Fenimore Art Museum

  • Admission

    Adults (20-64) $15.00
    Seniors (65+) $12.50
    Young People (19 and under) FREE
    Admission is always FREE for members, active military, and retired career military personnel.

    TWO-WAY TICKETS with THE FARMERS’ MUSEUM
    Adults (20-64) $25.00
    Seniors (65+) $22.50

    Tickets only available at the door. No online tickets sold.

    Download a visitor guide from the Fenimore’s website

  • Hours of Operation

    April 1 – May 6
    Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (Closed Mondays)

    May 7 – October 10 (Columbus Day)
    Open daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
    The Fenimore Café is open daily from 11am–4pm.

    October 11 – December 31
    Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
    Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving and Christmas

    January 1 – March 31
    Closed for winter except for special programs and events.

  • Weather

    COOPERSTOWN WEATHER

Fenimore Art Museum

Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Visit FenimoreArt.org.

Fenimore Art Museum is a museum of American art.

It is named for the property on which it stands, land once owned by the novelist James Fenimore Cooper. The Museum occupies a 1933 mansion built by Edward Severin Clark, an heir to the Singer Manufacturing Company fortune. Following his death the building was given to the Museum by his brother, philanthropist and art collector Stephen Carlton Clark, who also gave much of the fine art and folk art collections. Stephen later turned his brother’s farm complex across the road into The Farmers’ Museum, which to this day shares much of its staff with Fenimore Art Museum.

For a museum of its size, Fenimore Art Museum tells a remarkable range of American stories.

  • Its fine art collection illustrates everyday life in early America and chronicles the development of the young nation.
  • Its folk art collection shows the work of self-taught Americans who were inspired to create and who probably never thought their work would be in an art museum: traveling portrait painters, quilters, ship carvers, sign painters, students in female academies, and people from many different backgrounds and all walks of life.
  • The photography collection illustrates the entire history of photography in the United States, from early daguerreotypes to contemporary photographers.
  • The Cooper family collection shows the unique qualities of Cooperstown and Otsego Lake as seen in the writings of America’s first novelist, James Fenimore Cooper.
  • The American Indian Art collection shows the masterful artistry of Native peoples from across North America from prehistory to the present.
  • Special exhibitions and programs held regularly at the museum introduce visitors to a wide range of artworks and stories from our own as well as other museums and collections.
  • Our members and visitors give us valuable ideas and feedback to guide us in future programming.

Fenimore Art Museum, and the stories it tells, aspires to provide an engaging experience leading to a renewed or enhanced appreciation of American art, history, and culture, and the many and varied people who comprise the American story.

Events

Guided Tours of Otsego: A Meeting Place

Start date: September 28, 2023
End date: September 30, 2023
All-day event
Location: Fenimore Art Museum, 5798 State Highway 80 (P.O.BOX 800) Cooperstown, NY 13326
Organizer: Fenimore Art Museum
Email address: INFO@FENIMOREART.ORG
Phone: 607-547-1400
Fenimore Art Museum | Otsego County
Fenimore_Art_Museum,_front_elevation-4

Visit Fenimore Art Museum this summer for a guided tour of its Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) interpretive area Otsego: A Meeting Place. The calm, deep waters of Otsego Lake were for many years a meeting place for Natives traveling the Susquehanna and Mohawk Rivers. Tour the Otsego Lake shoreline with a museum educator to learn about the early inhabitants of these waters.  Explore the museum’s immersive, reproduction Mohawk Bark House and original Seneca Log House to gain insight into the changing Central New York landscape and an appreciation for the lasting legacy of the Haudenosaunee. Tours last approximately 45 minutes and are included with paid museum admission. Find more information at FenimoreArtMuseum.org.

October Art in the Dark Tours at the Fenimore Art Museum

Start date: October 18, 2023
End date: October 19, 2023
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Fenimore Art Museum, 5798 State Highway 80 (P.O.BOX 800) Cooperstown, NY 13326
Organizer: Fenimore Art Museum
Email address: INFO@FENIMOREART.ORG
Phone: 607-547-1400
Fenimore Art Museum | October
Art in the Dark Tours at the Fenimore Museum

Cooperstown, New York—See Fenimore Art Museum’s collections in a way never experienced before–in the dark–with its Art in the Dark tours. Join museum guides as they lead you through the galleries of American folk art and fine art by lantern light, stopping along the way to share some of the mysterious, melancholy, and untold stories within the artworks. Discover hidden secrets within the paintings with the help of a special ultraviolet light. The 45-minute tours are offered three times per night.

October Art in the Dark Tours at the Fenimore Art Museum

Start date: October 25, 2023
End date: October 26, 2023
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Fenimore Art Museum, 5798 State Highway 80 (P.O.BOX 800) Cooperstown, NY 13326
Organizer: Fenimore Art Museum
Email address: INFO@FENIMOREART.ORG
Phone: 607-547-1400
Fenimore Art Museum | October
Art in the Dark Tours at the Fenimore Museum

Cooperstown, New York—See Fenimore Art Museum’s collections in a way never experienced before–in the dark–with its Art in the Dark tours. Join museum guides as they lead you through the galleries of American folk art and fine art by lantern light, stopping along the way to share some of the mysterious, melancholy, and untold stories within the artworks. Discover hidden secrets within the paintings with the help of a special ultraviolet light. The 45-minute tours are offered three times per night.

Shaped by the Loom

Date: November 1, 2023
Time: 12:30 pm
Location: Fenimore Art Museum, 5798 State Highway 80 (P.O.BOX 800) Cooperstown, NY 13326
Organizer: Fenimore Art Museum
Email address: INFO@FENIMOREART.ORG
Phone: 607-547-1400
Fenimore Art Museum
thaw-3

Join us for a lunch and a special tour of the exhibition, Shaped by the Loom. The exhibition showcases the American Museum of Natural History’s Southwestern textiles alongside contemporary examples and pieces from the Thaw Collection. It is an in-depth study on Southwestern textiles as well as the network of relationships that sustain the world of weaving.

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RECENT UPDATES

Art in the Dark Tours at Fenimore Art Museum in October

See Fenimore Art Museum’s collections in a way never experienced before–in the dark–with Art in the Dark tours.

New Exhibition to Open at Fenimore Art Museum Featuring the Work of Adrianne Lobel

Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York presents the work of artist Adrianne Lobel in the exhibition Nature Composed: Paintings and Tapestries by Adrianne Lobel, on view September 23 – December 31, 2023. 

A Cabinet of Curious Matters

New exhibition features the work of two artists who share an interest in dreams, antique scientific and medical instruments, mythologies, and mysteries.

Photo Gallery

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