Exploring the Burchfield-Penney Art Center

By: Mikayla Boyd, Editor-in-Chief

This week, Assistant Opinion and Layout Editor Lily McMenemy and I visited the Burchfield-Penney Art Center at 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, NY, for my online class, Art in Buffalo with Professor Yvonne Widenor. If you are staying in Buffalo for spring break, I highly recommend checking it out! Being a native of Buffalo, I remember coming to the Burchfield-Penney for a field trip when I was in elementary school, but coming back surpassed all my expectations and made for the perfect nostalgic and fun day. We visited the Useum studio, the Roux Soup Bar and Cafe and almost all of the exhibits. The Burchfield-Penney was by far the most beautiful, informative and fun space I have visited this semester, and is very high on my list of favorite museums now.

Each exhibit was so unique and contributed a lot to my experience. My favorite exhibit was the “Sylvia L. Rosen Craft Art Biennial 2025” exhibit. There were a very wide array of crafts, from embroidery to crayon art to flameworked soda lime glass. It wasn’t a typical exhibit in that there was a focused, narrow topic holding the exhibit together like a common art style or artist, and I really liked that. It was broad and showed various types of craft art that visitors could probably simulate or put their own twist on. One of my favorite works from this exhibit was Chantal Calato’s piece “Crayon Carcasses,” which was a rainbow assortment of crayon wrappers bound by crayon wax. It was nostalgic and I loved how they were sorted into piles by color, but my most favorite part of it was that you could smell that iconic crayon smell, and it took me back to my childhood. Another couple of pieces that I loved were embroidery works that recreated Q*bert and Dig Dug welcome screens, respectively. Seeing these older video games in the form of physical embroidered art was, like the crayon piece, nostalgic and so well done too. I think anybody who visits the craft art exhibit would find a piece they really loved and maybe even spark interest in a new craft people could try!

We then moved on to the exhibit “Serenades for Settling (Tending Ostreidae).” We actually accidentally stumbled upon this and went in through what we later found out was the exit (it was just a curtain into a room), so we didn’t get to read the plaque and see what the exhibit was about until after, which made for a really interesting and fun experience! We were able to sit, listen to the sounds of the river, observe marine related graphics on a big projector inside a dark room and be surrounded by a replica of the riverbed where oysters live. It was interesting when we both got spooked by a loud noise before we knew the purpose of the exhibit. Upon exiting, we realized that it was meant to mimic boat sounds that disturb the oyster habitat in the East River of New York City. At that moment we joked that we really felt like oysters, but that means the exhibit did a great job of replicating the dangers to oysters. 

The exhibit of “Beasts of Burden: Animals as Objects” was a peculiar but well-curated exhibit. The inspiration to curate the exhibit was Robert N. Blair’s piece, “Casualty,” representing a fallen horse due to war. According to the label, “The fallen figure is a horse, yet the grief feels deeply human. In the context of Beasts of Burden, ‘Casualty’ speaks to the shared experience of harm and vulnerability, reminding us that loss, no matter the species, is still loss.” Many times we feel so different from animals, commodify them and use them, but they are similar to us in more ways than they are different. I think this piece beautifully and painstakingly reminds us of the cost of war and the motive behind keeping peace to avoid casualties like this.

The “Harbor Lines” exhibit was another stellar collection. Some of my favorite pieces were housed in this exhibit, like two that show the Buffalo harbor during winter. They portray winter in such a positive, cozy and homelike way rather than a depressing gray way, something those folks who are staying here for the snowy winter break can embrace! It was a very small exhibit with simple, realistic pieces, but it tied in very nicely with the other exhibits.

“Patterned World: The Wallpaper Art of Charles E. Burchfield,” and “Charles E. Burchfield's Gardenville Studio” were two unique and beautiful exhibits. The studio was an immersive experience that was a room set up exactly like Burchfield’s studio. It was like getting a glimpse into his life and his mind. There were objects from his life that were in the studio as well, like a stuffed snowy owl and a turtle-shaped rock, which inspired his art. The studio was adjacent to “Patterned World: The Wallpaper Art of Charles E. Burchfield,” so I could explore his workspace before exploring his works. 

When it came to the wallpaper exhibit itself, I was stunned. It featured Burchfield’s wallpapers and so much more. One thing I loved was in the center of the room, “The Birches Layers,” screen printed on acrylic, which were essentially the stencils for Burchfield’s iconic birches. It was amazing to see the behind-the-scenes of how his wallpaper was created. There were also Rotogravure Printing Cylinders from M. H. Birge and Sons Company that were used to produce the Sunflower wallpaper in 1973. These were placed right next to the Sunflower wallpaper and its varied reproductions along one wall, which was interesting to see the entire process of one design and how it progressed.

Before ending our visit, we saw “Orion Ceiling Lights.” The ceiling lights were stunning and represented the Orion constellation with their lights. There was a statue of a man looking up at the lights alongside the label, tying it all together. The label said “Do you see the constellation Orion? It meant so much to Charles E. Burchfield that he painted it many times,” accompanied by a poem about the stars Burchfield wrote during a sleepless night. I truly felt so connected to Burchfield and his art when I read this, because I find so much joy and solace in stargazing at the night sky in a way that nothing else makes me feel. It was simple and beautiful art. 

Lastly, we moved to “Interfield” and the Useum, which may have been my favorite part of the day. According to the label, “Interfield is an immersive artwork by artist Dennis Maher and Assembly House 150 that has transformed two everyday classrooms at the Burchfield Penney Art Center into a densely-layered, inspiring environment within which to make and explore art.” It truly was transformed. Lily and I felt so inspired and surrounded by art. To top it off, they had drop-in art-making, so we were free to use their pencils to sketch with and watercolors to paint with, which we took full advantage of. We were so excited to feel like kids in art class again, and to channel our artistic side that I feel is heavily neglected in college while having a great time in the process. It was so relaxing and grounded me to reality after a stressful week, something I believe is yet another purpose of not only observing art but also creating it. Once again, it was nostalgic as I remembered creating art at the Burchfield-Penney when I was younger, but it was definitely before the Interfield renovation. Nonetheless, it brought me right back to the creative, care-free artist I was then. 

Lily and Mikayla painting in the useum

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much Lily and I enjoyed the soup cafe. Observing all that beautiful art and making our own definitely made us hungry! They feature rotating flavors each week, with this week being Mardi Gras themes, and the cajun sweet corn soup was lovely. The cafe also sold things like cards from local artists and even featured a wall full of one of Burchfield’s wallpaper designs, beautifully wrapping everything in the museum together. Overall, the Burchfield-Penney was a beautiful space that personally held so many great memories, and I was so happy to make more there this week and be reminded of how special that place is. Between the numerous unique exhibits and being able to make your own art, it truly was all I could ask for from an art space, and I hope you are able to visit and make experiences of your own!