Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute

Programs: Museum of art - the museum fulfilled its mission and exceeded its strategic goals through a broad range of successful exhibitions accompanied by dynamic educational programs that diversified our attendance and contributed substantially to the quality of life in this region. During the 2017 fiscal year, the museum offered eleven special exhibitions. "the world through his lens: steve mccurry photographs" on view june through december, was an inspiring chronicle of our world and its people by the renowned american photographer who is best known for his iconic photo "sharbat gula, afghan girl. " the exhibition included 60 photographs that spanned the past three decades of mccurry's life and travel across six continents. Many of the images were selected by mwpai staff especially for the museum venue to reflect our region's immigrant and refugee population. Parallel to the mccurry exhibition, the museum organized "portraits of hope: faces of rufugee resettlement" which depicted survivors of war, genocide and political strife who came to the us and settled in the utuca region after living in refugee camps in asia, africa, eastern europe and the middle east. This exhibition of more than 30 photographs celebrated diversity and confronted stereotypes about resettlement while exploring the challenges and aspirations of local refugees starting over in a new land. Both exhibitions were accompanied by a range of innovative and engaging public programs-from hosting steve mccurry for a public event that attracted more than 500 audience members to especially designed tours for english language learners and school groups. Other special exibitions included two textile projects: "american quilts: sewn stories," which traced personal histories and those of the wider nation through the sophisticated pattern, bold color and sensitive needlework found in american quilts; and "crazy quilts: art in pieces," which included elaborately patterned and ornamented quilts that are time capsules relating stories of the maker and her community. "collage/reformat/refocus" drew primarily from the permanent collection and focused on this truly modern medium as a means to explore creativity within the fragmentation of contemporary living. "portable magic: the book in art" included three centuries of fine and deorative arts in the permanent collection about reading and writing. This exhibition was accompanied by "rita lombardi: on libraries," featuring the photographic work of prattmwp college of art and design faculty lombardi. "dressed to the nines: williams-proctor fashions" closed the exhibition season. Presented in the period rooms of fountain elms, this was the museum's first exhibition to feature clothing from two generations of the mwpai founding families. Other special exhibitions were drawn from the museum's permanent collection. The museum of art education department created numerous innovative, art-based learning opportunities in support of the exhibition program for patrons of all ages. The museum education department served about 16,000 visitors through 599 varied programs designed for preschoolers to those suffering from memory loss. Included in this figure are 4,428 school children from 27 different districts who were served through specially designed, curriculum-based tours. A popular new school tour was initiated centering on mythology using works of art in the permanent collection. Also of note were many programs partnering with the regional refugee community, including the continuation of "shared traditions: visual and language literacy", which uses the museum's permanent collection and special exhibitions to teach recent adult refugees english as a second language. Other educational programs included specially designed tours for specific grades and classes, musical performances, family days, gallery activities, lectures, hands-on programs, public tours, films, yoga, book discussions, a multi-faith panel discussion and presentations by artists and by local refugees, all of which presented a broad cultural context for the interpretation of the artworks in special exhibitions and the permanent collection. Three highlights were an evening with photographer steve mccurry, a lecture by national geographic contributor scott wallace and a documentary presentation and lecture "the lost boys of sudan" by john dau. The museum continued to enhance its renowned permanent collection through important acquisitions in the areas of 19th-century american fine and decorative arts and contemporary art. Noteworthy acquisitions range from photography by eugene atget (french 1857-1927) and william wegman (american b. 1943) to sculpture by ronald bladen (american, born canada, 1918-88) to ceramics designed by edward lycett and made by the faience manufacturing company, brooklyn, ny. Museaum staffmade important progress in the project to digitize the collection with the goal of making 5000 artworks and collection records available on-line in the fall of 2017 to be used by a general audience, researchers, and teachers.

school of art - the school of art at mwpai is comprised of two divisions: the prattmwp college program and the community arts program. The prattmwp program is an extension program of pratt institute in brooklyn, ny in which students pursuing a bachelor of fine arts, communications design, photography or art education degree can elect to spend their freshman and sophomore years at our utica campus, and then complete their degree by doing their junior and senior years at the pratt campus in brooklyn. The affiliation is in its seventeenth year. In the 2016-17 academic year, prattmwp's enrollment consisted of 103 freshman and 67 sophomores full time students. Of the 170 students, 160 students are living in the residential halls. Our freshman class has 17 students representing 12 countries and domestic students representing 22 states. There are an additional 13 international sophomore students. The total number of international students number 30. The community arts program enrolls approximately 1,091 students over three semesters annually of all ages, in 119 classes and workshops.

performing arts - during the 2016-2017 season, the performing arts division of the munson-williams-proctor arts institute fulfilled its mission to provide a broad range of quality programs and educational opportunities in the performing and cinematic arts. The division presented 14 live performances across four different series with a total attendance of 3,205. Educational programs attached to these performances meet-the-artist receptions reached an additional 237 participants. The weekly film series featured 48 titles for a total of 192 individual screenings with an overall attendance of 11,029. Based on its initial popularity, mwpai offered a full season of the met: live in hd with 10 live opera simulcasts attracting a total audience of 1,357. The total participation for all performing arts events was 15,828. Highlights from the season include; the always-popular keyboard conversations series and the met live in hd. Family-favorite entertainers included garry krinsky and red grammer. Intimate concerts were presented by the sean jones quartet, nick ziobro and tammy mccann, among others.

in addition, the institute operates an art reference library which serves the institute's staff, students, faculty, and members; the general public; and outside scholars. In 2017, the library served 8,375 users, and circulated 6,048 items. The library provides reference and research services, class and individualized instruction, circulation, computer and database access and training, and interlibrary loans. Its collections include 27,946 books, 34 periodical subscriptions, 3,221 compact discs, 2,249 dvd and vhs films, and 2,384 artists's files. The catalog of holdings is searchable on-site and through the institute's web page. Through its affiliation with the pratt institute libraries, on-site users have access to 85 online article, image, and video databases. The library also manages the institute's archives and rare book room which contain approximately 420 linear feet of institutional records.