Permanent Collections
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery
 It's not your grandfather's art museum any more. This venerable institution - everyone's favorite Sunday afternoon browse - has become a date-night destination. The Albright-Knox is now open late on Fridays, and programs jazz concerts, movies, and poetry slams, as well as year-round exhibitions of world-renowned modern and contemporary art. In recent years, the Albright-Knox has hosted The Wall, a ground-breaking exhibition of contemporary Chinese art; Extreme Abstraction, a wide-ranging extravaganza of recent abstraction; and survey shows of such artists as Amadeo Modigliani, Dale Chihuly, Chuck Close, and Petah Coyne. In 2004, the museum invited artist Spencer Tunick to create an installation involving hundreds of nude Western New Yorkers at Buffalo's Central Terminal, later displaying the eerie and striking photographic results. In 2005, Wilco performed at the annual Rockin' at the Knox art party. To keep things fresh, the Albright-Knox regularly reinstalls its permanent collection, ensuring that visitors will always see something new, now matter how many times they visit.
Founded in 1862, the Albright-Knox collection is housed in a 1905 Greek Revival building by E. B. Green and a 1962 addition by Gordon Bunshaft. The collection is especially rich in post-war American and European art, including abstract expressionism, pop art, and art of the 1970s through the present . It also offers a panorama of older art, including Renaissance painting and sculpture; American and European art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; impressionism and postimpressionism; cubism, surrealism, constructivism, and other trends of the twenties and thirties. Its restaurant, Muse, and its Museum Store are known throughout Buffalo Niagara as stand-alone dining and shopping destinations.
 Five not to miss:
Jackson Pollock's Convergence
Paul Gaugin's Yellow Christ
Lucas Samaras's Mirror Room
Pablo Picasso's The Toilette (at left)
Andy Warhol's 100 Cans
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery: a Buffalo must-see you'll never forget.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo
716-882-8700
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The Burchfield-Penney Art Center
 Why is Buffalo Niagara such a great place to be an artist? You'll get at least part of the answer here. Watercolorist Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967) worked in Buffalo for most of his adult life, during which he became known as one of the most fascinating painters in America, mainly for his fantastic and romantic depictions of the natural landscape. (Fireflies, at right) His achievement inspired the creation of the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in 1966. Today, the Burchfield-Penney houses a major collection of hundreds of Burchfield's most significant watercolor paintings and drawings as well as works by other important artists connected to Buffalo Niagara, such as Cindy Sherman, Milton Rogovin, Charles Cary Rumsey, and artists of the Arts and Crafts Roycroft movement.
The Burchfield-Penney has hired the renowned architectural firm Gwathmey Siegel to create a new signature building; it is scheduled to be completed in 2007. In its current location in Buffalo State College's Rockwell Hall, the Burchfield-Penney hosts a lively and ambitious series of exhibitions and events, including the popular 24/12, a fast-moving series of shows by emerging local artists. The Center also hosts a yearly crafts exhibition and maintains permanent installations of Burchfield's paintings and a re-creation of his studio. Recent major exhibitions include surveys of Frank Lloyd Wright's stained glass windows and Milton Rogovin's photography of steel workers.
Don't leave without visiting the Burchfield-Penney's museum shop, which has reasonably-priced wares by local artisans.
Burchfield-Penney Art Center
Rockwell Hall
Buffalo State College
1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo
716-887-6011
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The Castellani Art Museum
How does an ambitious grocery store owner translate his love of art into a jewel of a museum? Find out at the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, located just minutes away from Niagara Falls, U.S.A. The Castellani's collection grew out of Armand Castellani's interest in contemporary art, which he began to collect seriously after retiring from Tops Markets, the grocery chain he founded. The museum was created in 1978, and made even more of an impact on the Buffalo Niagara scene when it moved into a striking new marble building on the Niagara University main campus in 1991.
 Located on the Niagara Gorge in one of the most scenic settings possible, the Castellani has large, classically-proportioned gallery spaces, including a massive glass-fronted Main Exhibition Hall. The Castellani has a wide-raging collection of contemporary art, including works by Joan Mitchell (Begonia, at left) , Robert Rauschenberg, Judy Pfaff, Louise Nevelson, Anish Kapoor, and many others. Major exhibitions have included shows of Niagara Falls-related prints and photography, Iroquois art and culture, and Buffalo Niagara folk arst. The museum is the only local institution with a permanent folk arts program.
The Castellani is the headquarters for the Underground Railroad Regional Interpretive Center, with a permanent gallery installation introducing visitors to Buffalo Niagara's history as an important Underground Railroad location and identifying other important sites. There is also a café and a shop.
Visit one of Buffalo Niagara's most beautiful - and most under-recognized - art museums today!
Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University
Niagara University Main Campus
Lewiston, Neww York
716-286-8200
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University at Buffalo Art Galleries
These are among Buffalo Niagara's newest and liveliest art spaces, fed by the energy of the University at Buffalo's top-notch art department and faculty.
 Anderson Gallery
(at right)
This former public school in North Buffalo has been brilliantly transformed into a classic modern gallery space, with changing exhibitions of contemporary art and shows from its collection of twentieth century modernism.
UB Art Gallery
This space, located on UB's Amherst Campus, boasts a spectacular multi-level back gallery and regularly features exhibitions of cutting-edge contemporary art as well as showcases the work of UB's art students.
University at Buffalo Art Galleries:
Anderson Gallery
Martha Jackson Place, Buffalo
716-829-3574
University at Buffalo Art Gallery, Center for the Arts
UB North Campus, Buffalo
716-645-6912
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