Schweinfurth to reopen Aug. 31 with nationally significant exhibit

Schweinfurth's front entrance construction mostly completed for Saturday's opening reception

AUBURN, NY (Aug. 26, 2024) – Schweinfurth Art Center will be reopening its main gallery Aug. 31 with “Beyond the Surface: Contemporary Artists and Printed Textiles,” a nationally important exhibition featuring eight U.S. artists.

It is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on printed textiles since the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery’s 1978 exhibition “Printed, Painted, and Dyed: The New Fabric Surface.”

The work is part of the state Downtown Revitalization Initiative’s $10 million award for the city of Auburn. The project, which broke ground in May, will combine the grounds of the Schweinfurth and Cayuga Museum of History & Art to create the West End Arts Campus.

Construction on the Schweinfurth’s addition and grounds will continue, but work has been mostly completed on the front entrance. The parking lot behind the building remains closed, but parking is available on Genesee Street in front of the art center.

“Once it’s completed, visitors will be able to enter the art center from the parking lot,” said Schweinfurth Executive Director Donna Lamb. “The work will also allow visitors to more easily travel between the art center and the Cayuga Museum’s three buildings. That’s becoming more important as both institutions work more closely to host events and exhibits together.”

“Beyond the Surface” is curated by Caroline Kipp and features eight contemporary artists at various stages in their careers: Danielle Andress, Nancy Crow, Emily Dormier, Sarah Fairchild, Letitia Huckaby, Krystle Lemonias, Stephanie Santana, and Gerri Spilka.

“This exhibit provides a long overdue look at the interplay between textiles and printing, and how it has influenced contemporary artists,” Lamb said. “We are thrilled to feature this work as part of our long tradition of supporting textile artists.”

The exhibition will be on display at Schweinfurth Art Center from Aug. 31 through Oct. 20, 2024. Curator Caroline Kipp will lead a panel discussion featuring some of the exhibiting artists at 3 p.m., followed by an opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

The exhibition is curated by Caroline Kipp and sponsored by the Coby Foundation, Furthermore Foundation – a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Nelson B. Delevan Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.