Permanent Collection

St. Lawrence University's permanent collection provides students, faculty, scholars, and a broad regional community the opportunity to study and enjoy original works of art. The collection includes nearly 7,000 art objects and artifacts, with particular strengths in twentieth-century American and European works on paper, including photographs, prints, portfolios, drawings, and artists' books. Recent acquisitions include works by Pablo Amaringo, Harold Edgerton, Nathan Farb, Carole Gallagher, Bill Gaskins, Nan Goldin, Eadweard Muybridge, Alberto Rey, Keith Smith, and Paul Strand.

Bill Gaskins, Japonica, Baltimore, Maryland, 1995,
gelatin silver print, SLU 97.2

Works of art from the collection are regularly utilized for exhibition, classroom, and research purposes. Students actively participate in all aspects of collection management, learning museum standards of art handling and registration, assisting with the installation of exhibitions and campus displays, as well as conducting research for curatorial purposes and educational programs. Tours of the collection storage facility and works of art are provided regularly to St. Lawrence University classes and regional school groups.

Pablo Amaringo, untitled gouache on paper, 1996, SLU 96.15

Recent exhibitions which have drawn from the collection include:

Intricate Narratives: Artists' Books and Portfolios;
Official Records: Farm Security Administration Photographs;
Untitled: American Prints from the Permanent Collection, 1960-79;
Photographs by Manuel Alvarez Bravo;
Selecting/Collecting: West African Arts Out of Context;
A Candle in the Wilderness: Selections from the Permanent Collection; and
Best in Show: Photographs from the Doris Offermann Collection.

Elizabeth Campbell Miner, Canton Fair, 1869, oil on canvas,
gift of Mary Wead Weeks, SLU X.433

The collection is also made accessible to the public through an active campus display program, in which works of art are installed thematically in the Owen D. Young Library, the Launders Science Library in Madill Hall, Vilas Hall, the Peterson Center for International and Intercultural Studies in Carnegie Hall, and Admissions in Payson Hall. Displays of art by St. Lawrence students and alumni are located in the formal lounge of Dean Eaton Hall and the University Writing Center in the ODY Library.

George Rickey, Cluster of Four Cubes,
1992-97, stainless steel, 2/3,
gift of Richard F. Brush '52, SLU 97.35

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© SLU, 2/3/98
Designed and maintained by: Carole Mathey
St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York
Last updated: Monday, May 14, 2001