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About the University of SOuth Florida Collection

The University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum maintains the permanent collection for the University of South Florida. Established in the early 1960s with key purchases from the University's exhibitions program, the collection currently holds over 5,000 objects of contemporary graphics, works on paper, sculpture multiples and photography. Particular strengths for the collection include extensive gifts from Graphicstudio, the Martin S. Ackerman Foundation, Robert Stackhouse, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Prints Initiative.

Robert Rauschenberg, Chinese Summerhall, 1983. Published by Graphicstudio; University of South Florida Collection. Photo by Peter Foe
Explore the USF Collection Online

Browse our virtual collection website to find hidden gems, or research thousands of artworks by artist, title, medium, date, or keywords to find exactly what you are seeking. The majority of the USF art collection is available in our online visual database.

Collection Education Resources


Robert Stackhouse, Blue 5606, 2006. Off-set lithograph. 24-1/2 x 31-3/4 inches. Edition: 100. University of South Florida Collection
Student Collection Access

USF students may make appointments to see works in the USF Art Collection for class projects and research. To consult on works in the collection or to make an appointment for viewing, contact Curator of the Collection Shannon Annis at sannis@usf.edu.

James Rosenquist, My Mind is an Empty Glass, 1994. 4-run, 6-color photo-lithograph. 34 x 34 inches.Edition: 42. University of South Florida Collection
Faculty Collection Research

The USF Art Collection is available for use in class lectures, activities, and research projects. Due to COVID-19 precautions, in person viewing of collection objects is currently limited to individual appointments for faculty and students. To schedule viewing appointments or obtain images of artworks for class presentations, contact Curator of the Collection Shannon Annis, sannis@usf.edu. USFCAM Faculty are available to consult and participate in object-based class activities. Contact Curator of the Collection Shannon Annis at sannis@usf.edu or Curator of Education Leslie Elsasser at lelsasse@usf.edu.

William Vilalongo, Palimpsest, 2017 seven-run screenprint with laser cut areas and intaglio collage elements 52 x 37 ½ in. Published by Graphicstudio, University of South Florida Collection
Antiracist Resources

The USF Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) has produced this guide to antiracist resources available through the museum. We have compiled CAM exhibitions and objects from the USF Collection which may be useful to support discussions and activities around antiracism, diversity, equity and inclusivity. Museum faculty and staff are available for virtual and in-person discussions with university faculty, staff and students with regard to any of these resources. For more information about CAM’s antiracist work, please contact Curator of Education Leslie Elsasser at lelsasse@usf.edu.

Capstone class in the USFCAM conference room
Picture This - Warhol Collection

Picture This was a collaborative course between USF Contemporary Art Museum and the Judy Genshaft Honors College. Picture This encouraged student engagement with the Warhol Collection in recognition of the arts' capacity to transform us and foster transferable skills through learning how to research, curate, create meaningful dialogue, self-reflect and think critically within all majors and professional disciplines. Through the lens of Andy Warhol’s oeuvre students studied and explored the photographs and prints from the collection in order to explore the wider cultural context from which Andy Warhol emerged, and as a means to frame contemporary issues in our rapidly changing and evolving world. Contact Curator of Education Leslie Elsasser at lelsasse@usf.edu to explore ways you can integrate USFCAM into your curriculum.

Collection Exhibitions + Workshops 


The Lyrical Moment
The Lyrical Moment: Modern and Contemporary Abstraction by Helen Frankenthaler and Heather Gwen Martin

Born of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s substantial gift of prints as part of their Frankenthaler Prints Initiative for university-affiliated museums, the 2022 exhibition The Lyrical Moment: Modern and Contemporary Abstraction by Helen Frankenthaler and Heather Gwen Martin brought together outstanding works on paper by a modern master with lyrical paintings by an accomplished contemporary artist whose colorful efforts invoke computational algorithms and twenty-first century screen culture.

We can do it!
Restricted

The 2018 exhibition Restricted displayed seldom seen but important works from the permanent collection of the USF Contemporary Art Museum. These included paintings, prints, video, sculptures, installations, and archival material by leading artists such as Claes Oldenburg, John Cage, Lynda Benglis, Mernet Larsen, Burt Barr, Robert Stackhouse, and many others. All the works are restricted in the environments and contexts in which they can be displayed and this exhibition offered not only the opportunity to view these “hidden gems,” but a discussion of their care and the competing pressures of best museum practices.

Conservator Laura Stirton Aust working on the Penney cartoon, February, 2016
James Penney Conservation

Artist James Penney's cartoon (or study) for his WPA era mural titled Memories of Marion County (1941) was donated to CAM in 2014 by the artist’s niece Mary Ann Penney Touchton in honor of her daughter Sara Nicole Simons. This preliminary drawing underwent conservation in 2016, as part of the Museum at Work series, made possible by a generous gift from David M. Touchton in memory of his son, D. Wayne Touchton.

We can do it!
Museum at Work 2

The 2015 Museum at Work turned the museum inside out by making the USF art collection, and the work associated with managing the collection, visible and accessible to students and visitors. Visitors could view collection artwork displayed in a series of three rotating exhibitions while staff performed various collection care activities in the gallery.

Copyright Andy Warhol
The Andy Warhol Legacy Project

In 2012, The Andy Warhol Legacy Project exhibition displayed 106 Polaroids and 50 gelatin silver prints the USF Contemporary Art Museum received in 2008 as a gift from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, as part of the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program. The portraits, celebrity snapshots, couples, nudes, painting ideas, party photos, still lifes, and outdoor scenes that make up the gift demonstrate the range of Warhol’s interests.

We can do it!
Museum at Work

For the 2009 Museum at Work CAM opened its doors to the public to see the process for photographing and documenting the collection. Works in the collection could be viewed as they were transported to the gallery and photographed. Newly photographed objects were on display, and visitors could interact with staff, students and volunteers as they engaged in object photography, museum documentation, database management and digital photo file editing, in the open gallery.