Gochman Family Collection to Open Branchline Space in Katonah on November 6

Branchline, a permanent exhibition space for the Gochman Family Collection, will open on November 6 in Katonah, New York, presenting rotating exhibitions drawn from the collection's 800-plus works of contemporary Native art.

The venue marks the Gochman Collection's transition from a privately held trove to a publicly accessible institution. Its program will center on Indigenous and anti-colonial practice, a curatorial focus the family has pursued across years of collecting. Works on view will include Jeffrey Gibson's (Mississippi Band of Choctaw and Cherokee) "ACTION NOW ACTION IS ELOQUENCE" (2024), photographed by Max Yawney.

What will Branchline offer beyond the gallery walls?

The site will pair exhibition galleries with residential and studio accommodation for visiting artists. The name "Branchline" refers to the rail network that connects Katonah to Manhattan and Upstate New York, while also invoking the ancestral and historical lineages that inform the work on view. Programming will rotate across the collection's holdings, and the venue will host scholars, students, and local families alongside the art-going public.

Who is leading the new space?

Laura Phipps, named director of the Gochman Collection in March, will oversee Branchline. Phipps described the project's intent to Hyperallergic: "We imagine this as a flexible space to not only more broadly share the Collection, but to also create opportunities for varied audiences of artists, scholars, students, families, and our neighbors to spend time together."

Her appointment formalized an institutional structure for the family collection, which has previously shown work through loans and short-term exhibitions rather than a fixed venue.

How large is the collection?

The Gochman holdings exceed 800 works by contemporary Native artists. The collection's curatorial focus foregrounds Indigenous and anti-colonial frameworks, a position that has shaped acquisitions and the kinds of public presentations the family has supported to date. Branchline will give that orientation a permanent architectural setting in Katonah, upstate New York.

What does the opening signal for the field?

The November launch places Branchline among a small cohort of permanent venues in the United States dedicated to contemporary Native art. Its combination of exhibition, residency, and community programming reflects the collection's stated ambition to move beyond passive display toward sustained engagement with artists, scholars, and local audiences.

By folding residential and studio space into the program, the collection pairs exhibition with direct artist support. The Katonah site, named for the rail lines that feed it, is built to function as a working hub rather than a destination viewing room.

If the November 6 opening proceeds on schedule, Branchline will give the Gochman Collection a fixed public address — and, via its namesake rail lines, a logistical link to the New York art world — for the next phase of its programming.