Memorial Art Gallery
500 University Ave. | 585-276-8900
mag.rochester.edu
Visiting the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, better known by its nickname “The MAG,” means journeying through 5,000 years of art history. The gallery, founded on University Avenue by Emily Sibley Watson as a memorial to her son, has come a long way since it opened as a handsome Italian Renaissance building 110 years ago. Its permanent collection boasts work by notables such as Monet, Cezanne, Matisse, Rembrandt, and Homer, and is considered to be one of the strongest in Western art and best balanced in New York outside of New York City. All the while, the gallery has stayed true to its mission as a teaching museum, exemplified by its healthy schedule of temporary exhibits, lectures, concerts, and tours that keep locals coming back and make the MAG a must-stop attraction for out-of-towners.
Finalists: Artisan Works | Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo) | UUU Art Collective
But also . .
George Eastman Museum
900 East Ave. | 585-327-4800
eastman.org
The Eastman Museum’s omission from the finalists fogs my film. Eastman’s collections include works by extremely influential fine art photographers such as Ansel Adams, who is famous for his richly toned black and white landscape photos, and Alfred Stieglitz, a pioneering pictorial photographer known for his still lifes, portraits, and streetscapes. It also includes iconic work by documentary photographer Eugene Richards and the contemporary work of Dawoud Bay, who is known for his large-scale portraits of marginalized and underrepresented people. The galleries selected by CITY’s readers are great, and worth visiting regularly. But the essential artwork that lives in the archives and on the walls of the Eastman Museum should not be overlooked. — JEREMY MOULE
