Binghamton University Art Museum

The Binghamton University Art Museum is an art museum located on the campus of Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. Situated on the second floor of the main Fine Arts Building, the museum holds a permanent collection of over 3,500 works spanning multiple eras, media, and cultures. Founded through the efforts of the late professor Kenneth Lindsay, who established the university's visual arts program, the museum serves as a center for artistic exploration, education, and public engagement. Though not currently accredited, the museum has since 2013 pursued initiatives to expand public accessibility and deepen its educational commitment.

The museum's origins trace to Kenneth Lindsay, a professor who founded the university's visual arts program and began its permanent art collection. Lindsay was one of the Monuments Men who retrieved art at the end of World War II, and the Kenneth C. Lindsay Study Room is named in his honor. As of 2013, the University Art Museum launched an initiative to broaden public access to its collection and strengthen its educational mission. The museum now operates across three main areas: its permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, and educational outreach. Students participate directly in museum operations, with opportunities to curate exhibitions and showcase works. The museum also offers free information tours for school groups and participates in a Lifelong Learning Program for adults.

The permanent collection comprises over 3,500 works representing diverse media and cultures. Holdings include paintings, sculpture, prints, photographs, drawings, glass, ceramics, metalwork, manuscript pages, and textiles from Egypt, Greece, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and pre-Columbian cultures. The collection spans historical periods from ancient through contemporary art. In January 2014, the museum mounted an exhibition of 50 works on paper from the 15th to 20th centuries drawn from its permanent collection. The museum has also developed particular strengths in Japanese prints, cultivated primarily through alumni donations.

The collection includes works by several prominent artists. Among them are Albrecht Dürer and Salvador Dalí, represented in the 2014 works-on-paper exhibition, as well as Henry Moore and Philip Guston. Other notable pieces include Kobayashi Eijiro's 1920 wood engraving High Bridge by Night, a gift of John C. Copoulos '73, which exemplifies Japonisme; an architectural drawing by Frank Lloyd Wright of the H.C. Price Company Tower, circa 1952; an English stoneware saucer from circa 1805-20; and an untitled cut metal work by Haitian artist Joseph Louis Juste (1940-1989), circa 1970. The collection also includes Marshal Glasier's 1964 oil and collage Portrait of Isabelle Ann Weintraub Brown and Sekka Kamisaka's 1909-1910 polychrome woodblock print White Plum Tree.

The museum occupies the second floor of the main Fine Arts Building at the center of the Binghamton University campus. Its facilities include the Main Gallery, the Susan M. Reifer '65 and Stanley J. Reifer '64 Mezzanine Gallery, and the Nancy J. Powell Gallery, which consists of several small gallery spaces. The Kenneth C. Lindsay Study Room provides a space for students, faculty, and visitors to request objects from the permanent collection for research purposes. An adjacent area has been converted into visible storage, where objects are densely installed in glass cabinets rather than kept in vault storage. The Elsie B. Rosefsky Gallery, also on the second floor of the arts building, showcases special exhibitions and student work. A second-floor mezzanine displays works from the permanent collection while the main gallery hosts rotating exhibitions.

The Binghamton University Art Museum is located at 4400 Vestal Parkway East, Fine Arts Building Rooms 179 and 213, Binghamton, New York 13902. Admission is free. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Thursdays. The museum is closed during national holidays, university breaks, and weather-related closings; it will be closed to visitors during the summer 2026 break. The Main Gallery and Mezzanine Gallery are free and open to the public year-round. The museum can be reached at (607) 777-2968. Visitors may also schedule appointments to view works in the Kenneth C. Lindsay Study Room.