Today group exhibitions and contemporary collections are built on the broadest, most generalized commonalities, largely dependent on the genius and ability of the artist, a broad-based interpretation of modernist principles with postmodernists and easy generational variations. The Sculpture Park Collection at Plattsburgh State found its criteria of inclusion and its role in the college and community as it evolved. The product of a close administrative collaboration between the Art Museum and the Art Department sculpture program, it created a unique multi-level education network on campus and beyond. By creating an environment of learning, fairness, respect, professionalism, mutual benefits, energy and excitement, it became a place artists wished to be a part of. Good artists know other good artists and pass on information about sympathetic environments to their serious work.
Artists create and discover their aesthetic by working.
All aspects of the creative choice, practice and installation have become part of the educational structure. The artists not only initiated the environment of learning and growth but also benefited by it. Putting commercial and media critical immediacy aside as they journey north, they entered the dialogue of growth with their pieces and the Plattsburgh State University community. Certainly the process of making art has been enhanced and professionalized by the sculpture park. In addition, the collection of the objects throughout the campus has brought art into the very fabric of the college.