Susquehanna Art Museum
The museum as seen in February 2020 | |
| Established | 1989 |
|---|---|
| Location | 1401 North Third Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17102, United States |
| Coordinates | 40°16′15″N 76°53′23″W / 40.27085°N 76.88971°W |
| Type | Art museum |
| Visitors | 16,555 (2019) |
| Architect | EwingCole |
| Public transit access | Capital Area Transit |
| Nearest parking | On-site & on-street |
| Website | susquehannaartmuseum.org |
The Susquehanna Art Museum (SAM) is a non-profit art museum located in the Midtown neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state's capital. Founded in 1989 by a group of central Pennsylvania art educators, it is the only dedicated art museum in Central Pennsylvania. SAM operates as a non-collecting institution, meaning its galleries display a rotating schedule of borrowed and traveling exhibitions rather than a permanent collection. It is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museum Association.
After more than two decades of nomadic operation across a series of temporary spaces, SAM opened its permanent home in January 2015 at 1401 North Third Street, occupying an adaptively reused 1916 bank building expanded and renovated by the Philadelphia architectural firm EwingCole. The 20,000-square-foot facility features preserved neoclassical interiors, including 27-foot gold leaf ceilings, and a converted bank vault that serves as an intimate exhibition gallery.
SAM mounts more than a dozen exhibitions per year drawn from museums, private collections, commercial galleries, and individual artists, drawn from local, regional, national, and international sources. Its outreach program, VanGo! Museum on Wheels, was founded in 1992 and serves communities across a roughly 100-mile radius of Harrisburg. The museum also operates public art and community education initiatives.