The Samek Art Gallery is an integral part of the intellectual and cultural life of Bucknell University and the region.

Samek programming and collections accomplish this by providing access to art from different cultures and with diverse perspectives, with interdisciplinary programming that fosters intellectual exploration and creativity for Bucknell students and the university community, and by complementing the curricular needs of its faculty and students.

The Samek organizes innovative programming of art, artists, scholars and critics from around the US and the globe, and produces scholarly publications in support of exhibitions. Recent thematic exhibitions have included “Issues of Identity in Recent American Art,” “Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the US,” “Resounding Spirit: Japanese Contemporary Art of the 1960s,” and “Walking.” Agnes Denes, Lewis deSoto, Leon Golub, Charles ‘Teenie’ Harris, Öyvind Fahlström, Jin Soo Kim, Nanne Meyer, Allen C. Topolski, and Carrie Mae Weems have been the focus of substantial recent solo exhibitions.

The Samek collects, preserves, interprets and makes accessible a permanent collection of 5000 works of art, ranging from the Kress Collection of Baroque and Renaissance art, study collections of ancient Western objects and pre-Colombian objects, and Japanese decorative art, to modern and contemporary art in most media, with strengths in photography and prints.

Samek temporary exhibitions introduce its audience to art, artists, themes; the permanent collection provides opportunities for long-term study and research of works of art. Together with the Samek staff, these resources serve the university community and region, and are an integral part of the Bucknell experience for our students: they support mission of the university