"Bear Mountain View," photograph by Greg Miller

The openings of “The Hudson River: A Great American Treasure” by Greg Miller and “Inscription” by Philippine Hoegen and Carolien Stikker on Sept. 19 mark the final installment in the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art’s six-month Art and the River project.

The Art and the River project is the museum’s contribution to the Hudson River Quadricentennial taking place this year.

An opening reception will be held for “The Hudson River” and “Inscription” from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19.

“The artists behind ‘The Hudson River’ and ‘Inscription’ invested a great deal of time exploring the region in order to create their beautiful and haunting images,” said Sara Pasti, the Neil C. Trager Director of the museum.

Untitled 2004, (still image from video), by Philippine Hoegen and Carolien Stikker

“The Hudson River: A Great American Treasure” is the second Art and the River project show by Orange County, N.Y.-based photographer Greg Miller. The newest exhibition presents 20 recent color photographs of Hudson Valley landscapes by Miller, whose panoramic photograph of the Hudson River is on display at the museum through Dec. 13. The photographs in “The Hudson River” depict views of the river and its valleys from New York City’s George Washington Bridge to the river’s small upstate tributaries.

For “Inscription,” the Dorsky Museum commissioned Amsterdam artists Philippine Hoegen and Carolien Stikker to produce a short film about the river. The artists, who work together and maintain solo careers, visited the campus in May and June of 2009 to explore the Hudson River and its tributaries. During that time, they made film, videotape and digital audio recordings under the working title “Riverbank.”

There are four works in the exhibition: a video projection, “Crossing;” a slide and video projection installation, “Smoke no smoke;” and hybrid photographic videos, both untitled. In addition, a book, titled “Superstructure,” will be published by the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art and SUNY Press to coincide with the exhibition.

From June to December, the museum is hosting five art exhibitions – including the flagship exhibition, “The Hudson River to Niagara Falls: 19th-century American Landscape Paintings from the New-York Historical Society”; an academic symposium; and various other events.

An artists’ lecture for “Inscription” is set for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 16, in the campus’s Lecture Center, room 102.

Both exhibitions are open through Nov. 29.

Robert Havell/View of Hudson River from Tarrytown Heights, ca. 1842/oil on canvas Image courtesy of Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art

This spring, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art explores its cultural heritage with exhibitions highlighting the works from regional artists and the museum’s permanent collection.

The first show of 2009, “Taking a Different Tack: Maggie Sherwood and the Floating Foundation of Photography,” is on display through April 8 in the Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery. Beth Wilson (Art History) served as curator of the show, which opened on Jan. 24. “Taking a Different Tack” documents the work and experiences of a group of photographers who, in the 1970s, exhibited their work and ran a series of innovative community programs out of a purple houseboat.

Across the hall in the Howard Greenburg Family Gallery, the museum presents “Eva Watson-Schütze: Photographer” from Feb. 14 to June 14. The portraits taken by Watson-Schütze, a member and resident of the Byrdcliffe Art Colony in Woodstock, feature the intellectual and creative elite of early 19th century Chicago and upstate New York.

Also on display from Feb. 14 to June 14 is “Bradford Graves: Selected Works” in the Sara Bedrick Gallery and “analog catalog: Investigating the Permanent Collection” in the Morgan Anderson Gallery and Corridor Gallery. The Bradford Graves show features the drawings and sculptures of the artist, who was a Kerhonkson resident. In “analog catalog,” Brian Wallace, museum curator, invited New Paltz faculty to explore the museum’s permanent collection database and present works not previously seen by the public. Faculty members working with Wallace are David Appelbaum (Philosophy), Gregg Bray (Communication and Media), Anne Galperin (Graphic Design) and Yoav Kaddar (Theatre Arts); independent designer and theorist Stuart Henley, a former New Paltz instructor, also participated in the show.

The spring semester closes with the museum’s annual series of student shows. And beginning this summer, the museum will turn its attention to the local environment before embarking on a collaborative exhibition with the New-York Historical Society designed to mark the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial.

The annual juried “Hudson Valley Artists 2009″ show focuses on the environment and ecological themes. Wallace said the museum is receiving artwork submissions; selections will be made in April. The show will be on display in the Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery and North Gallery from June 13 to Sept. 6.

Wallace said the show’s subject will be a nice complement to the Hudson River show, “The Hudson River to Niagara Falls: 19th Century American Landscape Paintings from the New-York Historical Society,” which opens on July 11 and runs through December 13.

William Rickarby Miller/Mohawk River at Little Falls, N.Y., 1892/oil on canvas Image courtesy of Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art

“Our summer exhibitions will present hundreds of years’ worth of artistic expression grounded in the artists’ intimate knowledge of the region,” said Wallace.

For “The Hudson River to Niagara Falls,” 45 landscape paintings – depicting locations along the Hudson River from New York City to Niagara Falls – will be on display at the museum, accompanied by a scholarly catalog, gallery guide and gallery talks. Through collaborations with faculty and staff, the museum will apply the exhibition’s focus on the river and how it led to the exploration of the upstate regions of the state to campus events outside of the museum. The museum has also partnered with the New York State and Ulster County tourism offices to include the exhibition as part of the Explore New York 400 campaign.

“This exhibition provides the museum with a terrific partnership opportunity that allows us to make extraordinary works of art to our audiences on and beyond the New Paltz campus,” said Sara Pasti, museum director. “We are grateful to the New-York Historical Society for lending their paintings to us and for their assistance in making this exhibition happen.”

For more information about all of the upcoming exhibitions, visit www.newpaltz.edu/museum/.