1975-2025: Celebrating 50 Years of Collecting

Curated by the Danforth’s Curatorial Fellow, Jennifer Koeller, this exhibition reflects on the Museum’s 50 years of change and growth in exhibition and collecting patterns and strategies. In the earliest years, the Museum accepted works from all art movements and cultures. Over time, collecting strategies shifted focus to American art and its influences, and in this gallery you will see examples representing a changing art world from colonial-era portraiture to Boston Figurative Expressionism. Today, the Museum actively collects and holds nearly 3700 examples of American art from the early 19th century to the present day across a wide variety of media.

The Danforth Art Museum remains an organic and ever-growing entity that reflects the role of the Museum as a component of Framingham State University.