By Lorraine Shanley

Sept. 11, 2024: The Bronxville Historical Conservancy, which recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary, has a robust collection of nineteenth and twentieth century artworks by local artists, including Ann Brainerd Crane, George Smillie, Mary Fairchild Low, and William Thomas Smedley.

While they are permanently exhibited at Village Hall, this year they and numerous other works have been chosen by the Hudson River Museum for three exhibitions mounted in its magnificently renovated galleries in Yonkers. HRM announced this “exciting new partnership” earlier in the year following a reception for BHC members.

Currently on exhibit is Neighboring Visions: Westchester Artists Then and Now, where the Museum pairs historical landscape and figurative paintings from BHC with contemporary works created by Westchester-based artists. Gathered together, these works testify to the power of place, revealing how artists from across time have translated the rich textures of their locales into vividly rendered paintings, photographs, films, and textiles.

The exhibit, which fills the Community & Partnership Gallery, will be open until September 29. Karintha Lowe, Mellon Public Humanities Fellow at the HRM and Sarah Lawrence College, curated the stunning exhibition, working closely with BHC’s Jayne Warman.

Recent exhibitions in which Bronxville Historical Conservancy artists were featured include Rivers Flow / Artists Connect (which just closed on September 1) where American artists from the 1820s to the present day explore and illuminate our symbiotic relationship with significant rivers across the globe, from the Hudson and the Susquehanna to the Indus and the Seine. 

The Hudson River Museum’s new West Wing galleries offer an opportune setting for this exhibition which featured works by more than forty artists, including several in the Conservancy collection.  This past spring, Bronxville Artist Spotlight: Ann Brainerd Crane and Mary Fairchild Low, featured their works to highlight an emerging generation of professional women artists in the early twentieth century, who had trained as painters in France before returning stateside to New York.

The Bronxville Historical Conservancy, whose collection goes back to the 1830s when Alexander Masterton filled the rooms of his new house on White Plains Road with local scenes painted by William R. Hamilton, continues to build its collection. This past year alone it added several new paintings by Bruce Crane and Mary and Will Low. Next time you’re in the vicinity, stop by Village Hall to view some of the magnificent artwork the Conservancy has assembled.