1975-2025: Celebrating 50 Years of Collecting

Enjoy a stroll through time and experience selections from the permanent collection from each of our 50 years of engaging with our community through art.

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.


Dates: January 25 - September 26, 2025
Participating artists:
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Woman in a red dress standing on a grey table amongst various foods and serve ware with a white cat at the top right corner of the table.
Haley Hasler, Self-Portrait as a Woman Serving a Meal , 2003, Oil on canvas
Painting of a man from the knees up, wearing a blue collard shirt and a black leather apron and gloves. He is light skinned, blue eyed, and short brown hair, looking diagonally to the left. Behind him are various steel working objects and a large crane moving metal objects in a hazy environment.
Garrit A. Beneker, Man at Steelworks , c. 1920, Oil on canvas
Painting with a dripping green-brown background over printed papers. In the center is a t shaped design in three layers of blue with stars and a round logo in the middle with a fox jumping under a moon.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Sovereign Nations , 2002, Mixed media, oil on canvas
Photograph in black and white of a close up car side view mirror
Sonya Tanae Fort, Side View , 2021, Digital Photograph
Realistic landscape painting with a stony outcrop on the front left and a slop of red grass to the right. There are pine trees behind this followed by a far off view of fields and trees, two ponds, and rounded mountains with a clouded sky.
Albert Bierstadt, Near North Conway, New Hampshire , 1860 c., Oil on canvas
Small bowl with a narrow bottom and wide shoulders, glazed rusty orange and painted with black intricate designs.
Elva Nampeyo (1926-1985), Bowl , 1974, Paint on Clay
Realistic painting of an older white man with short white hair and a ruddy complextion. He is depicted from the chest up, wearing a black coat with wide lapels and a white undershirt. The background is primarily solid brown-red.
Gilbert Stuart, Dr. Nathaniel Coffin , c. 1820 , Oil on canvas mounted on panel
Portrait painting of an older woman, seated from the waist up, with light skin, wearing a brown empire dress and tan shawl and lacy top. Her light brown hair is under a white lacy cap.
Gilbert Stuart, Mrs. Nathaniel Coffin , c.1820, Oil on canvas mounted on panel