[Collection/pages/menubar.html]
The Center for
Photography
at Woodstock

Permanent Print Collection
in partnership with the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art

In 1995, the Center's permanent print collection was transferred to the Samuel Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz on a long-term extended loan. The collection has been developed over a period of almost 20 years and includes nearly 1,000 contemporary photographs.
Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art Permanent Print Collection
Groundbreaking for the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz was held on November 18, 1998. Construction of the museum has commenced, and is anticipated to be completed by January 2000. The museum is an expansion project that will absorb the facilities and programs of the existing College Art Gallery ( founded in1964). When completed the museum will occupy more than 17,000 square feet of new and renovated facilities, making it one of the largest art museums within the State University of New York.

For almost 35 years, the College Art Gallery has provided direct support to the academic programs at SUNY New Paltz, and has served the surrounding community as a significant cultural resource.

"The urge to collect is thought to be instinctive. We only have to look at the gatherers of nature, and the history of humankind to observe this ubiquitous phenomenon. Collections, whether private or public, are created with different motivations and serve different purposes. Most museums collect to preserve objects of apparent value that otherwise might be lost to the future. Museum collections bring together objects so that they may be used, interpreted, and enjoyed. It is the collection that makes a museum unique."

- From "Archival Matters: The Photography Collections at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art," by Neil C. Trager, Photography Quarterly #72.
Click here for Full Text

 The Center maintains and builds a Permanent Collection of prints, videotapes, audiotapes, and slides in keeping with the Center’s Mission. This includes a Permanent Collection of Contemporary Photography (we define contemporary as living or up to ten years after deceased; those whose work is collected then is not deaccessioned) and an historical archive of Woodstock Festival Photographs. The Center’s Permanent Collection of over 1,000 contemporary photographs had been assembled since 1980 through the generous gifts of artists, individual donors, and since 1996 through a special fund set aside for purchase to enhance the collections.

The Collection contains photographs by: Shelby Lee Adams, Judith Black, Gaye Chan, Albert Chong, Van Deren Coke, Jed Devine, Larry Fink, Charles Gatewood, Deborah Goldman, Bonnie Gordon, Torkil Gudnason, Robert Heineken, Wendy Holmes, Scott Hyde, Graciela Iturbide, Kenro Izu, Christopher James, Antonin Kratochvil, Nina Kuo, Elliot Landy, Shelie Metzner, Andrea Modica, Bill Owens, Gilles Peress, Jose Picayo, Sylvia Plachy, Lilo Raymond, Eugene Richards, Harold Roth, Stephen Shore, Lorna Simpson, Carlons Somonte, Craig Stevens, Lou Stoumen, Mariana Yampolsky, and many others.
[Collection/pages/menubar.html]