Everson Museum Of Art Of Syracuse And Onandaga County

Our Mission

The mission of the Everson Museum of Art, the first museum devoted to collecting American art, is to make possible direct encounters with all art through its collections, exhibitions, scholarship and educational programs. Our vision statement describes how and why we are committed to serving our community through the arts: we capitalize on the innate, natural attraction of people to art and believe in its transformative power; we cultivate curiosity and lifelong learning using the universal language of art; and we embrace collaboration to build bridges among disciplines. The Everson, founded in 1987 as the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, is a vital cultural institution and tourist destination contributing to the economic vitality of the Central New York region. The Everson houses one of the country's largest collections of American ceramics (reinstalled in November 2016 in a completely refurbished gallery), as well as a video collection begun in the 1970s of cutting-edge works in what was a new medium at the time. The Everson collection as a whole comprises approximately 11,000 objects. The museum mounts exhibitions featuring newly commissioned work, often by emerging or under-represented artists, along with our permanent collection. Related public programming enhances and contextualizes each exhibition and fosters connections in the community among diverse groups.The museum has long facilitated civic engagement through the arts, offering arts education programming to over 30 school districts and 8,000 students each year, with more than 1,500 of those students coming from the Syracuse City School District, one of the poorest in the state. The Everson is committed to breaking down barriers to the arts for people of all ages and abilities.