The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, originally known as the College Art Gallery (founded in 1964), is a not-for-profit educational institution located at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
The Museum uses its collections and develops changing exhibitions primarily to enrich and amplify the academic programs at the College. The Museum is dedicated to collecting, researching, interpreting, and exhibiting works of art from diverse cultures. The permanent collection spans a period of almost 4,000 years. Areas of specialization include 20th century prints and paintings, Asian art, Pre-Columbian art and artifacts, decorative arts (metals), and photographs. The Museum has a special commitment to collecting important works of art created by artists that have lived and worked in the Hudson Valley and Catskill regions.
The temporary exhibition program includes exhibitions of works of art by faculty, alumni, and students in the Art Department, and exhibitions, installations, and projects by nationally and internationally recognized artists. Each summer the Museum sponsors thematic exhibitions featuring works by artists living in the mid-Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountain regions. The Museum is a major cultural resource in the Hudson Valley serving a broad-based constituency from both on and beyond the New Paltz campus.
Samuel Dorsky
Philanthropist
Samuel Dorsky was a self-made and self-realized individual. His philanthropies, which included donating literally thousands of works of art to academically affiliated art institutions around the country and generous contributions to the Karen Horney Clinic and Maimonides Institute of Far Rockaway to benefit learning disabled and mentally handicapped children, were admirable and formidable.
Samuel Dorsky came to the art world relatively late in life after achieving success ion the garment business. Emerging from the Great Depression, World War II, and the post-war boom years with the desire and the wherewithal to pursue both art and philanthropy, he opened an art gallery in 1963, and until his death in 1994 held hundreds of exhibitions, featuring such well-known artists as Henry Moore, about whom Dorsky was a recognized authority, Richard Hunt, Willem De Kooning, Larry Rivers, and Rober Rauschenberg. Sam also generously championed the work of numerous lesser-known artists, who he often befriended.
The Dorsky gallery closed its doors to the public in 2001 after which, Sam's children, David, Noah, Karen, and Sara established Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs (DGCP) in Long Island City, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting contemporary visual arts. It was also in 2001 that the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (SDMA) on the SUNY New Paltz campus was dedicated, bringing to fruition a project that had dominated the last decade of Sam Dorsky's life. Sam's lead gift to the SUNY New Paltz Foundation provided the impetus for the construction of the new museum building, as well as the complete renovation of the former College Art Gallery. The six galleries, offices, and research facilities are joined by a common corridor and now comprise the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.
The Dorsky family continues to be a major supporter of the SDMA and SUNY New Paltz. Recent endowment gifts to the museum have led to the dedication of the Sara Bedrick Gallery and to the establishment of the Karen Dorsky Director's Fund, which is used to support research, special projects, and professional development at the museum. David and Noah Dorsky serve as trustees of the SUNY New Paltz Foundation and along with their sister Karen, all three serve on the Executive Board of the Friends of the SDMA.
