Scott Propeack

Scott F. Propeack is the executive director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, N.Y.

From 2008 – 2020 he held the position of chief curator and associate director, and was appointed as executive director in January of 2023. He holds overall responsibility for the Burchfield Penney's achievement of its mission in service to the public, determining the arts and cultural vision and providing oversight of all Burchfield Penney administrative, curatorial, programmatic, and educational initiatives. He oversees a budget of approximately $3.6 million and about 30 staff members.

Propeack developed the Burchfield Penney’s new multi-faceted Arts Legacy Project, which among other functions involves the designation and institutional support of “Living Legacy” artists from the Western New York community; an archival component charged with bringing online more than 325,000 archival items to complement and provide context to visual arts collections; and partnerships with smaller arts and cultural organizations to assist with digitization and accessibility initiatives.

Propeack began his association with the Burchfield Penney as registrar from 1997 to 2003, then worked as collections and exhibitions manager from 2003 to 2008. He also led the museum as interim co-director from 2010-2012 and 2017-2019. 

Propeack has been involved with more than 60 exhibitions as curator or co-curator, including the biennial juried craft art exhibition Art in Craft Media (2006-2019); the multi-site Beyond/In Western New York (2010); solo shows by artists Bruce Jackson, Karen Donnellan, and James Vullo; a retrospective of the collaborative duo McCallum Tarry; a retrospective exhibition of the early 20th century artist, Alexander Levy; At This Time (2018), Contemporary Portraiture (2019); 24/12 (aseries of 12 exhibitions featuring 24 emerging and late-career artists); and Signals from the Electronic Cloud (a joint project with Alfred Institute of Electronic Arts and Alfred University). He has contributed to more than two dozen exhibition catalogs, several artist biographies, and numerous arts publications.

Propeack has served on many boards, panels, and committees, including the board of directors of Squeaky Wheel/Buffalo Media Resources and Campus House (Buffalo State College). He has been a grant panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts’ Individual Artist Program and its Electronic Media and Film organizational panels from 2006-2018. Since 2019, he has served as the curator of Oishei Children's Hospital of Buffalo.

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