SYRACUSE, NY.- The Syracuse University Art Museum’s spring 2026 season presents three new exhibitions that challenge how we think about art, freedom, and the human body. Together, they examine whose stories are told and how images shape our understanding of the world and each other.

“Possible Worlds: 20 Years of the Wynn Newhouse Awards”, “Afterimages: Legacies of the Thirteenth Amendment” and “Undressed: The Nude in Dutch Art, circa 1550-1800” will join the permanent collection exhibition “Human/Environment: 4,000 Years of Art” and the Art Wall Project by artist Bhen Alan, “Why Does My Adobo Taste Different?”

Possible Worlds: 20 Years of the Wynn Newhouse Awards

For 20 years, the Wynn Newhouse Awards, established by the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, have recognized and celebrated the excellence of contemporary artists living with disabilities. This exhibition brings together 11 of those artists, including painters, sculptors, photographers, and video artists, chosen from over 115 award recipients, to expand our understanding creativity, authorship, and artistic labor in ways that challenge the limits of the art world.

Curated by Syracuse alumnus Daniel Fuller G’04, “Possible Worlds” spans generations and approaches. The works vary from quiet and intimate to bold and confrontational, exploring themes that include memory, time, care, power, communication, and the body. The exhibition makes no attempt to define what disability means to these artists or present a unified narrative. Instead, it offers visitors a chance to spend meaningful time with each artist’s individual practice and consider how these artists navigate the art world — and the world at large — on their own terms.

“Possible Worlds” will be on view January 20 – May 9, 2026. Join curator Daniel Fuller for a virtual conversation about the exhibition on Wednesday, February 4 from 6-7p.m. Registration for this event is free and required. Additional programming will be presented through the exhibition.

Generous support for this exhibition is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the Joe and Emily Lowe Fund, Louise B. and Bernard G. Palitz Fund, the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, and the Center on Disability and Inclusion in the School of Education.

Afterimages: Legacies of the Thirteenth Amendment

The thirteenth amendment, ratified by Congress in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except for a critical exception: slavery could continue as punishment for a crime. That loophole has shaped American life ever since, from debt bondage in the Jim Crow South to mass incarceration today.

“Afterimages”, curated by first-year graduate students in art history under the guidance of Associate Professor Sascha Scott, highlights art from the museum’s collection and private collections to trace this complicated legacy.

This exhibition invites reflection on the impact the amendment had on Black communities, as well as the continued violence and coerced labor still permitted through the exclusion clause. Themes explored include community, resistance, and resilience present in abolitionist and civil rights movements, some of which persist today.

“Afterimages: Legacies of the Thirteenth Amendment” will be on view in the James F. White Gallery from January 20 – March 8, 2026. A free curator talk led by Scott and the student curators will be held on February 13 from 3-3:45 p.m.

Undressed: The Nude in Dutch Art, circa 1550 – 1800

In the 1950s, influential British art historian Kenneth Clark argued that great art depicted not “naked” bodies but “nude” ones, elevated above everyday reality. “Undressed: The Nude in Dutch Art, circa 1550-1800” disrupts this conventional idea about nudity in art by examining the works artistically and within their cultural context. Encompassing 21 works across a range of mediums, the exhibition surveys the portrayal of nudity and semi-nudity in Dutch art over several centuries from artists including Rembrandt, Lievens, and Goltzius.

This exhibition is curated by eight senior Art History majors with the guidance of Distinguished Professor and Department Chair of Music and Art Histories, Wayne Franits. The student curators spent a semester considering what these works reveal about the “nude” within their cultural context and now they’re inviting visitors to look closely and draw their own conclusions.