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2026 Exhibition Schedule
Support YOUR Museum
Serving the community through the many educational, cultural, and fulfilling opportunities requires assistance from a range of resources. To maintain free admission to our museums, we need your support! Thoughtful donations by members and patrons help us keep our five museums in Altoona, Bedford, Johnstown, Ligonier, and Loretto open to the public free of charge.
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Read about the upcoming exhibitions at each SAMA site and donate to help support an exhibition that interests you! Please contact the SAMA site of your choosing if you would like help or more information about sponsoring an exhibition.
Altoona
Artists of the 21st Century
artwork by grade-school students in the six counties SAMA serves
in the Wolf and Pechter Galleries and Detwiler Education Center
January 30, 2026 – April 2, 2026
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The Museum’s twenty-eighth annual student art exhibition will be displayed at Altoona, Ligonier, Bedford, and Johnstown. Held in conjunction with National Youth Art Month, the exhibition is open to schools that participate in SAMA’s Arts-in-Education or Artist-in-Residence program. These programs serve six counties: Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Somerset, and Westmoreland. Through the programs, SAMA educators and professional artists travel to public and parochial schools to provide lessons designed to enhance students’ understanding of art creation, technique, history, critique, and aesthetics. SAMA’s award-winning education initiative is the largest of its kind in the Commonwealth.
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50 Years of American Art
staff selections from the Permanent Collection
in the Shirley and Fred A. Pechter Gallery
April 17, 2026 – July 5, 2026
The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, established in 1976, has a permanent collection of over 7,500 pieces. This collection curated by SAMA staff celebrates the 50th anniversary by highlighting key acquisitions and milestones over the decades. This exhibition will be on display at each satellite museum within the year of our anniversary.
Bedford
​Season's Greetings
in the Titelman Galleries
October 31, 2025 – February 1, 2026
Art2Art presents works by renowned masters of photography, as well as contemporary sensations. Courtesy of Art2Art, "Season's Greetings: Holiday cards by celebrated artists from the Monroe Wheeler Archive" offers a rare look at the intersection of art, design, and personal connection through handmade and limited-edition greeting cards sent to Monroe Wheeler, Director of Exhibitions and Publications at the Museum of Modern Art from 1939 to 1967, by renowned artists whose work he exhibited and published. These intimate gestures of friendship and artistic kinship reflect a golden age of modernist expression, captured in formats ranging from postcards to folios. Delicate, striking, and historically significant, the collection reveals how such exchanges bridged the personal and professional, seasonal and timeless, with artist biographies, a detailed catalogue, and thoughtfully displayed works enhancing the experience.
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Evidence of Joy: Finding Refuge in Creation
artwork by Meaghan Troup
in the Paula and Dean Lemley, Donald M. Robinson, Ashe, Jerry & Joan Hawk, and Children's Discovery Galleries
October 31, 2025 – February 1, 2026
Mifflinburg, PA artist Meaghan Troup transforms painting into a sanctuary, blending faith, resilience, and a deep reverence for nature. Working exclusively with palette knives, her textured, impressionistic works are inspired by her Christian faith and shaped by a three-year battle with leukemia, during which art became both an outlet and a testament to survival. Each canvas, paired with a carefully chosen Bible verse and a hidden signature, serves as a visual refuge—celebrating joy not as escape, but as an act of spiritual endurance. From vibrant wildflowers to tranquil winter scenes, Troup invites viewers to seek beauty, healing, and connection in the everyday.
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Artists of the 21st Century
artwork by grade-school students in the six counties SAMA serves
in the Titelman Galleries
February 13, 2026 – April 26, 2026
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The Museum’s twenty-eighth annual student art exhibition will be displayed at Altoona, Ligonier, Bedford, and Johnstown. Held in conjunction with National Youth Art Month, the exhibition is open to schools that participate in SAMA’s Arts-in-Education or Artist-in-Residence program. These programs serve six counties: Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Somerset, and Westmoreland. Through the programs, SAMA educators and professional artists travel to public and parochial schools to provide lessons designed to enhance students’ understanding of art creation, technique, history, critique, and aesthetics. SAMA’s award-winning education initiative is the largest of its kind in the Commonwealth.
50 Years of American Art
in the Donald M. Robinson, Ashe, Jerry & Joan Hawk, and Paula and Dean Lemley Galleries
February 13, 2026 – April 12, 2026
The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, established in 1976, has a permanent collection of over 7,500 pieces. This collection curated by SAMA staff celebrates the 50th anniversary by highlighting key acquisitions and milestones over the decades. This exhibition will be on display at each satellite museum within the year of our anniversary.
Johnstown
Artists of the 21st Century
artwork by grade-school students in the six counties SAMA serves
January 17, 2026 – March 22, 2026
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The Museum’s twenty-eighth annual student art exhibition will be displayed at Altoona, Ligonier, Bedford, and Johnstown. Held in conjunction with National Youth Art Month, the exhibition is open to schools that participate in SAMA’s Arts-in-Education or Artist-in-Residence program. These programs serve six counties: Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Somerset, and Westmoreland. Through the programs, SAMA educators and professional artists travel to public and parochial schools to provide lessons designed to enhance students’ understanding of art creation, technique, history, critique, and aesthetics. SAMA’s award-winning education initiative is the largest of its kind in the Commonwealth.
Ligonier
Exhibitions in The Elizabeth Shaw Gamble Gallery
Southwestern Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
artwork by artists from the 19 southwestern counties of Pennsylvania
November 14, 2025 – February 1, 2026
The 30th annual SPCARTS exhibition features work by artists from the 19 southwestern counties of Pennsylvania. Featured works will span a variety of media, including acrylic, oil, photography, pastel, watercolor, wood, masonry, and many others. Since its inception, the exhibition has become known for its freshness and energy in the art of emerging young artists and for the dazzling presentations of established artists who are developing a new direction with their art.
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Artists of the 21st Century
artwork by grade-school students in the six counties SAMA serves
February 13, 2026 – April 19, 2026
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The Museum’s twenty-eighth annual student art exhibition will be displayed at Altoona, Ligonier, Bedford, and Johnstown. Held in conjunction with National Youth Art Month, the exhibition is open to schools that participate in SAMA’s Arts-in-Education or Artist-in-Residence program. These programs serve six counties: Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Somerset, and Westmoreland. Through the programs, SAMA educators and professional artists travel to public and parochial schools to provide lessons designed to enhance students’ understanding of art creation, technique, history, critique, and aesthetics. SAMA’s award-winning education initiative is the largest of its kind in the Commonwealth.