Art in New York: Exploring Our Museums

February 6, 2023 by Olivia Clemmensen (’26)

Looking for a way to spend time with your family (or with yourself)? Are you interested in art and want to grow your love and knowledge, but do not know where to start? Check out these suggested art museums and galleries right here in New York–and even at home in Saratoga County! From the Hyde Collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York has so much to offer. All these places are dripping with gorgeous works of talented creators and experiences that will leave you with awe and wonder!

In Saratoga Springs alone, there is quality art available to citizens, whether that be in the form of local music, dance, visual works, nature, or theatrics. Art galleries that can be found in New York more broadly include (but are not limited to) the Tang and the Hyde Museum, those on Spring Street and Beekman Street in Saratoga, the Albany Institute of History & Art, MASS MoCA (with its contemporary art), and the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. 

Mrs. Santamaria, a Saratoga Springs High School (SSHS) art teacher said, “we are very fortunate to live in an area that promotes and supports the arts.” In our city, even downtown, everywhere you look there is art. Though sometimes museums or galleries can be hidden away, they are a wonderful and enriching experience once you find them. 

Although The Hyde Museum is among the Northeast’s smallest museums, its collection of art includes six thousand years of art history and features many famous artists. Their American and European pieces of art not only include paintings, but furniture and objects, decorations, textiles, works on paper, sculpture, and photography. The Museum was founded by Louis and Charlotte Hyde, who together spent nearly fifty years acquiring paintings and drawings by the Old Masters, such as those of Sandro Botticelli, El Greco, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. They displayed these works in their home, the Hyde House. 

The museum also holds the Hyde couple’s American artist collection, including works by Winslow Homer and James McNeill Whistler. The house soon became a mixture of snapshots into the Italian Renaissance and Neoclassical French furniture and décor. After Louis Hyde’s death, Mrs. Hyde proceeded in collecting art. Most of the Museum’s collection is the artwork she chose on her own. She expanded the spectrum of art in the Hyde home to more well-known modern artists like Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, Renoir, Seurat, and Van Gogh. 

By the time Mrs. Hyde died in 1963, the Hyde Collection was permanently opened to the public. Freshman at Saratoga Springs High School Ellie Dudek said, “my favorite part was the actual history of the building.” As the Hyde collection continues to grow, even more modern and contemporary art from the nineteenth and twentieth century has been added. 

According to The Hyde Collection website, “the Hyde offers significant national and international exhibitions, and a packed schedule of events that help visitors to experience art in new ways.” You can enjoy the beautiful art at the Hyde with a tour, gallery talk, program, or just a stroll about the museum with family. 

Mrs. LeCours, a SSHS art teacher and lover of the Hyde said that her favorite show at the Hyde is the “annual exhibition of high school student work. It is called the High School Juried Show. The high school artwork comes from Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Hamilton, and Essex counties. We often have Saratoga Springs students represented in this show!” This exhibition is from May 6th to June 4th for anyone interested in viewing some artwork made by High School artists in the area. The Hyde Collection can be found on 161 Warren St, Glens Falls, NY 12801 and is open Thursday through Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Check out their website for more details or a sneak-peek at their art! 

Inspired by the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, part of the Hyde Museum is in an old-fashioned house format with antique furniture and art lining the walls. In its center, a beautiful indoor courtyard with plants and sculptures is located. Santamaria recalled, “Their existing collection is wonderful and they’re exhibitions and events are fantastic.”

Not only the Hyde Museum provides beautiful works of art here in Saratoga County. In Saratoga Springs, museums and programs are available for viewing pleasure and education on the arts. The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is among these great museums. LeCours said, “The Tang helps students learn to engage more deeply in responding to art in a museum setting and also provides opportunities for families to connect with art at the museum.” 

Among many of their exhibitions and opportunities, “the Tang also originates significant survey exhibitions of contemporary art, featuring major emerging and established artists,” the Tang Teaching Museum website detailed.

The Tang explores the diversity and uniqueness of our world in the form of art, has many family programs and open studio times too, along with its contemporary and modern art. You can visit the Tang either online or in person on 815 N Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

Viewing art at museums can be, as SSHS freshman Alexis Georgeatis said, “important for people to see the beauty of all different types of expression.” Seeing this art can bring upon a new love of art in younger kids and inspire those who are interested in making art a bigger part of their lives. 

Art can also be very helpful in being creative, broadening one’s perspective on society, themselves, and the world, and releasing stress. According to Park West Gallery, “recent studies and research have proven that a trip to the art gallery or a museum can positively impact your health and well-being in several essential ways.” 

Santamaria said, “there are so many benefits to viewing art. It stimulates the imagination, it opens the mind to possibilities and fuels the imagination, it makes you more observant and it’s just fun to do. It is also helpful for young artists to see art that is being made by professional artists (past and present) and to see what media and techniques have and are currently being used.” 

By many, art is viewed as a technique of expressing yourself, telling stories not vivid enough when told orally, and as inspiring and enriching lives, one viewer at a time. For centuries, art has introduced people to new ways of thinking they never thought of before. It has sparked wonder and curiosity and has added to the growing cultural diversity of our world. Works from decades to thousands of years ago have changed so much, and when looking at these pieces, it’s almost like that moment is stuck in time and you can be right there in the moment that was captured. 

Mrs. Raga-Barone, another art teacher at SSHS, described museums as being “time portals to our past and windows into other worlds”. She added that they can also “preserve culture, and at the same time, help create culture.” There are so many fascinating styles and forms of art out there, you just have to look.