SUNY Campus Art Galleries open for National Fine Art Appreciation Day

ALBANY — The State University of New York (SUNY) is celebrating National Fine Art Appreciation Day, Sunday, October 25. SUNY’s colleges and universities host museums, galleries, and art departments that feature a wide range of exhibitions for students and local communities to see. These exhibitions often include educational programs, such as gallery talks, lectures, panel discussions, films, or participatory projects, for students, faculty, staff, and local communities. 

 “SUNY is proud to be a leader and champion of the arts and art education. Throughout the SUNY system, our campuses provide students and their local communities with the opportunity to view and experience excellent art, without having to travel far from home,” said SUNY Chancellor King. “The arts are a crucial way to foster human connection, and we celebrate the amazing artwork that is on display at our campus galleries statewide.” 

 To celebrate National Fine Arts Appreciation Day, many SUNY campuses are hosting events and exhibitions. Hudson Valley SUNY school campus activities and exhibitions include: 

• will be hosting two exhibitions in honor of the museum’s 25th anniversary. The first exhibition, , brings together more than two decades of the artist’s work to examine overlooked histories of freedom, labor, and place-making among the Hudson Valley’s early Black communities, and will be on display through December 6. The second exhibition, “, curated by Reva Wolf, explores Kitaj’s 1969-70 portfolio of 50 screen prints depicting book jackets, covers, and endpapers, considering books as witnesses to history and powerful visual objects, will be on display through November 8 at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561. 
• will be hosting an exhibition from internationally recognized photographer Nick Zungoli, who will be starting the tour of his environmentally focused exhibit “Garden of Eden” on the college’s Newburgh campus, where it will be displayed mid-October through January. 
• The located on the SUNY Purchase campus, will have five exhibitions on display: “The Declaration Distributed: Westchester County’s Holt Broadside of 1776”, “Grave Sites: Present Histories”, the ongoing exhibition “Then and Now: Selections from the Collection”, and two exhibitions that feature the work of the artist collective the Guerrilla Girls — “Food for Thought” and “Complaints Department.“ All exhibitions will be on display through December 20 at the Neuberger Museum of Art, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase NY. Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday. Admission is always free.
• is featuring the exhibition “Altered Landscapes: At Risk — Forest & Field,” which explores the changing relationship between people and the natural world. Featuring work by seven Hudson Valley artists, the exhibition uses painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography to examine the effects of climate change, ecological loss, and human activity on local landscapes. Curated by Kristin Flynn, the exhibition runs through November 20 at 491 Cottekill Road, Stone Ridge, NY 12401.  
• will feature “Beyond What Once Was,” a solo exhibition by sculptor Kate Rusek, whose porcelain sculpture, reclaimed window blinds, textiles, and other discarded materials are transformed into intricate, tactile forms that explore accumulation, material memory, and the tension between the manufactured and the organic. Rusek will give an artist talk in the gallery on Wednesday, November 4 at 11:30 a.m. The exhibition will be on display through November 21 at the WCC Art Gallery, SUNY Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY. 

Additionally, several SUNY campuses also maintain permanent collections for exhibition or study, featuring various objects or artwork. Among the items in campus collections are ancient art from around the world, early American, modern, and contemporary paintings, works on paper including 19th and 20th century photography and prints, artist-designed jewelry, arts and craft furniture, fashion drawings and garments, modern Japanese and Italian post-war art, and much more. To learn more about art galleries on SUNY campuses, or to visit a gallery at a campus near you, visit: