The Frances Lehman   
Loeb Art Center
The interior of a gallery: gray walls, monochrome photos on the walls, and a table with more photos in the middle of the room.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
A person stands with their back to the viewer, looking at a grid of colored artworks on a gallery wall.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Black and white photo of two people having dinner in a room.

The Frances Lehman

Loeb Art Center

A walkway enclosed in glass windows curves past a metal sculpture. Trees are visible in the background.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
A person with sunglasses and black curly hair poses in front of paintings in a gallery.
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
An aerial view of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is free and open to all. The Loeb Art Center enhances and supports the College’s goals of leadership, scholarship, and integrative learning.

The Loeb achieves this through the preservation, documentation, interpretation, presentation, and development of its collections; and through a dynamic program of temporary exhibitions and educational activities aimed at diverse audiences. Art should stand “boldly forth as an educational force,” declared founder Matthew Vassar. His college was the country’s first to be founded with a gallery and teaching collection.

News

A close-up of a rustic metal sculpture with a weathered, rusted surface. A small, green-patina mask of a human face is embedded in a cutout of the rusty metal. The sculpture is outdoors, with green grass and trees visible in the background.

Monumental Sculptural Artwork Added to Vassar College Grounds

Posted

Soaring 18 feet high, seven sentinels made of weathered steel surround a female bronze figure that appears to emerge from the earth. This dynamic and awe-inducing public artwork, situated at the northwest perimeter of the campus, is Vassar College’s newest public art acquisition.

The wall drawing in The Loeb, described in the text.

Summer Art Programming, Exhibitions Announced at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar

Posted

With the arrival of summer, Vassar’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is rolling out the red carpet for art lovers this season with a wide range of events and exhibitions spanning improvised performances utilizing the gestural composing language of Soundpainting to exhibitions that explore the reciprocal relationship between place and person, showcase the museum’s collection of Hudson River School art, and examine images of the body fragmented into pieces.

Tiger painted in ink on paper mounted on silk brocade six-fold screen.

Loeb’s New Grant Launches Restoration of 17th-century Japanese Painted Screen

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was awarded funding by Tokyo-based Sumitomo Foundation toward the restoration of a 17th-century Japanese painted screen. A rarity and a cherished work in the Loeb’s Asian art collection, the screen was painted by Unkoku Toeki in the early 1600s. Its conservation will allow it to remain a popular teaching object for Art History at Vassar.

Black and white photo of a person seated on the floor holding a camera.

The Loeb Awarded New Grant to Travel Rollie McKenna ’40 Photography Exhibition

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was awarded an additional grant by The Rosalie Thorne McKenna Foundation in support of an effort with the Center for Creative Photography (University of Arizona, Tucson) to share the collaborative exhibition Making a Life in Photography: Rollie McKenna with audiences in the southwestern U.S. The exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of the photography of illustrious Vassar alumna Rosalie (“Rollie”) McKenna, Class of 1940.

The wall drawing in The Loeb, described in the text.

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center Presents Water/Bodies: Sa’dia Rehman

Posted

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar has collaborated with artist and researcher, Sa’dia Rehman on a new exhibition, Water/Bodies: Sa’dia Rehman, the centerpiece of which is a massive site-responsive wall drawing that engages critically with Vassar’s founding collection of Hudson River School art.

Exhibitions

A figure is seated at a wooden table, engaged in arranging pressed flowers. The individual holds a small branch while surrounded by scattered botanical specimens and open books featuring illustrations. Behind, a richly adorned bookshelf is filled with books, its texture contrasting with the smoothness of the table's surface. Warm lighting casts a soft glow over the scene, enhancing the earthy tones of the flowers and the reds of the chair.

The Botanist at Vassar

April 4–October 4, 2026

Several individuals gather closely in a small room with plain white walls and a fluorescent ceiling light. Some are seated while others stand, holding or reviewing stacks of typed pages, with one person in the center crossing their arms and another writing on a pad near the doorway. Attentive expressions are visible throughout the group, with a mix of seated and leaning postures. A tall shelf filled with papers stands to the left, and a small framed portrait hangs on the back wall.

Women’s Work: Organizing New York Independent Film & Video

February 25—May 24, 2026

A painting of a tranquil river scene, framed by lush greenery and tropical palm trees. A solitary figure stands on the riverbank, partially obscured by dense foliage, while a distant mountain range rises under a soft, pastel sky. The colors transition from muted oranges and pinks near the horizon to softer blues above, suggesting the time of dawn or dusk. Reflections shimmer on the water's surface, enhancing the serene atmosphere of this natural setting.

Splitting the Horizon: Frederic Church Between Border and Bridge

February 21–August 30, 2026

A Japanese painting of a dynamic scene unfolds across a vibrant landscape, depicting figures engaged in a spirited struggle on a grassy incline. Various individuals, some adorned in traditional attire and others in Western clothing, are seen pulling on ropes connected to a large, ornate cart. In the background, soft green hills rise against a pale pink sky, where stylized clouds drift. A prominent tree with textured bark stands to one side, while additional figures observe the action from a distance.

Bunmei Kaika: Political Landscape in Early Modern and Modern Japan

February 14–June 7, 2026

More Exhibitions

Events

Adult and child crouching and below a painting on the wall while looking at. The adult is pointing at the painting.

Family Fun at the Loeb

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Join us for free drop-in family programs on select Sundays this winter and spring. Each date will feature a different hands-on art activity inspired by art on view. Activities can be modified for all ages, but are best suited for children ages 5 and up.

This event is free and open to the public.

Print showing Japanese and Chinese diplomatic delegations around a table.

Gallery Talk: Depicting Meiji Japan’s War in 19th-Century Taiwan

Join Assistant Professor of History Yu-chi Chang and curator Monique D’Almeida for a closer look at the Meiji war prints in the exhibition Bunmei Kaika: Political Landscape in Early Modern and Modern Japan. This talk explores the 1874 Japanese military campaign against the indigenous peoples of southern Taiwan, discussing how the event demonstrates colonial thinking during the early Meiji period.

This event is free and open to the public.

Detail of pencil drawing of two plant specimens with handwritten notes.

Picturing & Preserving Plants at Vassar

A panel discussion about the past, present, and future of preserving and protecting Vassar flora with Alicia Contelmo, Greenhouse Manager & Science Support Technician; Reave Finkel '29; Sol Longoria '23, Vassar-Kenauk Conservation Fellow at The Preserve; Professor of Biology Margaret Ronsheim, and Professor of Biology Emeritus Mark Schlessman.

This event is free and open to the public.

Past Items

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Off the Wall
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Vassar College

124 Raymond Ave
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
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