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
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

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.

People standing in an art gallery smiling and talking.

Countering Injustice

Vassar has made an ongoing effort to acknowledge the displacement of Native peoples from the land where the campus has been built and to build relationships with those Native nations today. The College recently hosted a visit by the Tribal Liaison from the Stockbridge-Munsee, whose ancestors were forcibly moved from the land.

New Loeb Staff

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center announces the recent appointments of two remarkable individuals to pivotal Post-Baccalaureate fellowship positions. The expansion of the Loeb’s staff reflects our ongoing commitment to sharing the Loeb’s outstanding art collection and exhibition program with our diverse campus and community audiences.

Rollie McKenna sitting with her left hand on her head, holding a cigarette, with books and a typewriter in the background, in black and white.

A Vassar Homecoming for Photographer Rollie McKenna ’40

Making a Life in Photography: Rollie McKenna is the first career retrospective of the single most represented photographer in the collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center—Rollie McKenna ’40. The exhibition, on view at the Loeb through June 2, features more than 100 of her photographs—from portrait and architectural to documentary photography.

Exhibitions

View of Poughkeepsie by Thomas Weeks Barrett Jr., a panoramic painting of an industrial riverfront featuring factories, smokestacks, bridges, and waterfront buildings along the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie.

Common Ground: Art and Infrastructure in Poughkeepsie

September 5, 2026–January 31, 2027

An intricate composition features multiple geometric shapes intertwined with organic forms. A prominent ram's horn spirals outward, surrounded by angular structures and flowing lines that create a sense of movement. The monochromatic palette, primarily in shades of black and gray, is accented by textured patterns, enhancing the depth of the forms. Jagged lines radiate from the background, adding a dynamic quality to the overall visual action.

Atelier 17: Myths in Motion

June 5–January 17, 2027

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

More Exhibitions

Events

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Past Items

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Vassar College

124 Raymond Ave
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
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