Philanthropic support valued at $3 million will establish art programming at SUNY New Paltz
The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and the SUNY New Paltz Foundation are pleased to announce a $3 million bequest intention that will establish meaningful art programming and experiences at the College.
The legacy gift is from artists and longtime friends of The Dorsky, Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault. Pioneers in the field of art using technology, their work spans decades of digital experimentation.
“We are thrilled by this opportunity and hope that our work and ideologies will inspire the SUNY New Paltz community,” said LoCurto. “Few artists can decide exactly where their art is going to go when they are gone, and we are extremely fortunate to have found a way to make this happen.”
The Lilla LoCurto and William Outcault Endowed Fund will preserve, conserve, and protect the artists’ legacy and body of work, providing support in perpetuity for programming and exhibitions. The LoCurto/Outcault Art and Technology Fellowship will establish a new graduate fellowship in the Art Department.
In addition to the duo’s significant gift of their estate to The Dorsky, the artists will donate their entire body of creative work to establish the LoCurto/Outcault Collection and Archive at the Dorsky Museum.
“We’re honored and proud to receive this gift that will support the extraordinary work of the Dorsky Museum and grow our community’s appreciation for the arts,” said Erica Marks, vice president for development & alumni relations and executive director of the SUNY New Paltz Foundation. “We are deeply moved as well, for the commitment of Lilla and Bill to SUNY New Paltz and our students.”
Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault have been a collaborative artist team since 1991 and were introduced to the Museum by David Dorsky, with whom they remain close. Their work includes digital prints, video, photography and other mixed media. They create prints, drawings, photographs and installations focusing on human physical and psychological frailty by integrating technology, i.e., human gesture and movement sensing, AI models of responses, autonomous machines, augmented reality and 3D scanning and printing.
They received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013 and have collaborated on numerous exhibitions, commissions and residencies with such institutions as The Orange County Museum of Art, California; Kohler Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin; The Carpenter Center, Harvard University, and the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona. Exhibitions include selfportrait.map, which originated at MIT, and group exhibitions: Digital: Printmaking at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; and Contemporaneou.s. in Cornwall and Sunderland, United Kingdom. Their works are included in the public collections of The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and the Richard M. Ross Art Museum, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, among others. Learn more about the artists online.
“We are beyond grateful to our incredibly generous friends, whose major gift will lift the Museum to another level and have a significant impact on how we’re able to serve our students and the diverse communities of our region,” said Anna Conlan, the Neil C. Trager Director of the Dorsky Museum. “Thanks to the fellowship set up in their name, many emerging artists will be supported on their journey and encouraged by the path that Lilla and Bill forged through their innovative art practice.”
ABOUT THE DORSKY
Through its collections, exhibitions and public programs, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art supports and enriches the academic programs at the College and serves as a center for Hudson Valley arts and culture. With more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, The Dorsky Museum is one of the largest museums in the SUNY system. Since its official dedication in 2001, The Dorsky has presented more than 100 exhibitions, including commissions, collection-based projects, and in-depth studies of contemporary artists including Robert Morris, Alice Neel, Judy Pfaff, Carolee Schneemann and Ushio Shinohara.
Funding for The Dorsky’s exhibitions and programs is provided by the Friends of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and SUNY New Paltz.
About the SUNY New Paltz Foundation
Founded in 1976, the SUNY New Paltz Foundation works to enrich the quality of academic life at New Paltz by raising private contributions. Gifts to the Foundation enhance the teaching, learning and discovery that takes place on campus, and allow New Paltz to enrich the cultural, economic, and social fabric of the Mid-Hudson region. Visit the SUNY New Paltz Foundation Board online for more information.