In fitting with the works it houses, the Everson Museum building is a sculptural work of art in its own right. Designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei, the building itself is internationally acclaimed for its uniqueness. Within its walls, Everson houses roughly 11,000 pieces of art: American paintings, sculpture, drawings, graphics and one of the largest holdings of American ceramics in the nation.

The mission of the Everson Museum of Art is to preserve, exhibit, interpret, and enhance its collection of historical and contemporary American visual arts and its international ceramic collection. The Museum seeks to inspire, educate and enrich all people and integrate art into their lives through direct encounters with its own collections and temporary exhibitions.

The Everson Museum of Art's roots extend to the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, which was founded in 1897 by George Fisk Comfort, a well known art educator who also helped establish the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts' inaugural exhibition was held in 1900. Within twenty years of its founding, the Syracuse museum made two character-setting decisions under the leadership of Fernando Carter, the second director of the museum. In 1911, it declared that it would seek to collect only American art (the first museum anywhere to do so), and in 1916, it purchased a small group of porcelains from Syracuse potter Adelaide Alsop Robineau, who is today considered one of America's