A Life Bound to the Arts

The University of Virginia’s longstanding relationship with The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation can be traced back to 1950s New York City and the storied law firm Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst. Until it ceased operations in 1982, the firm was known for its work representing high-profile literary and artistic clients, such as Tennessee Williams, Carl Sandburg, and Truman Capote.

As an estate lawyer with the firm, Joe Erdman (Col ’56) represented novelists and playwrights, including Edna Ferber and Morris West, and the actor Peter Falk. He drew up the wills for Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. One of Erdman’s partners, a tax lawyer named Richard Ader, represented the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Joseph Cornell. 

When Cornell died in 1972, a provision in his will created a charitable trust, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, to honor the memory of the artist and his disabled younger brother. Each year, the foundation grants a percentage of its assets to support a variety of nonprofit beneficiaries, with an emphasis on the arts and with the view to inspire appreciation for the creative arts in all its forms. Ader acted as a trustee for the foundation until his death in 2019, appointing Erdman co-trustee in 1990. When Ader passed away, Erdman appointed Melissa Young as his successor. 

“Joseph Cornell was an artist of great stature,” Erdman said. “And it seemed to me that he would have wanted nothing more than to support the arts. His interests cut across all of the arts. He was interested in film, he was interested in opera and ballet, he was interested in music, and of course he was interested in the visual arts. I thought that if we could do anything to increase the ability of the University of Virginia to deliver arts to the University and greater central Virginia community, we would be fulfilling, to a great extent, most of the wishes that Joseph Cornell would have wanted.”

Erdman’s equally omnivorous tastes in the arts and his devotion for his alma mater ensures that the relationship between the Cornell Foundation and the University stays strong to this day, and in fact, continues to grow.

Memories of a career spent representing some of the biggest names in the art world, including Joseph Cornell.

From Brooklyn to Charlottesville

Erdman arrived at the University of Virginia on a cold winter day in 1953, one of a couple dozen mid-year transfer students. There was no orientation, no handholding, no welcoming ceremony. The kid from Brooklyn found himself in small-town Charlottesville at a prestigious, but still a bit insular, institution. 

Still, he knew he was in the right place. 

“This university—which I love—was a different cultural experience for me,” he said. "It was an all-male school, coat and tie, traditional. And yet it was right because I loved history and politics. I was admitted to Dartmouth and Columbia, but I didn’t want to stay in New York, and Dartmouth wouldn’t take me until the fall. So here I was—bingo.”

Erdman also loved the arts. His older brother took him to see the Broadway production of The Member of the Wedding, adapted from the Carson McCullers novel, in 1950. “I was mesmerized by the experience of being in a theater,” he recalled. At UVA, he enjoyed productions by Virginia Players, a student-run theater organization that became the Department of Drama after World War II. He joined the Jefferson Society, a debate club that is the oldest student-run organization at the University. “I enjoyed debating, the interplay,” he said.

He spent a long, hot summer in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, as part of an ROTC program, made bearable by weekend trips to Nashville. “Boy, I remember the streets in Nashville,” he said. “You’d go to one little music place after another. Those were the days where Elvis Presley would be playing in some club, and then you’d have Brenda Lee in another club, that kind of thing. It was an important stage for pop music, early rock, country music.”

Joe Erdman has lived in Charlottesville since his retirement in 2002.

Elevating the Arts at UVA

Erdman went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa from UVA with a degree in political science. He attended law school at the University of Michigan for a year before serving active duty in the U. S. Army and returning to New York City, where he earned his J.D. from Fordham University with a full scholarship. Despite a long, successful career in New York, he never lost his connection to the University and the Charlottesville community. “I loved it so much that, years later, I came back to live part-time, even while I was still practicing law,” he said.

He convinced Ader to do the same—both establishing roots in the community in the 1990s—and today the Cornell Foundation is headquartered in Charlottesville. Erdman moved back permanently after his retirement from practicing law in 2002. He took a particular interest in the drama department (his son, Harley, is chair of the theater department at the University of Massachusetts; another, Andrew, has written several books on the theater) and he and his wife, Rosemary, created an endowment for graduate students majoring in drama. 

Erdman currently serves on the UVA Arts Council, The Fralin Museum of Art Board, the Miller Center’s Governing Council, and on the board of trustees for Monticello’s Thomas Jefferson Foundation.

As a careful steward of Cornell’s legacy, and a proud UVA alum, Erdman firmly believes that institutional investment in the arts is necessary for honoring the University’s founding vision. Over the years, the foundation has focused its generosity on a wide range of artistic expression, including program support for The Fralin Museum of Art, the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, Virginia Theatre Festival, President’s Speaker Series for the Arts, University Singers, Virginia Film Festival, Miller Center, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. In the community, the foundation provides significant support for the Charlottesville Opera.

In a 2015 interview, Erdman said: “We need to continue to give students a place to appreciate the arts and a place for the community to come and enjoy theatre, music, film, opera, art exhibits of various kinds, discussion, talks, and lectures. It is important that we work toward building a performing arts center, where music ensembles and orchestras can play in a proper setting, and with enough seating, great acoustics, and all the other features expected of a modern performing arts center.”

In 2023, a lead gift from Ader’s widow, Tessa, set the stage for the construction of a Center for the Arts at the University. The building’s location in the Emmet-Ivy Corridor places it squarely within a highly visible setting as a home for concerts, dance, theater, and interdisciplinary art forms. With plans to relocate The Fralin Museum of Art and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum to the site, the center will provide a vital, world-class arts experience for the University, Charlottesville, and greater central Virginia communities.

Erdman said that the new center will be a significant addition to the arts at UVA. “Speaking as a trustee of The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, we could not be happier that this is now on its way to becoming a reality, thanks to Tessa’s remarkable gift. I look forward to working with Jim Ryan and [Vice Provost for the Arts] Jody Kielbasa to explore the ways in which the arts programs can receive the support they need, in order to stand alongside the other pillars that make UVA’s one of the best educational experiences in America.”

“Joe is such a kind and extraordinary person,” said Kielbasa. “His support has helped transform the arts at the University of Virginia and in Charlottesville. The Virginia Film Festival, the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, the Virginia Theatre Festival, The Fralin Museum of Art, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, and University Singers have all benefitted from his continued support and that of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. Without Joe and all that he has done, I cannot imagine we would be in the position to move ahead with a Center for the Arts, and for that I am profoundly grateful.” 

As a high profile, welcoming, and inviting entrance to UVA—one that is physically accessible and inclusive to all—the new Center for the Arts will address a longstanding need for dedicated rehearsal and performance space on Grounds, enhancing both the University and Charlottesville communities.

A Vision for the Arts 

In June, members of the UVA Board of Visitors’ Buildings and Grounds Committee approved the concept, site, and design guidelines for the proposed Center for the Arts in the Emmet-Ivy Corridor. The building will feature a 1,200-seat academic and community performing arts venue and will be home to the Tessa and Richard Ader Performing Arts Center, The Fralin Museum of Art, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, and the Department of Music. 

In nearly 70 years of witnessing—and shaping—the evolution of the arts at UVA, Erdman feels a bond with the institution that has been such a big part of his life. In a sense, he feels like he came of age at UVA. “I went from a boy to, maybe, an older boy,” he laughed. “I grew up here. I just love the place.”

He also places the progress he’s seen in a broader context. “If we forget the arts, we forget the culture of a country, the essence of what gives it life,” he said. “This has been, in many respects, a life-changing experience for me, taking me out of the daily practice of law into doing something for the community and for the University of Virginia. That plays to what I love. And to the extent of which I played a role in that, it’s one of the things I’m most proud of.”