Syracuse University Art Museum: “Per(Sister)”

By Paola Gonzalez

Photos by Jamey Bulloch

The Syracuse University Art Museum is one of the many hidden gems on SU’s campus. The museum has over 55,000 years of history in artifacts and pieces. Currently on view is Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana. The exhibition explores mass incarceration in the United States by focusing on thirty formerly incarcerated women from Louisiana. The pieces in the exhibition were created by pairing an artist with a ‘persister’ and then creating art inspired by her story. 

The different presentations of these women’s stories evoked a strong feeling of empathy as you see the women for who they are (human beings) and the life they endured inside the prison system. The exhibition, curated by Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, is on view until March 11th.  

Some other exhibitions include Reckonings: American Art and the Slow Violence of Climate Crisis which focuses on the climate change crisis in the United States through capitalism, and its disproportionate effects on minorities. The exhibition was curated by incoming M.A. art history students. 

Besides these, you can find many more exhibitions like Mary Petty: A Reader’s Privilege, A Woman’s Place and North and South: Berenice Abbott’s U.S. Route 1.

According to its website, the museum aims to foster diverse and inclusive perspectives by convening students and the local and global communities together. The Syracuse Art Museum is located in the Shaffer Art Building and operates from Tuesdays through Sundays at 10:00 A.M. The museum has a permanent collection, as well as exhibitions that change every couple of months. 

The permanent exhibition includes artworks from all parts of the world such as Japan, Korea, the Americas, India, Africa, Oceania, and American and European collections from the 18th-, 19th-, and 20th- century. These pieces explore art movements such as photography, cartooning, printmaking, paintings and sculptures.

This collection is one of the top 10 largest academic museum collections in the country, with over 45,000 art pieces. Some of the oldest works in the collection date back to around 3500 B.C.E. 

The museum feels like a never ending maze with walls  decorated with antique pieces of art ranging from Hyacinthe Rigaud’s portrait of “King Louis XIV” to Salvador Dalí’s “Moses and the Pharaoh.” The pieces lead you through the maze, catching the eyes of each visitor with the expansive collection. 

One of the most interesting facts about the museum is that it was conceived under the direction of George Fisk Comfort, co-founder of the iconic Metropolitan Museum of Art. 95 percent of the museum’s art collection was purchased with donated funds or directly donated. 

The Syracuse Art Museum serves as a research center dedicated to studying the artwork in the collection, even if it is not on view.. The center includes a Print Study room containing around 33,000 drawings, prints, watercolors and other printed materials. As well as a Photography Study Room with over 10,000 photographs and a Study Room, designed to display works such as textiles, paintings, sculptures, etc. 

These spaces are there to inspire students, faculty members and other researchers to study the works contained within the museum.. 

If you can’t make it to the museum, the collection is searchable on their website: museum.syr.edu. The website not only includes the full collection, but it also features virtual programming for artists, guest speakers, and guided activities.