Guests gathered on February 25, 1963, for the Members' Preview of the 27th Annual Western New York Exhibition, which ran through March 31. In addition to the judging of submissions by local and regional artists and the awarding of prizes, the exhibition also featured painting demonstrations and Gallery Talks hosted by the museum on different days during its run.

Interrupted for two years due to the construction on the 1962 Building, the Western New York Exhibition resumed in 1963. The jury for the 27th annual exhibition consisted of Katharine Kuh, art critic of The Saturday Review, author, and former curator of painting at the Art Institute of Chicago; Harry Bertoia, sculptor and designer whose sculptural screen of steel and brass was located at the time in the Garden Restaurant; and Hedda Sterne, Romanian-born artist and wife of the artist-cartoonist Saul Steinberg.

Owing to the efforts of Mrs. Richard More, the exhibition was endowed with $3,750 in prizes, the largest amount ever offered. Mr. Lars Potter, the museum’s treasurer, awarded the prizes in the Sculpture Court. The top award was given to Charity Roberts for her painting, Sonnet. Other prize winners included John L. Hill, Theodore V. Patricola, Dorothy Shea, Harriet Grief, and Fred Meyer. The Western New York exhibition was always a popular exhibition, and this year it attracted more than 60,000 visitors.