NEWSLETTER
Followed by Catalogue Launch
Thursday, March 12, 4:30pm, University Art Museum, University at Albany
Albany, NY (January 21, 2026) — The University Art Museum (UAM) at the University at Albany announces a conversation between exhibiting artist Noel W Anderson and Cara Manes, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York. In addition, we will be launching the exhibition catalogue for Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence. The catalogue will be available for purchase and signing at the event. The event is free and open to the public.
The 144-page, fully-illustrated, color exhibition catalogue will include scholarly texts by UAM curators, artist writings, and conversations between the artist and cultural theorist, poet, and MacArthur Fellow Fred Moten and renowned artist Howardena Pindell.
Continuing through April 3, Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence is on view at the UAM. Anderson’s most comprehensive museum exhibition to date includes newly-commissioned suspended and stretched Jacquard tapestries and video depicting digitally altered archival and media images centered on Black labor, identity, and performance. This exhibition and its catalogue are supported in part by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.
Also continuing through April 3 in our Collections Study Space (open Tuesdays and Thursdays 11am–2pm): Romare Bearden & Ralph Ellison: From the Archive. Telling the story of the UAM’s 1968 exhibition Romare Bearden: Paintings and Projections and its accompanying catalogue essay by Ralph Ellison, Romare Bearden & Ralph Ellison: From the Archive presents archival materials, including correspondence between Bearden, Ellison, and UAM founding director, Donald Mochon, and Ellison’s original manuscript. This essay soon became an essential work in Ellison’s bibliography, the literature on Bearden, and the history of twentieth-century African American culture.
The UAM and its Collections Study Space will be open 11am–4pm on select Saturdays: January 31, February 28, and March 28. Additionally, on Saturday, March 28 we will host a curator-led tour of Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence followed by coffee and snacks in our lobby.
On Wednesday, February 25, we invite the public to join us and participate in the annual Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in the museum, organized in partnership with the University Libraries.
Full details for all of our spring public programs below:
Select Saturday
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Museum/Collections Study Space (CSS) open 11am – 4pm
Visit the museum to view Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence. Visit the Collections Study Space to view Romare Bearden & Ralph Ellison: From the Archive and to browse our Collections.
Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: Art + Feminism 2026
Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 11am – 4pm
Join us to make contributions to Wikipedia that directly relate to the University at Albany Fine Art Collections and the University Art Museum’s current and past exhibitions.
To participate, please:
- Walk-ins are welcome, but registration helps us plan seating. An optional registration link will be provided shortly. Please check our Public Programs webpage for updates: https://www.albany.edu/museum/public-programs
- Sign up for a Wikipedia editor’s account here: http://bit.ly/4jm1eTb
- Check out this training video on how to edit Wikipedia entries where you’ll learn the basics for making your first successful contributions: File:ArtAndFeminism-full-training.webm - Wikimedia Commons
Co-sponsored by the University Libraries Climate Committee.
Select Saturday
Saturday, February 28, 2026
Museum/CSS open 11am – 4pm
Noel W Anderson and Cara Manes in Conversation
Followed by Catalogue Launch
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 4:30pm
Free parking in State Quad Student Parking Lot
Join us for a conversation between exhibiting artist Noel W Anderson and Cara Manes, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York. In addition, we will be launching the exhibition catalogue for Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence. The catalogue will be available for purchase and signing at the event. The event is free and open to the public.
Select Saturday
Exhibition Tour Followed by Coffee Hour
Saturday, March 28, 2026
Museum/CSS open 11am – 4pm
Exhibition tour 12pm, coffee hour to follow
Join us at noon for a curator-led tour, followed by coffee and snacks in our lobby.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Free admission
Museum Hours through April 3, 2026:
Monday – Friday, 11am – 4pm
Open Select Saturdays, 11am – 4pm: 1/31, 2/28, 3/28
Closed all New York State Holidays
Collections Study Space Hours:
Tuesdays and Thursdays 11am – 2pm, and Select Saturdays 11am – 4pm: 1/31, 2/28, 3/28
For additional programming announcements, please visit our website www.albany.edu/museum or call (518) 442-4035.
Contact: Christine Snyder, Operations and Finance Manager, cbatson@albany.edu
Exhibition Support:
Noel W Anderson: Black Excellence is supported in part by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.
Additional support for exhibitions and programs provided by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, The University at Albany Foundation, the University at Albany Alumni Association, the University Auxiliary Services at Albany, the Ann C. Mataraso Fund, the Robin Kanson Lewis ’70 Exhibition Endowment Fund, the University Art Museum Director’s Fund, the University Auxiliary Services at Albany, and the Jack and Gertrude Horan Memorial Fund for Student Outreach.
UAlbany Campus Land Acknowledgement:
The University at Albany sits at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers on the traditional lands of the Kanien’keháka and Muh-he-con-neok people, who stewarded this land for generations before the arrival of European colonists. The Kanien’keháka (People of the Flint) and Muh-he-con-neok (People of the Waters that are Never Still) are more commonly known today as the Mohawk Haudenosaunee and Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. Despite the similarity of their westernized names, the Mohawk and Mohican were culturally and linguistically distinct.
The UAlbany community recognizes that we live and work on the homelands of sovereign Indigenous nations with rich histories and cultures that continue today – both within New York and beyond.
As an institution devoted to teaching, scholarship, and service, we strive to understand and learn from our history and to affirm Indigenous rights and issues. To this end, we are committed to cultivating reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities focused on equity, social justice, and sustainability – and dismantling legacies of colonization.
About the University at Albany:
The University at Albany is one of the most diverse public research institutions in the nation and a national leader in educational equity and social mobility. As a Carnegie-classified R1 institution, UAlbany and its faculty and students are creating critical new knowledge in fields such as artificial intelligence, atmospheric and environmental sciences, business, education, public health, social sciences, criminal justice, emergency preparedness, engineering, informatics, public administration, and social welfare. Our courses are taught by an accomplished roster of faculty experts with student success at the center of everything we do. Through our parallel commitments to academic excellence, scientific discovery, and service to community, UAlbany molds bright, curious, and engaged leaders and launches great careers.
Image: Exhibition Catalogue Cover
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