Richard F. Brush Art Gallery

Discover

A university art gallery can offer two related stories: the works selected for an exhibition and the longer work of caring for a collection. At the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery in Canton, both provide useful ways into a visit. The gallery sits between the Griffiths Arts Center and the Noble Center on St. Lawrence University's campus. It welcomes the public during the academic year, connecting a teaching setting with people who may arrive without a class assignment.

Start with the current exhibition rather than expecting a survey of everything the university owns. Paintings, prints, photographs, artists' books, sculpture and ceramics appear in the university's account of its permanent collection. That range suggests different questions about materials and scale, but it is not a list of things guaranteed to be in the rooms on a particular day. A rotating selection can make a few works more useful to study than an imagined checklist of the whole collection.

The university's collecting history reaches back to the early twentieth century. In a June 2021 account, the gallery described a collection of more than seven thousand items, many dating from the mid-twentieth century onward. Read that number as a historical snapshot rather than a current inventory. More revealing than the total is the variety of forms: a photograph and an artist's book call for different ways of looking, displaying and caring for an object.

Collection care became the subject of a substantial assessment supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant awarded in August 2020. The work examined policies, the building and its maintenance, environmental conditions, collection care and preservation planning. A ninety-page report was completed in June 2021. This was professional work behind the exhibition programme, not an activity visitors are invited to undertake themselves.

Knowing that background can change what you notice in a gallery. Consider how a work is supported, how much space surrounds it, and what information the label supplies. These observations connect the immediate experience of an exhibition with the decisions required to preserve objects for future study. They do not require touching a surface, approaching behind a barrier or assuming that stored works are available to handle.

The gallery has main and hallway spaces with different published arrangements, so confirm the part of the programme you want to see. University breaks affect public opening. Educational visits for school and community groups can be arranged during the academic year or by appointment; contact staff before bringing a group. A campus address should not be read as permission to enter every university building or join a class.

Use a manageable theme for your visit. You might compare the ways two works use lines, or consider how an image changes when it becomes a print rather than a drawing. The programme varies, so let the actual objects guide the questions. Before photographing anything, ask about the rules for the current exhibition. Brush Art Gallery offers a meeting point between looking and learning: an opportunity to see selected artworks while remembering the research, planning and care that allow a collection to continue beyond the duration of one show.

Fun facts

1. The gallery is between the Griffiths Arts Center and Noble Center in Canton.
2. St. Lawrence’s art collecting dates to the early twentieth century.
3. A grant awarded in 2020 supported a preservation assessment completed in 2021.
4. Public opening follows the academic year and university breaks.

Read the official sources →

Capture

1. If permitted, compare the spacing and scale of works without touching their supports or crossing barriers.
2. Look for material contrasts in an allowed broad view; do not assume individual works may be reproduced.

Social

Brush Art Gallery connects public visitors with St. Lawrence University’s exhibition programme. #Cre8Travel

Find the gallery between the Griffiths Arts Center and Noble Center in Canton.

The university’s collecting history reaches back to the early twentieth century.

Paintings, prints, photographs and artists’ books call for different ways of looking.

A preservation assessment completed in 2021 examined care, environments and planning.

The works on display are a selection, rather than the entire permanent collection.

Confirm academic-year opening and arrange educational groups with staff.

Which would you compare first: a work’s material, its scale or the way it is displayed?

Hashtags

1. #Cre8Travel
2. #NewYork
3. #CultureAndDiscovery

Sources & visitor information

• Source — Richard F. Brush Art Gallery
• Source — Richard F. Brush Art Gallery