Founded in 1791, the Albany Institute of History & Art is New York’s oldest museum. Its collections document the Hudson Valley as a crossroads of culture, influencing the art and history of the region, the state, and the nation. With more than 25,000 objects in the collection and one million documents in the research library, it is an important resource for the region, giving our community a sense of the part the Hudson Valley played in the American story, and our own place in history. Permanent exhibitions include one of the largest collections of Hudson River School paintings, a history of Ancient Egypt, and other fine art, ceramics, and furniture, along with temporary exhibitions that rotate throughout the year.
About
Connecting People to Art & History Since 1791
Collections of National Significance
The Institute’s museum and library holdings form one of the most significant collections in the United States documenting the life and culture of the Upper Hudson Valley region from the late seventeenth century to the present day. The broad scope of its collections includes paintings, sculptures, furniture and furnishings, prints, drawings and watercolors, antiquities, textiles and costumes, manuscripts, photographs, and more. Long-term exhibitions include The Hudson River School: Landscape Paintings from the Albany Institute, Ancient Egypt, and Nineteenth-Century American Sculpture.
Learn & Explore
Education programs serve 10,000 students, teachers, adult learners, and families every year. The museum education department’s mission is to connect our community to our collections and exhibitions through lifelong learning opportunities for visitors of all ages. We develop programs for school children and their teachers that provide formal learning experiences that support their curricula, in addition to a range of public programs, tours, hands-on activities, and in-gallery experiences to foster connections to the arts and culture and to each other.
Land Acknowledgement
It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking and gathering on the ancestral homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok or Mohican people, who are the indigenous peoples of this land. Despite tremendous hardship in being forced from here, today their community resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all.
