Off the Rack: Building and Preserving LIM’s Art Treasures will be on view in the Main Gallery of the Art Museum from February 22, 2020 until June 26, 2020. The museum’s art collection, consisting of more than 500 paintings and 2,000 works on paper, is what makes it possible for it to offer a dynamic schedule of exhibitions each year. But much of this collection usually stays out of visitor’s sight, in carefully protected storage spaces. This exhibition allows us to push open the doors and empty our storage areas, to give visitors a rare chance to see some of the rare and outstanding highlights of LIM’s collection. The museum was recently awarded a New York State Council for the Arts Facilities Capital Equipment Grant to strengthen and enlarge its capacity to house its existing collection and to add new art. Off the Rack will both highlight some of the outstanding new paintings that LIM has collected over the past 20 years – works from Jane Wilson, Jane Freilicher, David Burliuk, Robert Dash, and many more – and will examine the museum’s continuing efforts to care for its collection. The museum takes the public responsibility aspect of caring for and adding to its collections seriously, and this project is a cornerstone of sustaining that concern and effort.
Bill Durham (1937-2011), Black Opal, 1988-89. Acrylic on canvas. 82” x 98”. Anonymous gift, 2010.