Over one-third of the Museum’s collection is devoted to contemporary art. This collection includes prints, drawings, photographs, paintings, sculptures, mixed media, and installation art. The Museum is currently expanding its holdings to include new media as well.

The Museum owns contemporary photography by Richard Benson, Lindsey Beal, Jesse Burke, Caleb Cole, Ron Cowie, Kerry Stuart Coppin, Ralph Gibson, Lucas Foglia, Sally Gall, Henry Horenstein, Nancy Grace Horton, Tom Jones, Alen MacWeeney, Rania Matar, Joel Meyerowitz, Lindsay Morris, Lissa Rivera, Camille Seaman, David Seltzer, Lawrence F. Sykes, Peter Turnley, Andy Warhol, and considerable holdings of photographs by Donna Ferrato, Aaron Siskind, and Rhode Island photographer Salvatore Mancini.

The Museum is also home to 20th and 21st century works on paper (prints, drawings, and watercolors) by Albert Alcalay, George Bellows, Varujan Boghosian, Caleb Cole, David Dewey, Steven Easton, George Condo, Umberto Crenca, Mark di Suvero, Mary Dondero, Red Grooms, William Gropper, Philip Guston, Mags Harries, Arghavan Khosravi, Pouran Jinchi, Corita Kent, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Mayhew, Michael Mazur, Lloyd G. McNeill, Alan Metnick, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, Louise Nevelson, Philip Pearlstein, Fairfield Porter, Ad Reinhardt, Mahler Ryder, Raphael Soyer, Kenn Speiser, May Stevens, Meredith Stern, Chris Van Allsburg, and Andy Warhol. The Museum has significant holdings of prints and drawings by Francis Adams Comstock and Joseph Norman.

The Museum’s growing collection of sculpture and decorative art includes works by regional, national, and international contemporary artists. Some of these works are on display in the Museum, as well as in the outdoor sculpture garden. The artists represented in this area of the collection are David Allyn, Jillian Barber, Howard Ben Tré, Lisa Barthelson, Lindsey Beal, Ashwini Bhat, Caleb Cole, Dale Chihuly, Elizabeth Duffy, Steven Easton, Minoo Emami, Brooke Erin Goldstein, Michael Hansel, Douglas Huebler, Jesse Krimes, Howard Newman, Allison Newsome, Lisa Perez, Arnold Prince, Italo Scanga, Hugh Townley, Nafis M. White, Claudia Widdiss, and Toots Zynsky. 

Contemporary paintings include works by national and regional artists, such as James Baker, David Barnes, Christopher Benson, Stephen Brownell, Donnamaria Bruton, Ruth Dealy, David Dewey, Bob Dilworth, Jemison Faust, Leslie Graff, Bunny Harvey, Florence Leif, Sue McNally, Gordon Peers, Rita Rogers, Jordan Seaberry, Italo Scanga, and Richard Whitten among others.