Press

-- The New York State Museum has announced a new three-year installment of the Fleet/Bank of America Great Art Exhibition and Education Program, its groundbreaking exhibition series inaugurated in 1999.

Over the course of 12 exhibitions in six years, the series brought hundreds of master works from New York City institutions to the State Museum. Six major unique art exhibitions will be developed in the next phase, beginning in 2005 through 2007.

"New York State is home to many wonderful cultural institutions," said First Lady Libby Pataki. "The Fleet program enables these institutions to work with each other and bring the best of the best to the State Museum in Albany for everyone to share and enjoy. The Governor and I favored paintings from the Hudson River School movement when he first came to Albany as Governor, but thanks to this program, we have learned to appreciate a greater breadth of art."

The newest installation of the Fleet Great Art series will include three new participating institutions -- the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. These institutions join The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art for the next round of exhibitions.

"New York State's leading art institutions play a role that is unique to this state by sharing their vast, incomparable collections with the State Museum," said State Education Commissioner Richard Mills. "This exceptional program brings new audiences, including many visiting school children, teachers, college students and families, to experience and enjoy world-class art that might otherwise be unavailable to them."

"We are excited about the expansion of the Great Art program and pleased to be able to continue to bring master works from New York State's finest museums to the millions of visitors who have come to know great art through this series," said State Museum Director Dr. Clifford Siegfried.

The first exhibition in the new series, Extra Ordinary, Art of the Everyday Object, 1945-2004, from the Whitney Museum of American Art, opens in March 2005. The exhibition will explore the ongoing fascination of American artists with common, everyday objects. The works fall roughly into two categories: depictions of objects, and actual objects incorporated into the works. The art also presents a historical record of the culture in which it was created, capturing slices of American life from precise moments in history, and often the implicit commentary of the artist as well. Among the artists that may be included in the exhibition are: Alexander Calder, Christo, Joseph Cornell, Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Fred Tomaselli, and Andy Warhol.

"The Fleet/Bank of America Great Art Exhibition and Education Program is all about access," said Ken Colloton, co-president of Fleet/Bank of America's Eastern Upstate New York region. "Tens of thousands of upstate New York school children, and hundreds of thousands of upstate residents, have been able to visit the masterpieces of some of the greatest museums in the world. We are thrilled our partnership with the State Museum has been extended through 2007 and will continue to bring unparalleled exhibits to Albany."

In the past six years, the State Museum has welcomed more than 4 million visitors. Approximately 35,000 school children have participated in the special Fleet/Bank of America Great Art education programs and many thousands through teacher training, college courses and informal visits to the exhibitions series. To date, the Fleet/Bank of America Great Art exhibition series has presented a total of 477 master works, ranging from Pop Art from The Museum of Modern Art, early to mid-century painting and sculpture from the Whitney Museum of American Art, American Impressionism to the current exhibition of French landscape paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Department of Education. Started in 1836, the museum has the nation's longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey. The museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information is available by calling 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week throughout the year except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.