Willem and Diane Volkersz of Bozeman, Montana have been documenting art environments since the 1960’s and have been collecting since the 1970’s. For several decades, they traveled throughout the Midwest and South while Willem was teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute, photographing environments, interviewing artists, and collecting art. Over the years, their collection has been loaned to museums including the Museum of American Folk Art, American Visionary Art Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, and the Missoula Art Museum, among others. Much of Willem’s photography, including 5,000 slides, is now in the collection of SPACES and was incredibly helpful during the preservation of Pasaquan. His audio interviews with artists are in the Archives of American Art in Washington D.C.

The Volkersz’s offered their folk art  collection to KFI. It includes pieces by Jesse Howard, Calvin Black (Possum Trot), St. EOM. Howard Finster, chicken bone chairs by Arthur Frenchy, and other well-known and lesser known artists. JMKAC director Sam Gappmayer and former curator Karen Patterson selected 361 works for JMKAC. The pieces have been documented, cleaned and conserved as needed.