Dorsky Museum earns Award for Excellence for McEntee exhibition, catalog
Oil on canvas, 25 x 50 in., Collection of Richard Sharp
The Greater Hudson Heritage Network will present the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz with two Awards for Excellence at its annual conference on Oct. 28.
The awards recognize the exhibition and accompanying catalog for Jervis McEntee: Painter Poet of the Hudson River School, a Dorsky Museum retrospective of the eponymous local artist, which was on view at the Dorsky from Aug. 26 – Dec. 13, 2015.
“We are thrilled to receive these awards on behalf of the many people who made this exhibition possible,” said Sara J. Pasti, The Neil C. Trager Director of The Dorsky Museum. “We are especially grateful to Dr. Lee A. Vedder, the exhibition curator, for introducing us to the story of Jervis McEntee; to Jeff Lesperance and Daniel Belasco, the catalogue’s designer and editor, for their role in showcasing the work of this talented artist; and to the exhibition’s many lenders and donors.”
The Greater Hudson Heritage Network (GHHN) includes numerous cultural groups, artists, professionals and scholars dedicated to preserving and expanding access to the history of the region.
Its award represents major recognition from peer organizations of the creativity of the McEntee exhibition and the broader significance of the Dorsky’s place as a center of enriching arts and culture in the Hudson Valley.
The McEntee exhibition, organized by exhibition curator Vedder, consisted of approximately 80 paintings and works on paper. It represented perhaps the strongest effort by any museum or gallery to date to define McEntee, a prolific Hudson Valley landscape artist, as a vital figure in the history of 19th century American nature painting.
The 130-page catalogue that accompanied the exhibition, available for purchase at SUNY Press, will also be recognized with a GHHN Award for Excellence.
The catalogue was designed by Lesperance and features new scholarship by Vedder, Art History Department Chair Kerry Dean Carso and leading McEntee historian David Schuyler.
More information about The Dorsky Museum is available online.