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Michael Berger entered Harvard College as a Russian History major, but upon discovering Art History, spent 3 ½ years reading and studying at Harvard's Fogg Museum.
In the 1960's, while raising his children and managing the family's construction equipment business, Mr. Berger pursued his art education. In furtherance of his Fogg Museum training, he entered the Frick Fine Arts Department at the University of Pittsburgh, earning a Master's degree in 1963. In 1967, as a public service, he opened his collection to the public, exhibiting artists also seen concurrently at the Carnegie International Exhibition of that year.
Michael, during the Richard Serra exhibition; August, 2000
From 1969 through 1989, while engaged in the industrial business day to day, he organized, on weekends in his home, exhibitions of contemporary art open to the public. The breadth of artistic talent first introduced to the Pittsburgh community included Milton Avery, Fernando Botero, Philip Pearlstein, Alex Katz, Joseph Albers, Andy Warhol, John Cage and Sol Lewitt.
1984 through 1987 he served as Art Consultant to the world renown Nationality Rooms of the University of Pittsburgh, leading a contingent to Israel to select the artifacts which now adorn the Israel Heritage Room in the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh.
From 1988 through 1992 Mr. Berger chaired the Art Selection Committee for the new Greater Pittsburgh International Airport. His committee members included such highly respected individuals as the CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, President of the Manchester Craftsman Guild, President of the Pittsburgh Mattress Factory, as well as the architect of the new Airport.
In the early 1990's Mr. Berger co-founded the Collector's Forum of the Carnegie Museum of Art. The purpose of the Forum was to identify to the Museum potential future donors of works of art to the Museum's collection.
While entering semi-retirement in the year 2000, he and his wife, Sherle Josephs Berger, established a Foundation to support a new enterprise, Michael Berger Gallery of International Contemporary Fine Art. The mission of the Gallery is to bring awareness of fine international art to Western Pennsylvania, establish a level of quality not otherwise available to the region, and encourage families to live with fine art as a counter to the mindless violence and tasteless entertainment dominating today's visual environment.
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