Name: Erie Canal Museum
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The Erie Canal Museum, located in Downtown Syracuse, NY, engages the public in the story of the Erie Canal’s transformative impacts on peoples and places in the past, present, and future. We are stewards and interpreters of Erie Canal related materials and heritage. The Museum is housed in the 1850 National Register Weighlock Building, the last remaining structure of its kind. Visit us for exhibits with interactive displays and original artifacts, and engaging programs. The Erie Canal Museum is a must-see for adults and children of all ages.

The Erie Canal Museum’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and with funds from the City of Syracuse Arts & Culture Recovery Fund Program, a regrant program of the City of Syracuse and administered by CNY Arts.

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CurrentExhibitions

Echoes of Exclusion: Syracuse's Shifting Community Landscape

Link Gallery

Dates: July 1, 2024 - October 31, 2024

In the coming years, Syracuse will be transformed by the removal of the Interstate-81 Viaduct and following construction of the Community Grid. To understand the significance of the project, we must look back on how infrastructure and public policy have shaped our community through time. This exhibition is presented in collaboration with CNY Fair Housing and showcases material from their 2nd Annual Run the Redline event: a 5K Run and 3K Roll/Stroll that traces a portion of the ‘redline’ that helped segregate Syracuse. Historic photographs of the neighborhood before redlining and urban renewal, courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association, are paired with modern photographs of the same locations by J. Mark Lawson to illustrate the lasting impacts of these practices on Syracuse.

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UpcomingEvents

2024 Artist-In-Residence Talk with Clara Riedlinger

At the George Eastman House

Dates: October 13, 2024 - October 13, 2024

This talk, given at the George Eastman Museum, will discuss the project of one of the Erie Canal 2024 Artists-In-Residence, Clara Riedlinger. Clara's project focuses on the spiritual history of the Western New York landscape known as the Burned Over District - where the dramatic reshaping of the landscape by the Erie Canal signaled a new era of religious strangeness, philosophical experimentation, and political reinvention whose currents still flow strongly just under the surface of present-day American culture.

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Museum News

Calling All Bakers!

Registration to participate in the 39th Annual Gingerbread Gallery Open Now

Dates: September 10, 2024 - November 6, 2024

Each year the Erie Canal Museum transforms into a festive 1800s canal town street scene with gingerbread creations on display in storefront windows. In a typical year, we see over 4,000 visitors during the Gingerbread Gallery! We are now accepting registrations for the 39th Annual Gingerbread Gallery.

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