Just in front of you, you’ll see a bold, modern cube-like building made of concrete, rising in sculptural shapes with striking cantilevered sections-look for its unique “blocks” jutting out from all sides and its broad, open plaza.
Welcome to the Everson Museum of Art, where even the building itself is a masterpiece! Imagine you’re standing here in downtown Syracuse in the late 1960s, surrounded by the hum of the city, but suddenly your eye is drawn to this dramatic, monumental structure that looks more like an enormous piece of abstract sculpture than a museum. That’s exactly what architect I. M. Pei had in mind-he wanted the museum to stand out against all its neighbors, not as a simple container for art, but as art itself! Now, if the blocks look like they’re balancing in midair, don’t worry, it’s all solid-unless you’re a skateboarder, but more on that in a moment!
The story of the Everson goes way back to 1897. Picture a group of art lovers gathering inside the chilly May Memorial Church, led by George Fisk Comfort-a man so excited about art that he also helped found the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. They started as the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts and decided pretty quickly to focus their collection entirely on American art, long before it was trendy! As the collection grew, they bounced from one building to another-bank, library-you name it, they tried it. Each time, the art outgrew the space, like an over-ambitious houseplant.
Fast-forward to 1932 when ceramics became the stars of the show. The museum’s legendary Ceramic National exhibitions put Syracuse at the center of America’s ceramics world for decades. The star piece? The Scarab Vase, created by Adelaide Alsop Robineau and rumored to have taken over a thousand hours to carve-just imagine her explaining that deadline! The museum kept winning more and more beautiful pottery, until their ceramics collection became one of the largest and most prestigious in the country. You could say they really put the “art” in “earthware.”
Then came a huge gift-literally-a million dollars from Helen Everson, determined to give Syracuse the museum it deserved. In 1968, the new building finally opened, designed by I. M. Pei, who later became world-famous for his glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. The Everson’s unique four-block, cantilevered design was sensational, and it continues to be the perfect canvas for art... and, quite literally, for movies! On summer nights, the museum’s façade becomes an outdoor cinema, with families and art lovers gathering in the courtyard to watch films projected on its concrete walls.
But if it’s daytime, the only show outside might be some quick-footed skateboarders. Starting in the 1980s, the museum’s open plaza became a skater’s paradise-a sort of East Coast skateboarding mecca! Youngsters zipped and flipped, including filmmaker Bill Strobeck, who first picked up a camera to film here. Eventually, skating was banned (even masterpieces need a break sometimes), but every National Go Skateboarding Day you might catch wheels spinning over the museum’s steps again. “Free the Everson!” shout the locals-no, not to let the art escape, just the skaters.
Inside, there’s enough art to make your head spin-paintings by Gilbert Stuart (yes, he painted George Washington!), wild modern creations by Jackson Pollock (before one went for a cool $13 million at auction), and works by Helen Frankenthaler and Ching Ho Cheng. There are also vast collections of video art-one of the first in the country, and now the largest! In a twist worthy of a good art mystery, some of the most experimental video artists, like Nam June Paik and Bill Viola, got their start fiddling with monitors and wires here.
This is a place where American art isn’t just hung on the walls; it spills out into the plaza, onto the building, and right into the lives of everyone in Syracuse. So take a moment and soak in the view-you’re standing in front of a sculpture that’s having as much fun as the people who visit it. Onward to our next stop!
To delve deeper into the collection, the building or the deaccessioning controversy, simply drop your query in the chat section and I'll provide more information.
