA from the University of Maryland. Coop Cooprider was the youngest journeyman sign painter in Washington and Idaho. They married in 1959, began collecting art in Europe in 1965 and moved to San Diego in 1991. They have collected works by San Diego artists including Manny Farber, David Baze, Robin Bright, Lynne Schuette, Jeffery Laudenslager, Christopher Lee, Gail Roberts, Judy White, Jay Johnson, Ernest Silva, Raul Guerrero, Doris Biter, Mario Uribe, Gerrit Greve, Ann Mudge, Becky Guttin and Andrea Zuill. In 1993, they acquired ArtWalk from Michael Kritchman and served on the board of the San Diego Art Institute. Jointly they produced Collector's Choice and Council Member's Choice exhibitions at the Paladian. From 1993 to 1997 they served as Chairpersons of the Scripps Art for Healing Council and produced a twenty year retrospective of the works of Gerrit Greve at Scripps Memorial Hospital. They were pivotal in launching the Wolfstein Sculpture Park at that same location. The Coopriders have volunteered for many charitable events over the years and in 2002 Patti Cooprider was named Woman of Dedication by the Salvation Army. They are presently on the board of the Contemporary Art Committee of the San Diego Museum of Art.

What is your vision of the future of the Visual arts for San Diego?

"Our dream is for international art collectors to beat a path to San Diego to buy their art. In the future, local prominent collectors should buy more from San Diego than from New York. We were thrilled to see three major events worthy of any international city of culture in SD this year: the city wide Bernar Vernet sculptures presented by Scott White Gallery, Beyond the Borders International Art Fair produced by Ann Berchtold and the Quint Contemporary Art retrospective at the CCAE. "