Reading Objects 2015 is part of an ongoing, interdisciplinary series featuring works from the permanent collection of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at the State University of New York at New Paltz. The artworks are accompanied by texts or other responses prepared by SUNY New Paltz faculty, staff, and students. Exhibitions such as Reading Objects 2015 are one of a number of ways that the Dorsky Museum is able to periodically display selections from its permanent collection of over five thousand objects. Like many museums, the Dorsky has many fine examples of artworks from diverse cultures and time periods that never see the light of day. It is these works—the ones that are housed in the dark recesses of museum storage—that this Reading Objects exhibition highlights. Each staff member at the museum was asked to review the collection database and choose five objects that he or she felt would be good candidates for the exhibition, keeping in mind each work's potential for diverse narrative interpretations. Staff were also asked to consider works that had rarely or never before been on public display. Over thirty selections were then pulled from storage for the staff to review, and this provided lively and spirited discussions as each staff member defended his or her selections. In the end, nineteen works made the final cut.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Sara Patsi Do Museum Collections Matter? Wayne Lempka Harlequin Resting, 1946 (Byron Brown) Chris Brandon Whitaker Card Players, 1944 (Milton Avery) Gerald Sorin Head of a Satyr, c. 100 (Roman artisan) Frank Boyer and Keely Hunter Untitled, New York, 1985, reprinted 1997 (Allen Ginsberg) Aaron Knochel Wooster View, c. 1955 (Leonard Baskin) Suzanne Stokes Filibuster, n.d. (William Gropper) Gerald Benjamin “Swans, The Ice” she said”, 2001 (Anne Gorrick & Cynthia Winika) Larry Carr, Joan E, Perisse, and Mark E. Fakler Automat, Time Square, 1956, reprinted 2009 (Frank Paulin) Fran Smulcheski and Wendy Vierow Personage, 1975 (Man Ray) Sheila Goloborotko Frank “Happy” Miller, 1940 (Chester Eisenhuth) Joanne Bernardo and Jennifer Carlquist Still Life #607, 1997 (Kenro Izu) Susan Miller 15 Strange Things on the Clear Morning Sky, 1982 (Jan Swaka) Laura M. Silvernail and Peter Kaufman Woodstock, 1928 (Theodor Roszak) Kerry Dean Carso Oceanic Feeling, 1987 (Françoise Gilot) Stephan J. Macaluso Cape Canaveral, Moon Launch, 1968 (Joel Meyerwitz) Erica Marks and kt tobin Dress, 1973 (Lilo Raymond) Caroline Wolfe Wooden disc with one wedge cut out, 1980 (Saul Steinberg) Reva Wolf and Catherine Hern Chopper, c. 1968 (Gary Noffke) Morgan Gwenwalk and Mary Stevens Basket Hat, n.d. (mid-20th Century) (Pomo Indian people) Pepper Boetcker Democracy/Theocracy from the series American Heritage, 1994 (Jonathan Wahl) Sarah Wyman Art Works/Responses About the Dorsky