Castellani Art Museum facts for kids

The Castellani Art Museum is a cool art museum located right on the campus of Niagara University in Lewiston. It's a place where you can see amazing art from famous artists and new artists. You can also explore traditional folk arts here.

Discovering Art: The Museum's Story

The Castellani Art Museum started in 1976. A person named Armand J. Castellani began collecting art. He wanted to help students at Niagara University and people in Western New York learn about art. His goal was to help everyone understand different cultures through art.

How the Museum Grew

The first museum building was built in 1978. It was called the Buscaglia-Castellani Art Gallery. This first gallery was not on the university campus. It held about 300 pieces of art.

In 1990, the museum got a new name. It became the Castellani Art Museum. A brand new building was built right on the university campus. Thomas Moscati designed this new building. It has seven different areas to show art. There are also indoor and outdoor spaces for sculptures. Plus, it has a museum shop, offices, and storage rooms.

Learning Through Art

The museum is also a great place for learning. The Fine Arts Program at Niagara University has classrooms inside the museum. This means students can study art right where the art is!

The museum works hard to create art programs. These programs are for university students. They are also for other schools and cultural groups nearby. If you are interested, you can even join as a volunteer or a "docent." Docents are people who guide visitors and talk about the art.

The museum even helped create a special degree program. This program teaches students about working in museums.

Special Exhibitions

In 2016, the museum had a special show. It was all about Folk Arts. This exhibition looked closely at Haudenosaunee, Wabanaki, and Chippewa beadwork. You could see both old and new Native American beaded artworks.

The Art Collection

The museum has a huge collection of art. There are over 5,700 artworks in total! This includes paintings, prints, photographs, drawings, and sculptures. Most of the art is from the 1800s, or is modern and contemporary art.

What You Can See

• 19th Century Art: This includes art from the 1800s. You can see works by European artists like Daumier and Armand Guillaumin. There are also American landscape painters like John Henry Twachtman and Edward Henry Potthast.
• Early 20th Century Art: This section features art from the early 1900s. It has pieces by European artists such as Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. American artists like Charles E. Burchfield are also included.
• Mid-20th Century Art: Here you'll find art from the middle of the 1900s. This includes famous names like Andy Warhol and Joan Miró.
• Contemporary Art: This part of the collection shows art from the last twenty years. Artists like Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Lynda Benglis are featured here.

Generous Donations

Armand and Eleanor Castellani loved collecting art. They had been collecting since the 1960s. They gave a lot of their own art collection to the Castellani Art Museum. The Castellanis also donated valuable artworks to other museums. These include the Burchfield Penney Art Center and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.

See also

• List of university art museums and galleries in New York State