This fall, the Burchfield Penney Art Center prepares for scares as Something Sinister: The Haunted Landscapes of Charles E. Burchfield opens October 29, 2026, and runs through February 28, 2027.
Tullis Johnson, Charles Cary Rumsey Curator at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, who curated Something Sinister, sees the exhibition as part of the museum’s larger mission to connect Burchfield’s work with the Western New York community and its artistic identity. He explained:
When we opened our new building in 2008, our slogan was, ‘We are your Burchfield Penney Art Center,’ because we are the Museum for Western New York Art. We focus on the art of the people around us in our community… we’re here to cultivate and elevate the work of Charles E. Burchfield, the great American artist, and Western New York artists. But we go a little bit beyond that now with a vision statement and some core values, and I really think those are worth sharing as well. We want to create a community where people are inspired to explore, enjoy, and create art. And our core values are to be gracious, inclusive, and local. And they’re all important. But local is the one that really speaks to me because local can work on a lot of different levels. It can mean your community right around you where you live. It can mean the city of Buffalo that, you know, there’s so much pride here in Buffalo, but it’s really all of Western New York. It’s all of the 716. We’re here to celebrate that.”…