Online Resources
The Palmer Museum of Art is a valuable arts resource for Penn State faculty and students as well as Centre County regional schools and families. Stay connected to the museum even when you are unable to visit, or take advantage of recorded talks, virtual tours, and video resources to enhance a future visit or plan lessons and curriculum.Artist Lectures | MADE IN PA
Diane Burko | October 3, 6 p.m.
Artist-activist Diane Burko has traveled the globe in search of evidence of humankind’s impact on the natural world. In her monumental painting currently on view in MADE IN PA, Burko bears witness to the unprecedented convergence of global crises—the COVID pandemic, climate change, and sociopolitical unrest—since 2020. Burko will share “before and after” insights about her career, her ongoing engagement with climate scientists and environmentalists, and the “unprecedented” moment we find ourselves living in.
This program was sponsored by Penn State Sustainability as part of its Sustainability Showcase Series. Outside of this lecture, Burko participated in a variety of campus events as a Showcase Speaker for the program. Visit Penn State Sustainability’s calendar of events to learn more about other programs: https://sustainability.psu.edu/events/.
Devan Shimoyama | September 19, 6 p.m.
As part of the Palmer Museum of Art’s programming celebrating the special exhibition MADE IN PA, artist Devan Shimoyama will talk about his installation “The Grove” as well as his broader work in painting and self-portraiture, which investigates the politics of queer culture while navigating his own personal narratives. Shimoyama graduated from Penn State in 2011 with a BFA in Drawing/Painting and received his MFA from Yale University in Painting/Printmaking in 2014. He lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA.
This program is co-sponsored by the Penn State School of Visual Arts John M. Anderson Endowed Lecture Series.
Virtual Tours
These self-directed, interactive, online tours feature video-guided investigations of a selection of objects related to a common theme. Discussion prompts and related art-making activities provide additional opportunities for exploration.
MADE IN PA
Discover the new Palmer Museum of Art’s inaugural special exhibition from anywhere in and beyond the Keystone State with the MADE IN PA virtual tour! Hear from the exhibition’s curators, Penn State faculty and students, and community members about the Commonwealth’s long history of artistic training and innovation, the complicated legacies of its varied geographies and socio-political realities, and the hybrid identities and cultural exchanges that characterize the work of Pennsylvania artists today.
Produced in August 2024 by Palmer education staff and graduate students, with design and project management by Keisha Oliver.
MADE IN PA Virtual Tour
Conversations across the Collection
Experience the visitor-favorite permanent collection installation in a new digital format!
Conversations across the Collection was on view in the galleries at the Palmer Museum during spring 2023 and brought together diverse objects from a range of time periods to examine formal and thematic connections in American art. This virtual tour of the installation allows extended engagement with unexpected pairings of works that explore the American West, urban scenes, representations of mother and child, still lifes, domestic interiors, and abstraction. Enjoy a self-guided, digital version of Conversations across the Collection at the link below.
Click here for the virtual tour
Africa in Art
Explore Africa in Art through a guided virtual tour of the Palmer’s collection. Learn about Africa’s diverse artistic traditions within the continent and around the globe across five themes: power and status, ceremony and ritual, the everyday, gendered making, and the African diaspora.
Produced by Palmer education staff and graduate students, with design by Keisha Oliver.
Click here for the virtual tour
Global Asias
Explore Global Asias from home or at school! This web-based, interactive program features guided video tours of selected exhibition artists, in addition to an introductory overview by the curator. Learn about the “Global Asias” concept of personal and cultural identity in a contemporary world.
Artists featured include:
Jacob Hashimoto
Dinh 0. Le, Hung Liu
Takashi Murakami
Roger Shimomura
Do Ho Suh
Rirkrit Tiravanija.
Women in Art: Activism and Resistance
Discover contemporary art by women artists who have challenged social and historical norms in order to advance the role of women in the arts and beyond.
Featured artists include Judy Chicago, Julie Heffernan, Yolanda Lopez, Ana Mendieta, Faith Ringgold, Cindy Sherman, Renée Stout, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mary Van Cline, Carrie Mae Weems, and Kara Walker.
Women in Art Virtual Tour
Who Am I?: Art and Identity
Explore artwork that investigates the idea of identity—the individual collection of personality, behaviors, thoughts, values, experiences, and traditions that make us who we are.
Featured artists include Laylah Ali, Willie Cole, Kate Javens, Roberto Lugo, Maria Martinez, Vik Muniz, Violet Oakley, Faith Ringgold, Cindy Sherman, Preston Singletary, Simka Simkhovitch, Andy Warhol, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Click here for the virtual tour
Photography = Abstraction
Discover a variety of abstract images that push the boundaries of photography as a medium and investigate form, shape, contrast and other techniques of representation.
Click here for the virtual tourMuseum Conversation: Looking at Who We Are
From September 27, 2022
Join the exhibition curatorial team for an online webinar introduction to the Palmer’s anniversary exhibition celebrating the museum’s first fifty years. The exhibition reflects on the museum’s past, present, and future while taking a broader look at personal and cultural identity through the lens of art.
Virtual Exhibitions
Check out our virtual offerings and explorations featuring online exhibitions, scholarly catalogues, and companion websites.
Pennsylvania Scenery: Early Landscape Prints from the Tavern Collection
Pennsylvania’s natural beauty figured prominently in early nineteenth-century literary journals and publications celebrating the American landscape. This virtual exhibition features a selection of picturesque highlights from the “Tavern Collection” of Pennsylvania prints amassed by John C. O’Connor and Ralph M. Yeager and gifted to the museum nearly thirty-five years ago.PA Scenery Virtual Exhibition
Drawing on a Legacy
This digital catalogue was presented in connection with "Drawing on a Legacy: Highlights from the John Driscoll American Drawings Collection," an exhibition that was on view at the Palmer Museum of Art in spring 2020.Drawing on a Legacy Virtual Exhibition
Field Language Online Companion
This online companion acts as a digital accompaniment for "Field Language: The Painting and Poetry of Warren and Jane Rohrer," the special exhibition organized by the Palmer Museum of Art. The exhibition examines the art of Warren Rohrer (1927–1995) as it evolved in conversation with poet Jane Turner Rohrer (b. 1928), his partner of nearly fifty years. Field Language traces dialogues between husband and wife, painting and poetry, and between tradition and modernism. This website serves as a digital exploration and will remain accessible while the exhibition is temporarily closed to the public due to maintenance issues at the museum.Field Language Online Companion
Penn State Creates
The Palmer Museum of Art excitedly announced the release of "Penn State Creates: A Virtual Exhibition of Design, Craft, and Makery." The virtual gallery walkthrough highlights the unbounded creativity of over 40 Penn State students–both undergraduate and graduate–across colleges and majors, ranging from the visual and performing arts to materials science and medicine. Not limited to traditional artistic media, this dynamic exhibition showcases the diverse creative activities of our university community.Penn State Creates Virtual Exhibition
Penn State Creates: A Virtual Exhibition 2022
This virtual exhibition highlights the unbounded creativity of 29 Penn State students—undergraduate and graduate––across colleges and majors, ranging from the visual and performing arts and architecture to materials science, medicine, and software engineering. The 38 creative works in the exhibition include traditional artistic media like painting, photography, and sculpture, as well as examples of poetry, graphic design, performance, and more, showcasing the diverse and talented activities of our university student community.
Penn State Creates 2022
Ready to move from online to in-person? See what’s going on at the Palmer!
Other Resources
Interested in other resources? Explore our offerings for students of all ages.
Online Collection
Nearly 11,000 objects from the Palmer’s permanent collection are searchable. Find images, information, and descriptions for many of these objects at the link below.
From the screen to the wall! – Explore art at the Palmer through our wide array of programs.