By Bella Grimaldi
Asst. News Editor
The Danforth Art Museum is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The Danforth was founded in 1975 by Paul Marks, a local businessman and fine arts enthusiast, and merged with the University in 2018, according to the Danforth’s website.
The museum is celebrating by holding events throughout the year, said Jessica Roscio, director and curator of the Danforth.
Roscio said the Danforth will be holding “50 years of programming, exhibitions, the collection, teaching up in the art school, including our Hype the Arts celebration this summer, in July, and then we’ll have another event, at the end of the year, in December kind of closing out the 50th year and looking back.”
She added, “We kicked off the year with a donor event in December, where we debuted our 50th anniversary logo, and kind of tied that into our founding back in 1975. Our current permanent collection exhibition celebrates 50 years of collecting.”
According to Roscio, the exhibition shows the progression of the museum’s collection.
“Our first two works that we were gifted were European works by Albrecht Dürer and Francisco José de Goya. But over the years, we’ve started focusing more on American art created in New England and really reflecting the region, that also relates to the new media that we collect. So you get a sense of how much our collection and the way we’ve looked at art history has changed in the gallery.”
The collection is titled “1975-2025: Celebrating 50 years of collecting” and opened Feb 15, according to a press release from the University.
Roscio said the donor event allowed the museum staff the opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to the Danforth.
“It was a way for people who have been affiliated with the Danforth for a while to get together and meet each other and talk and see what the museum had to offer. It was kind of a fun evening looking back, but also looking forward,” she said.
According to Roscio, the Danforth is launching a Health and Wellness series in conjunction with the 50th anniversary. This series includes sessions of yoga in the gallery.
The Danforth is launching its second “Hype The Arts” event on July 19. This is a community event involving art making, music, food trucks, and other activities, said Roscio.
“I think looking at the next five years, or the next fifty years, it’s really going to be looking at what it means to have this dual identity of being a university museum and serving the University and serving the students and the professors and really being a part of the life of the University, but also being a community-focused regional space,” Roscio said.
President Nancy Niemi said the Danforth is a unique asset of the University.
She said, “It’s a real link between the University and the community that celebrates an aspect of communities that I think are integral to them being the kinds of communities we want to live in. It shares beauty, it shares creation, it shares history of the region, and particularly the Danforth is focused on collecting.”
Niemi said the Danforth adds a focus to the arts at the University and provides the Arts & Humanities courses with more opportunities.
She added she has loved seeing the relationship between the fashion department and the Danforth develop.
Niemi said, “The Danforth Museum and school are FSU and FSU is them.”
Eric Gustafson, vice president of Development and Alumni Relations, said the partnership between the faculty and the Danforth has been wonderful. He added the Danforth has been an invaluable resource for the University and community.
“Ever since the Danforth joined FSU, it’s been amazing for our campus community, for the MetroWest Community, for alumni. To be the only public university in Massachusetts with a collecting art museum - it’s a real benefit. For the University, for our students, for our community. The exhibitions are first rate.”
Jennifer Dowling, art professor, said the Danforth is pivotal in expanding the boundaries of the classroom. She said she brings her classes to the museum to experience the artwork.
She said, “We talked about all the fundamentals of art, the elements, and the principles. I found students were left with a lasting impression.”
Timothy McDonald, professor of art, has work featured in the Danforth’s current exhibition. He said his featured pieces, created in 2020, were inspired by the isolation of COVID-19.
McDonald said he generally sends his students to the Danforth and has conversations about what impacted them.
“It’s always been a place where we could take students nearby to look at actual artworks by important American artists and other artists. And I think that the impact is that we get to see that the museum is part of the community,” said McDonald.
Sophomore Paige Rainville said she has been working at the Danforth since her first semester. She said she loves being there beyond her work hours.
Rainville said in the future, “I want to see [the Danforth] at more events and more collaborations with the school itself. Unfortunately, a lot of people that I know, including art majors, have never been to the Danforth.”
Freshman Soraya Sheridan-Vargas said, “I always look forward to going there and having fun in ceramics because I have a three-hour class there.”
Sheridan-Vargas said she would like to see the Danforth have more studio classes.
She added she would like to go to the yoga sessions at the Danforth.
Junior Alyssa MacDougall said she has gotten to see “some really cool” exhibits at the Danforth.
She added, “It’s a really good opportunity for people’s work to be seen.”
Freshman Mary Zouharis said the Danforth has positively impacted her as it was her first on-campus job as a studio art major.