COLLECTION
A LANDMARK COLLECTION
Hundreds of artists have, for shorter or longer times, called Woodstock home. Many are represented in WAAM’s Collection, of over 2,000 works.
The WAAM Permanent Collection was established in 1973 to preserve and promote the work of important American artists who have lived and created in the Woodstock region. In the mid-1970s specialized storage vaults were built and in 1987, when the collection numbered over 500 works, the catalog Woodstock’s Art Heritage: The Permanent Collection of the Woodstock Artists Association was published. In 1992, the Phoebe and Belmont Towbin Museum Wing opened for the exhibition of the collection, as well as loans from prominent museums and private collections to illuminate Woodstock’s formidable artistic heritage. In the early 2000s, grants from the New York State Council on the Arts facilitated the hiring of additional professional staff, along with digital documentation and improved storage for the over 2000 paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and decorative objects now in the collection. The Sam Klein Memorial Archives holds an extensive collection of materials referencing the artists whose work is represented in the collection, as well as ephemera associated with the continual activities of the Museum and Association. The Archives & Library provides these resources on request to scholars and historians.
Featured artists include George C. Ault, Milton Avery, Peggy Bacon, George Bellows, Konrad Cramer, Andrew Dasburg, Philip Guston, Raoul Hague, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Andrée Ruellan, Eugene Speicher, and Bradley Walker Tomlin. Museums throughout the United States have requested loans from the WAA Permanent Collection. Our exhibition catalogues and the WAAM Archives provide a valuable resource for art historians, students, collectors, and the general public.
Most works in the collection have been donated by collectors or directly from artists and their families. Purchase funds have been made available through bequests from Karl E. Fortess in 1993 and Aileen B. Cramer in 2006. For information regarding donating works of art, please contact info@woodstockart.org.
BROWSE OUR COLLECTION ONLINE
WAAM is a founding member of the Hudson Valley Visual Art Collections Consortium (HVVACC). Most of our collection is available to view online in the searchable HVVACC database. To visit the HVVACC site click here
SUPPORT & DONATE
Your charitable contributions can be specified to help support the Permanent Collection. Exhibitions, research, conservation, storage and the purchase of works of art are all areas to which you may want to contribute, now or in your will. The WAAM is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization and all donations of art are tax deductible as allowed by law.
DONATING WORKS OF ART
Most of the works in the WAAM Permanent Collection have been generously donated by collectors and artists’ families throughout the country. Works of art are reviewed by the Acquisitions Committee and accepted based on several criteria, including relevance to the collection and condition. Donors are encouraged to give funds, whenever possible, to help support the preservation and care of works given to the WAAM Permanent Collection.
Purchase funds have been made available through bequests from Karl E. Fortess in 1993 and Aileen B. Cramer in 2006.
Permanent Collection News
ANNUAL PRINTS
The WAAM has a limited inventory of Annual Prints remaining. The Annual Print Award has been given out since 1948 and has been granted to artists such as Arnold Blanch, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Fletcher Martin and Andrée Ruellan. Prints are all original, signed and numbered limited-edition etchings, lithographs, woodblock cuts, serigraphs, or mixed technique.
Annual Prints still in stock include works by Bruce Ackerman, Donna Albright, Franklin Alexander, Eric Angeloch, Robert Angeloch, Leslie Bender, Lucile Blanch, Bob Blanchard, Martin Carey, Edward Chavez, Michael Denson, Steve Dininno, Karl E. Fortess, Ernest Frazier, Dan Gelfand, Helen Gerardia, Milton Glaser, Carolyn Haeberlin, David K. Holt, Mary James, Brunie Kandora, Andrew Kooistra, Sidney Laufman, Lillian Lent, Eugene Ludins, Howard Mandel, Lorna Massie, Richard McDaniel, Kate McGloughlin, Paula Nelson, Ron Netsky, Robert Orsini, William Pachner, Richard Pantell, Prudence See, Lora Shelley, Lesia Socher, Nancy Summers, Fran Sutherland, and Roman Wachtel.