Tang Teaching Museum Announces Frances Day 2024

Annual summer open house features art-making, tours, music, food, and more!

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (June 27, 2024) — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces its annual summer open house, Frances Day, will be on Saturday, July 20, beginning at 2 pm.

The family-friendly event honors the museum’s namesake, Frances Young Tang, Skidmore College Class of ’61, and offers multiple ways for visitors to explore the museum’s stellar program of contemporary art exhibitions and events, with tours, art-making activities, food, music, giveaways and more.

This year’s Frances Day features Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld, a new exhibition that fills the museum’s largest gallery spaces with large-scale painted and sculptural works addressing humankind’s strained relationship with the environment and its vast ecological consequences.

In addition to guided tours of the exhibition, visitors can learn about sustainability, take a tour of the trees on the museum’s grounds, and engage in multiple art-making projects inspired by the exhibition, including Recycled Earth form Crayons, Illuminated Landscapes, Bug Boxes, and Recycled Map Flowers.

At 5 pm, acclaimed Capital Region musician and performer Taína Asili and her ensemble take the stage for an energetic concert. Asili last performed at the Tang as part of the 2018 Upbeat on the Roof concert series.

All events are free and open to the public. Plenty of free parking is available in lots adjacent to the Museum. In case of inclement weather, activities will be indoors. For more information, visit http://tang.skidmore.edu or call the Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080.

Frances Day Schedule

The day includes a timed schedule of events and ongoing activities both inside and outside the Museum that visitors can drop in on at any time.

Drop-in Activities 2 to 5 pm

Block print your own nature-themed tea towel
Try your hand at art-making activities inspired by Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld:

Recycled Earthform Crayons

Illuminated Landscapes

Bug Boxes

Recycled Map Flowers

Have your picture taken in our Polaroid photo booth in Yvette Molina: A Promise to the Leaves with props based on work on view
Explore the galleries with the help of our Summer Scavenger Sketchbook
Learn from Skidmore’s Office of Sustainability about their campus tree inventory, composting tips, and efforts to reduce the College’s ‘environmental footprint’
Draw with sidewalk chalk and make bubbles (including a bubble-making machine!) outside the Tang
View the exhibitions: Yvette Molina: A Promise to the Leaves, Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld, Vorágine: Yente and Cecilia Biagini, Elevator Music 49: John Cage—Water Walk, and Hyde Cabinet #25: Kashi Kari Celebrating Tradition and Craftsmanship from Pakistan

Scheduled Activities, 2:15 to 6:30 pm

2:15 pm: Tour of Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld: View the new exhibition with Tang Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs and Malloy Curator Rachel Seligman. This tour features ASL interpretation by Leah Clem
3:15 pm: Collections Tour: Get a behind-the-scenes view of some of the more than 18,000 objects that make up the museum’s collection with Dayton Director Ian Berry and Collections Registrar Nora Riccio
4 pm: Tour of the Trees of the Tang! Interns in Skidmore’s Office of Sustainability will lead a tour of the trees around the museum, based on their sustainable landscapes efforts and campus tree inventory work
4 pm: Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld: View the new exhibition with Tang Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs and Malloy Curator Rachel Seligman
5 pm: Taína Asili in Concert: Enjoy Asili’s energetic fusion traversing salsa, rock, reggaeton, Afrobeat, and other global sounds

Refreshments will include lemonade, water, and cookies during the day. During the concert, more substantial food will be available; beer and wine will also be available for purchase via Visa or Mastercard.

About Frances Young Tang and Frances Day

Frances Young Tang was a businesswoman, philanthropist, and 1961 Skidmore College graduate who died in 1992. In her memory, the Tang family made a substantial donation that led to the Tang Teaching Museum becoming a reality. The museum opened in 2000 as the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. Frances Day, which began in 2014, honors her legacy of creativity and philanthropy with a day of free activities for the whole community.

About Taina Asili

Taína Asili, New York-based Puerto Rican singer, composer, and interdisciplinary artist, is celebrated by NPR, Rolling Stone, and Billboard for her soulful, genre-blending music echoing calls for love and liberation. With powerful vocals and a multi-genre fusion traversing salsa, rock, reggaeton, Afrobeat, and other global sounds, Asili’s music is both unique and deeply rooted. Accompanied by her brilliant ensemble, she delivers energetic performances at diverse venues nationwide, inspiring audiences to dance to the heartbeat of social change.

About Skidmore College

Founded in 1903, Skidmore College is a highly selective private, coeducational liberal arts college of about 2,700 students. Skidmore is consistently named one of the “Best National Liberal Arts Colleges” by U.S. News and World Report and has recently been recognized as one of “America’s Most Entrepreneurial Colleges” by Forbes, a “Top College Value” by Kiplinger, and one of “The Best 389 Colleges” by The Princeton Review. Travel and Leisure has also called Saratoga Springs, home to Skidmore’s campus, one of “America’s Best College Towns.”

About the Tang Teaching Museum

The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the Tang’s approach has become a model for college and university art museums across the country—with exhibition programs that bring together visual and performing arts with interdisciplinary ideas from history, economics, biology, dance, and physics, to name just a few. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, and a robust publication and touring exhibition program that extends the museum’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s award-winning building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of art and ideas. The Museum is open to the public Tuesday–Sunday, noon–5 pm, with extended hours until 9 pm Thursday. https://tang.skidmore.edu