Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery — Attraction in City of Saratoga Springs

After I graduated Skidmore in the early 1980s they made numerous improvements and quality additions to the campus. The most pointed of the improvements was the dining hall food. This has been a common occurrence at colleges, the improvement of dining hall food. At Skidmore it went from hellacious to very good/excellent. Likewise the new apartment complexes, Northwoods Village and Sussman Village, are worlds better than the old Scribner Village, where I lived my sophomore year.

Among the quality additions are The Janet Kinghorn Bernhard Theater, The Arthur Zankel Music Center, the wonderful South Park (built before the TV show premiered), and this place, The Tang.

It's hard for a long-time alumnus not to be jealous!

I do live close by the campus, so I am able to visit fairly easily. I recently went to The Tang, where I was strongly impacted by the current featured exhibit, "Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld". Most of the exhibit space is dedicated to temporary exhibits; this one is closing in January 2025. If this exhibit is typical of the what's usual here, it is fair to say that The Tang "pushes the envelope" with what it displays.

This is also true about the sculpture exhibited at the main entrance: a kinetic sculpture. I became a great admirer of these during a trip to Storm King Art Center (rated 5), where I observed the enormous works of George Cutts in motion as I rode the tram that transverses the sculpture exhibit grounds. I'm afraid you can't get that same effect with the sculpture here: it's considerably smaller, and even if you were to be in some kind of accelerated motion as you went by it, the same visual impact could not be achieved. Nonetheless it is worth observing, either before going into the museum or on your way out.

If you come here, I highly recommend also going to the previously mentioned South Park (rated 5 in a separate review), which is immediately adjacent to The Tang. A fountain pond is surrounded by lawn areas, woods, and walking trails. It's definitely worth it to "go own down to South Park and have...

Tang Museum is a wonderful space that truly is designed beautifully and Skidmore College was lucky to have it’s own student as a benefactor. We discovered and toured the museum on a special celebration discovery for the public at large to visit it. However we were shocked while visiting the major halls that featured gay photography all alluding or featuring gay and lesbian love (sex) much of it graphic in nature. That day an entire gallery was devoted to young children actively engaged in creating physical art which was very nice but some visited the extensive gay galleries )3/4 of the museum, some parents of the youngsters were shocked when children were looking at sexual scenes and hustled them out of the area. Many works were of existing gay and lesbian students and I realized that Skid-more culture is dominantly gay and the curators of the museum are predominately Skidmore Art Professors and perhaps the art exhibition was to celebrate the School culture and attract such student. I was very surprised that the school is so overly gay as to devout so much of it’s space to feature such art. There was a gallery, much smaller but much more interesting and supported by the black community and visitors of all races to look at how the black community was communicating and documenting it’s history through art and was very interesting. Would I give the Tang museum another chance, yes since I know they have an extensive archive of art acquired that is diverse and interesting if only they...

The Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery is located on the Skidmore College campus in Saratoga Springs, NY. It has two large gallery rings and two smaller gallery rings. The exhibit spaces are easy to walk around. The museum does have a permanent collection, but often displays traveling or touring art exhibitions. Currently, the works of Alexis Rockman and Mark Dion are on display. The works presented by these artists are interesting, understandable, and enjoyable. Best of all, the museum is free! It takes about an hour or two to see the entire museum. Call ahead for their hours or check their website. Definitely, a nice small art museum...