Art & Music Histories, Syracuse University

06/01/2026

Many congratulations to art history graduate student Gabrielle Patrone for winning the Mary Spurrier Fellowship in Native American Art at the Rockwell Museum. Gabrielle will be researching and cataloging the museum's permanent collection of Native American art, with a particular focus on Haudenosaunee beadwork. She will conduct original research on these objects that will support her capstone project.

In addition, Gabrielle will present "Resistance, Resilience, Persistence: Conditions of Labor in Elizabeth Catlett’s Survivor" at the forthcoming 2026 SECAC Conference. Gabrielle's paper emerged from her art history Proseminar project that was also linked to the exhibition "Afterimages" at the SU Art Museum. It addresses how Catlett’s print, "Survivor," is a visual reminder of the physical and artistic labor involved in printmaking.

Woohoo for Gabrielle!

University Art Museum


Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences

George Fisk Comfort Society of Art History

05/22/2026

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend everyone! Keep smiling :)

05/22/2026

Happy birthday to Mary Cassatt, born in 1844! 🎉 “Mary Cassatt is triply distinguished as among the greatest American artists, the greatest artists of the nineteenth century, and one of the finest female painters of the Western tradition,” writes Karl Kusserow, the Museum’s Senior Curator of American Art. “‘Little Girl in a Large Red Hat,’ completed at the early peak of her career, as she fully assimilated the Impressionist idiom that was to inform her strongest work, is a small masterpiece of painterly characterization, depicting the artist's signature subject with a deft acumen in an altogether compelling composition.”
Read more from our curator: https://ow.ly/MOPm50Z2YPY
Or explore works by Cassatt in our Collections Search, linked in our bio!
https://ow.ly/sI4I50Z2YQs
ℹ️
Mary Cassatt, “Little Girl in a Large Red Hat,” ca. 1881. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund. See less

Happy birthday to Mary Cassatt, born in 1844! 🎉 “Mary Cassatt is triply distinguished as among the greatest American artists, the greatest artists of the nineteenth century, and one of the finest female painters of the Western tradition,” writes Karl Kusserow, the Museum’s Senior Curator of American Art. “‘Little Girl in a Large Red Hat,’ completed at the early peak of her career, as she fully assimilated the Impressionist idiom that was to inform her strongest work, is a small masterpiece of painterly characterization, depicting the artist's signature subject with a deft acumen in an altogether compelling composition.”

Read more from our curator: https://ow.ly/MOPm50Z2YPY

Or explore works by Cassatt in our Collections Search, linked in our bio!
https://ow.ly/sI4I50Z2YQs

ℹ️
Mary Cassatt, “Little Girl in a Large Red Hat,” ca. 1881. Princeton University Art Museum. Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund.

05/22/2026

The Corning Museum of Glass just showcased Rina Banerjee's work--which formed the basis of "Take Me to the Palace of Love," an exhibition curated in 2023 by Prof Romita Ray with contributions by art history graduate alum, Ankush Arora ('23).

05/21/2026

The rise of public concerts in the 1720s and ’30s was in indicator of social innovations that would come to the fore during the American Revolution. Remarkably, colonial America produced musicians and paying audiences needed for public concerts not long after the trend started in Europe. But not everyone on our shores approved.
Read more of Sophie Genevieve Lowe's feature from the January 2026 issue of EMAg, the magazine of Early Music America, at the link in the comments 👇️ See less

05/21/2026

The first modern atlas was published on this day in 1570! 🗺️
The first edition of 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum' by Abraham Ortelius printed in Antwerp contained 53 maps by 33 different cartographers—but more than tripled in size over its 31 editions.
This world map from a 1595 printing is held in the Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints, which includes more than 800 prints, drawings, and maps produced over a period of four centuries.
View more from the collection: https://on.nypl.org/4v2w3RT
🗺️ The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection. ID: 54654

The first modern atlas was published on this day in 1570! 🗺️

The first edition of 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum' by Abraham Ortelius printed in Antwerp contained 53 maps by 33 different cartographers—but more than tripled in size over its 31 editions.

This world map from a 1595 printing is held in the Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints, which includes more than 800 prints, drawings, and maps produced over a period of four centuries.

View more from the collection: https://on.nypl.org/4v2w3RT

🗺️ The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection. ID: 54654.

05/20/2026

Fabulous news from the Sue Ann Genet Costume Collection! Congrats to our colleagues professors Jeffrey Mayer and Kirsten Schoonmaker! We can't wait to see what you will do with this new and exciting acquisition.

05/20/2026

The Department of Art and Music HIstories remembers Meredith Lillich, professor emerita of art history, who died on March 18, 2026 at the age of 94. A member of the University’s faculty for more than four decades, Lillich was an internationally recognized scholar of medieval stained glass, a dedicated teacher and mentor, and a foundational figure in the modern study of Gothic art. Read on about this extraordinary scholar.
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences
George Fisk Comfort Society of Art History
Syracuse University Humanities Center

Meredith Lillich redefined a global field of study and carried that scholarship into more than four decades of teaching at Syracuse University.

05/17/2026

TODAY! Sunday, May 17. 1.30-3.00pm. Richardson-Bates House Museum, Oswego. Join art history alum Michael Parks (M.A. '25) for a special presentation about curating his exhibition titled “Painting Oswego.” After his presentation in the drawing room on the first floor, guests will be encouraged to go upstairs to see the exhibit in the gallery space. Woohoo for Michael! We are so proud of you.
Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences

05/15/2026

A shout out to Prof Lawrence Chua (Architectural History) for his wonderful insights into the concepts of home, loss and belonging.

At the School of Architecture, students and faculty explore the design of belonging.