Classroom area on the second floor of the UAM. Photo by Brian Busher.
Classroom area on the second floor of the UAM. Photo by Brian Busher.
Charting Our Path Together
As we come to the end of another year, the University Art Museum (UAM) is excited to share a recap of our activities. This year, we welcomed over 14,500 visitors for 20 exhibitions and programs. We had an incredible lineup of work from 55 artists by new and veteran names including the expansive textile-based work of artist duo Barrow Parke; boundary-pushing explorations by Marisol, Pope.L, and Robert Rauschenberg alongside other artists who center the body as a site for social and cultural commentary; Sky Hopinka’s filmic reflections on collective resistance from the Standing Rock Reservation; and Danny Goodwin and Edward Schwarzschild’s eight-year engagement with the people, places, and ideologies of the American security industry. We produced nine scholarly texts that provided fresh research and context for our exhibitions, and we hosted 63 classes from across the disciplines that offered over 1,000 students first-hand experiences with contemporary art.
In these challenging times, the University Art Museum reaffirms its commitment to all our audiences—especially our students—to present exhibitions and programs that help us understand our lives in deeper, more nuanced ways. Thank you for being open, adventurous, and generous partners in this goal.
We can’t wait to explore even more of art’s transformative possibilities with you in 2025!
Body Maps: Works from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections in Conversation with Past Exhibiting Artists, installation view, 2024. Left to right: Keltie Ferris, To the Left, 2022; Rider, 2022; and Company, 2022.
Body Maps: Works from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections in Conversation with Past Exhibiting Artists, installation view, 2024. Left to right: Keltie Ferris, To the Left, 2022 and Rider, 2022
As a curator and writer, I have spent my career focused on the intersection of art, craft, and design. Very rarely, however, have I encountered all three aspects of creativity so fully realized as they were in Barrow Parke: Systems and Mythologies. The exhibition, perfectly suited to the University Art Museum’s gallery spaces, was both a meaningful platform for the artists and an education for visitors—including me, as this was my first chance to learn about the depth of their practice. Engagement of this kind is really what university art museums are all about.
—Glenn Adamson, curator, writer, and historian, 2024 UAM public program speaker
January 22 – April 3, 2024
1st Floor Main Gallery
Continued from fall 2023, artists Mark Barrow and Sarah Parke explored visual systems at the intersection of art, craft, and technology through their collaborative weaving and painting practice.
Barrow Parke: Systems and Mythologies was made possible through a grant from The Coby Foundation, Ltd. Additional support provided by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, The University at Albany Foundation, the University at Albany Alumni Association, the University Auxiliary Services at Albany, and the Robin Kanson Lewis ’70 Exhibition Endowment Fund.
January 22 – April 3, 2024
2nd Floor Main Gallery
Nancy Hyatt Liddle Gallery
The artists exhibited in Body Maps explore the relationship between the body and the self. As they navigate personal geographies and histories, their bodies act as stand-ins for larger cultural experiences. Past exhibiting artists included Keltie Ferris, Kate Gilmore, Gracelee Lawrence, Pope.L, Ronny Quevedo, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Carrie Schneider, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Featured artists from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections included Robert Rauschenberg and Marisol, as well as Vito Acconci, Andreas Feininger, Richard Garrison, Daesha Devón Harris, Allan Kaprow, Robert Morris, and Andy Warhol.
Supported by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, The University at Albany Foundation, the University at Albany Alumni Association, the University Auxiliary Services at Albany, and the Robin Kanson Lewis ’70 Exhibition Endowment Fund.
April 25 – May 12, 2024
The Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition featured work produced by candidates for the University at Albany Department of Art and Art History’s two-year, 60 credit hour program of intensive training and study in traditional and contemporary fine art practices.
Alison Bachorik, Isabella Burnett, Albina Luisa Cook, Sean Desiree, Annabelle Mona, Chayel Moses, Adrianna Sakamoto, and Yin Zhang
Supported by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, The University at Albany Foundation, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Ann C. Mataraso Endowment Fund in honor of Professor Emeritus Mark Greenwold.
August 12 – December 9, 2024
Nancy Hyatt Liddle Gallery
This short film, presented as a wall-sized projection, documents the 2016–17 Standing Rock protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline that would poison water resources, destroy ancestral burial grounds, and violate Indigenous national sovereignty.
Supported by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, and The University at Albany Foundation. Additional support for exhibitions and programs provided by the University Auxiliary Services at Albany, the Ann C. Mataraso Fund, and the Jack and Gertrude Horan Memorial Fund for Student Outreach.
August 12 – December 9, 2024
1st and 2nd Floor Main Galleries
Making visible an eight-year collaborative research project by artist Danny Goodwin and writer Edward Schwarzschild, Job Security explored the people, places, and ideologies of the ever-expanding security industry.
Supported by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, The University at Albany Foundation, the University at Albany Alumni Association, and the New York State Writers Institute. Additional support for exhibitions and programs provided by the University Auxiliary Services at Albany, the Ann C. Mataraso Fund, and the Jack and Gertrude Horan Memorial Fund for Student Outreach.
Team-teaching an interdisciplinary graduate course at the UAM—in the middle of our own exhibition—has been singularly enriching. The unique insights and depth of expertise our students and colleagues consistently bring to the challenging subject matter have made for some of the most provocative and inspiring exchanges we’ve ever had on campus.
—Danny Goodwin, Chair, Department of Art and Art History and Edward Schwarzschild, Director of Creative Writing, Department of English
Job Security: Voices and Views from the American Security Industry, installation view, 2024.
Job Security: Voices and Views from the American Security Industry, installation view, 2024.
Sometimes life gives you hidden opportunities to change how you think about life. Team-teaching Art, Writing, & Security at the UAM gave me a chance to work with two amazing academicians and a student cohort full of curiosity, creativity, and amazing perspectives. The class, the exhibition, and the students provided me with important insights into the importance of interdisciplinary work and the essential role of arts and creative thinking in our society.
—Robert P. Griffin, Dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity
A vibrant hub for learning, the UAM engages with students and faculty through class visits, public programming and discussions, creative workshops, academic tours, roundtables, and hosting the First Year Experience seminar Why Museums?
This summer, six graduate students in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity (CEHC) worked with studio art Professor Danny Goodwin and appeared in the video installations that were part of Job Security: Voices and Views from the American Security Industry. In conjunction with the exhibition, the UAM hosted Art, Writing & Security, an interdisciplinary fall graduate course, in the museum each week led by Goodwin, Edward Schwarzschild (Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing), and Robert P. Griffin (Dean of CEHC).
As part of the annual faculty retreat for the Writing & Critical Inquiry program, the UAM led instructors in close-looking and writing workshops, exploring ways museum-based learning can aid with teaching first-year UAlbany students writing and developing their critical voices.
This year's interactive class visits to the museum included many sections of Writing & Critical Inquiry; The Information Environment; Curating Contemporary Art; Photography and Related Media; Media in the Digital Age; Intro to Creative Writing; Topics in Communication: Social Media and Public Memory; Experimental Film and Video; First Year Experience seminar: Revolutionized Higher Ed; History of American Foreign Policy II; Latin American Women Visual Artists; and Living & Learning Community seminar: World of Medicine and Public Health; among others.
Our intern and work study programs this year continued to offer students first-hand experience in the museum field including research, art handling, condition reporting, grant writing, database entry, program planning assistance, student outreach, and administrative and technical support. Internships are for academic credit and paid through the generous support of the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation and the Brian T. Barlow ’18, ’19 Museum Internship Endowment.
Christian Wechgelaer MFA ’25 began with the UAM as a summer intern and continued as a graduate assistant in the fall. Christian has provided essential support for the museum while gaining experience working in a professional museum setting. He has worked on a range of administrative, research, registrarial, and facilities-related projects, including grant writing, writing interpretive text for exhibitions, assisting with installations, gathering press articles, and assisting with condition reports. He has also begun to digitize the over 50-year history of the museum exhibition archives.
The University Art Museum and its education staff are an invaluable asset. I really appreciate their support in crafting deep looking questions for my Writing & Critical Inquiry students that not only linked with the text they were reading but also gave them a real-world understanding of textual analysis outside of the classroom.
—Aiesha Turman, Lecturer, Writing & Critical Inquiry Program
The conversations we've had have been unbelievable in this class. I wish every class had this kind of cross-pollination of ideas and sensibilities. Everyone here has vastly different lived experiences. The sensibility of an information science student is very different from the sensibility of an MFA student. But it ends up being very complementary to bring those different experiences to the table. I feel like this is how life should be all the time.
—Lily Morris, first-year MFA student enrolled in Art, Writing, & Security
Working with Youth FX in Albany’s South End, seven local high school students (Audrey Finck, Zyaire J. Gaddy, Jazlyn Gorousingh, Lyndsey Heyliger, Noah Hotaling, Jace Privott, and Olivia Rose) presented their work inspired by the late photojournalist Gordon Parks at Lenses: Youth FX Photo Presentation. Photo by Patrick Dodson.
Working with Youth FX in Albany’s South End, seven local high school students (Audrey Finck, Zyaire J. Gaddy, Jazlyn Gorousingh, Lyndsey Heyliger, Noah Hotaling, Jace Privott, and Olivia Rose) presented their work inspired by the late photojournalist Gordon Parks at Lenses: Youth FX Photo Presentation. Photo by Patrick Dodson.
Partnering with the University Art Museum provided an incredible opportunity for our young photographers at Youth FX to present on their work in a professional gallery space, and to amplify their work and see themselves as artists making important contributions to the cultural life of their broader community.
—Bhawin Suchak, Co-Executive Director of Youth FX
Moving us through the history of their collaboration and ideas, artist duo Mark Barrow and Sarah Parke provided a walk-through of their exhibition Barrow Parke: Systems and Mythologies, followed by a signing of the exhibition’s American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) award-winning catalogue. Curator, writer, and historian Glenn Adamson, renowned for his scholarship on contemporary art, design, and craft, led a second walk-through with Barrow Parke in which he contextualized the historical, art historical, and conceptual significance of their collaborative weaving and painting practice.
Artist Danny Goodwin and writer Edward Schwarzschild provided tours of Job Security: Voices and Views from the American Security Industry. The UAM also co-sponsored their discussion and book signing of Job/Security: A Composite Portrait of the Expanding American Security Industry (MIT Press, 2024) at the New York State Writers Institute. Later in the semester, Goodwin was joined by renowned artist James Casebere for a conversation about their shared interest in constructed photography, as well as themes related to social control, power structures, and institutional mythologies in their respective work.
The museum once again welcomed students, alumni, families, and the community for Showcase Day, Family Weekend, Homecoming, and Fall Preview Day.
Bringing my students into the Collections Study Space and University Art Museum has significantly enriched their critical thinking skills developed in the classroom. While their usual learning takes place on screens in a lab, entering these physical spaces where artworks ‘live and breathe’ offers an entirely new dimension to their studies. They can see and feel the presence of the artist’s hand, exploring textures, scale, and details in ways that digital representations simply can’t capture.
—Tara Holmes, Lecturer, Department of Art and Art History
Through the Collections Study Space, its exhibitions, and internship programs, we continue to contribute to charting paths for students and broaden our audiences' awareness of works in our Collections.
The Collections Intern is a vital member of our museum team. Rebeca Barrientos ’25 began in the fall semester and has worked on numerous projects to grow the museum's online database, making our Collections accessible to researchers, other museums, and audiences worldwide. Rebeca is acquiring professional skills that include accessioning artworks into our holdings, researching and documenting cross sections of the Collections’ archives, and generating alt text to increase digital accessibility to our online database.
The Collections Study Space held two exhibitions: Introphantasm (spring 2024), curated by UAM Graduate Assistant Bella Burnett, MFA ’24, and LIMINALITIES (fall 2024), curated by UAM team member and past Collections Intern Jesse Asher Alsdorf, BA ’22. Both exhibitions were curated from our Collections and accompanied by brochures that included researched interpretive texts written by their curators.
Donations to the Collections this year included: Jane Fine, Antietam, 2004, acrylic, ink on wood panel, 30 x 24 inches; Jane Fine, Swamped, 2003, acrylic, ink on wood panel, 30 x 24 inches; Ati Maier, Another Country, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 28 x 48 inches; Ati Maier, Snowbirds, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 15 ¾ x 15 ¾ inches. These works were generously donated by an anonymous donor.
Furthering the museum’s mission to place its Collections in dialogue with contemporary artists, the museum team is organizing History Lessons. Works from the Collections will be on view in January 2025 alongside artwork on loan by artists who share new ways of learning, preserving, and making history.
My internship with the UAM has been incredibly rewarding. Collaborating with such a passionate and dedicated team in a professional setting has shown me how vital teamwork and communication are in preserving art and making it accessible to others.
—Rebeca Barrientos, Fall 2024 Collections Intern, supported by the Brian T. Barlow ’18, ’19 Museum Internship Endowment and the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc.
January 27 – April 4, 2025
Working in a range of media and across generations, the artists in History Lessons share new ways of learning, preserving, and making history.
Artists include: Bethany Collins, Demian DinéYazhi’, General Idea, Jeffrey Gibson, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Corita Kent, Glenn Ligon, Joe Mama-Nitzberg, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed. Artists from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections include Judith Braun, Colin Chase, Daniela Comani, Leon Golub, Louise Nevelson, and Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
January 27 – April 4, 2025
On view in the Collections Study Space, this early sound work (1976) by influential performance, video, and installation artist Vito Acconci explores the ideological underpinnings of American education and society. Previously exhibited at the UAM in 2020, the work is a recent addition to the Collections Study Space library along with four other Acconci sound pieces.
April 30 – May 18, 2025
The annual exhibition features work produced by candidates for the University at Albany Art and Art History Department’s two-year, 60 credit hour program of intensive training and study in traditional and contemporary fine art practices.
August 2025 – April 2026
Noel W Anderson’s largest and most comprehensive solo museum exhibition to date will feature newly commissioned work—most notably stretched and suspended Jacquard tapestries depicting digitally altered archival and media images centered on Black identity, labor, and performance—alongside earlier works that demonstrate the arc of his career.
I am excited to present Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence in the fall of 2025 at the University Art Museum. This exhibition tries to account for the efforts of "racial" success as realized through athletics and other public representations of achievement by African Americans. The curatorial team has enthusiastically embraced the ideas and works for the exhibition. Never an autonomous endeavor, we are collaborators on this project, collectively gathering and metabolizing ideas and resources, and I would have it no other way.
—Noel W Anderson, 2025 UAM exhibiting artist
The UAM’s preparator and facilities manager, Jeffrey Wright-Sedam, MFA ’91, will be retiring after 35 years of service, including being part of the museum team as a work study student in 1989 during graduate school, where he earned his MFA with a focus on drawing.
During his tenure, Jeffrey has contributed to 176 exhibitions and helped countless artists realize their vision. From skilled matting and framing to developing plans and executing complex installations such as securing a 35-foot tower of cardboard in the center of the museum space for Jason Middlebrook: Live With Less (2009) and installing a large table with cascading red paper upside down from the top of the third-floor ceiling for The New Emerging From the Old, Lu Shengzhong: Works 1980 – 2005 (2005), Jeffrey has been part of the fabric at the UAM, bringing to life the concepts of curators and artists and contributing to the long history of bringing contemporary art and artists to our students, faculty, staff, and the larger public. All of us at the museum wish Jeffrey the best in his retirement!
Doing a project at UAM was an amazing experience. To create such an ambitious piece as A Tisket, A Tasket in such a tight time frame was a huge undertaking. The museum team, in particular Jeffrey Wright-Sedam, created such a beautiful and intricate structure for me to engage with—it was such a difficult piece to make and the genius of the crew was what made it able to happen. I was so happy to have this piece in this year’s show, Body Maps: Works from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections in Conversation with Past Exhibiting Artists; it lives on again at the museum!
—Kate Gilmore, exhibiting artist in Body Maps: Works from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections in Conversation with Past Exhibiting Artists
Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (detail), 1998, mixed media on paper, 9 x 7 inches each, collection of University Art Museum, University at Albany, State University of New York on behalf of The University at Albany Foundation, gift of Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival).
Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (detail), 1998, mixed media on paper, 9 x 7 inches each, collection of University Art Museum, University at Albany, State University of New York on behalf of The University at Albany Foundation, gift of Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (Kids of Survival).
When you make a gift to the University Art Museum, you ensure the fiscal health of our organization and allow us to continue our work championing artists, students, and the role of academic museums in public higher education.
Make a gift via The University at Albany Foundation’s secure website.
Contributions can also be mailed to The University at Albany Foundation, PO Box 761, Albany, NY 12201. Checks may be made payable to The University at Albany Foundation with “University Art Museum” noted in the memo line.
For more information about opportunities to support the University Art Museum, please call Michael Boots at 518-225-1229 or email MBoots@albany.edu.
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+Deceased
UAM work study students Lex Veloz and Shaniya Channer greet visitors at the front desk during UAlbany’s Great Dane Family Weekend.
UAM work study students Lex Veloz and Shaniya Channer greet visitors at the front desk during UAlbany’s Great Dane Family Weekend.
Darcie Abbatiello
Registrar/Collections Manager
Jesse Asher Alsdorf
Technical Assistant
Berly Brown
Education Coordinator
Gil Gentile
Exhibition and Publication Designer
Corinna Ripps Schaming
Director/Chief Curator
Robert R. Shane
Associate Curator
Christine Snyder
Operations and Finance Manager
Jeffrey Wright-Sedam
Preparator/Facilities Manager
Jayleen Acevedo, Art History ’27
Work Study Student (Spring and Fall)
Taniyah Alleyne, Biology ’28
Work Study Student (Fall)
Rebeca Barrientos, Art and Business Administration ’24, MBA Program in Marketing ’25
Collections Intern, supported by the Brian T. Barlow ’18, ’19 Museum Internship Endowment and the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc. (Fall)
Amber Bernardez, Sociology ’27
Work Study Student (Spring)
Bella Burnett, MFA ’24
Graduate Assistant, Department of Art and Art History (Spring)
Shaniya Channer, Political Science ’28
Work Study Student (Fall)
DaeLisse Curry, Psychology ’28
Work Study Student (Fall)
Tryniti Edwards, Psychology ’27
Work Study Student (Spring)
Jayann Evans-Sobers, Art ’26
Work Study Student (Fall)
Melanie Florentino, Psychology ’26
Work Study Student (Spring)
Emily Geelall, Sociology ’27
Work Study Student (Spring)
Josie Hakizimana, Human Biology ’27
Work Study Student (Spring)
Hawa Keita, Psychology ’28
Work Study Student (Fall)
Saa'lani Poole, Business Administration ’28
Work Study Student (Fall)
Mya Reyes, Psychology ’26
Work Study Student (Spring and Fall)
Jasmine Robinson, Social Welfare ’27
Work Study Student (Fall)
Nevaeh Slater, Public Health ’24
Work Study Student (Spring)
Collections Intern, supported by the Brian T. Barlow ’18, ’19 Museum Internship Endowment (Spring)
Alyssa St. Eloi, Business ’28
Work Study Student (Fall)
Lex Veloz, Social Work ’28
Work Study Student (Fall)
Christian Wechgelaer, MFA ’25
University Art Museum Intern, supported by the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Inc. (Summer and Winter)
Graduate Assistant, Department of Art and Art History (Fall)
Ashly Yanez, Political Science ’26
Work Study Student (Spring)