Castellani Art Museum

The Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University is centrally located on the University's main campus in the town of Lewiston. The museum features exhibitions of nationally-known and emerging contemporary artists and traditional folk arts.

The museum owns a permanent collection of over 5,700 art works, which includes paintings, prints, photographs, drawings and sculptures, most from the 19th-century, modern and contemporary movements. Works in the collection include such artists as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.^[1]

Armand and Eleanor Castellani, both avid art collectors since the 1960s, donated much of their personal collection to the Castellani Art Museum. The Castellanis have also donated valuable works to the Burchfield Penney Art Center, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.

The museum was originally built in 1978, off campus, as the Buscaglia-Castellani Art Gallery and housed a permanent collection of about 300 pieces. In 1990, the museum was renamed the Castellani Art Museum and a new building was constructed on campus. The building was designed by Thomas Moscati and boasts seven different gallery spaces, indoor and outdoor sculpture courts, a museum shop, offices, and storage and preparation spaces.^[2]

The museum is also used for educational purposes, so the Niagara University Fine Arts Program has studio and classroom spaces in the museum for students as well. The Museum is dedicated to facilitating art educational programs for students of the University, as well as other schools in the area and cultural organizations. Docent and volunteer programs are offered to any interested member of the community.

Niagara University also offers a degree program that was developed collaboratively with the Director of the Castellani Art Museum, Kate Koperski, and Marian Granfield, Curator of Education.

References

External links

• Castellani Art Museum