Hostile Terrain 94, the work in which Gallery 51’s Hostile Terrain exhibition is rooted, is based on the documentation and tracking of the mortality rate associated with the migration across our southern borders between Mexico and California. The Hostile Terrain map is made up of toe tags from the remains found along the border. We received over 3000 toe tags and have only completed 1500. Come participate and experience this process and documentation. In June, Gallery 51 will open the doors to the Art Lab (next door to the gallery) for people to make an appointment to come by and fill out toe tags for our Hostile Terrain map. We need your help to complete the map! Reach us via phone or email at Gallery 51 to make an appointment. We will do our best to accommodate very small groups and individuals. With your help, we can complete all the tags before the show closes. Learn more at www.mclahostileterrain.com.
Joshua Ross is a multidisciplinary practicing artist who interweaves various media to fabricate photographs, including drawing, sculpure, and performance. At the core of Ross's practice, their artwork raises questions about how spatial, bodily, and institutional structures influence perception, not-being, and the act of perpetual creation. This artist talk will be a semi-formal introduction to artworks and some of the thinking that informs the context for the production of this exhibition while they're in residence with Gallery 51.
In accordance with MCLA COVID-19 protocol all members of our community, including visitors, are required to wear masks while on campus.
Addressing contemporary American culture, biblical parables, and Ashanti iconography from his native Ghana, Conrad Egyir's work explores questions of ethics, honesty, identiy, and the social psychology of community. Monumental, uncanny, and often satirically grandiose, the paintings combine the graphic sensuality of pop art with the far-reaching narratives of history painting. Egyir's materials include oil, acrylic, glitter, plexiglass, wood, and found fabric flowers. His works are deeply art-historical, often making explicit reference to specific works by Kerry James Marshall, Jacov Lawrence, Charles White, and Kara Walker. They are also in dialogue with diverse forms of popular culture, whether they are religious, musical, or animated.
In accordance with MCLA COVID-19 protocol all members of our community, including visitors, are required to wear masks while on campus.
Wednesday September 22: Gallery 51 Featured Artist Talk - Jeanne Jalandoni at 8 pm EST
Photo Courtesy of Nancy Paredes
Use this LINK to register in advance.
With our featured artist talks, Gallery 51 aims to highlight and showcase the talented artists in our community and across the globe. We are kicking off the new school year with our first featured artist of the fall, Jeanne Jalandoni.
Jeanne F. Jalandoni (she/her) is a painter and textile artist born and based in New York City. Her work navigates her Filipino American cultural identity through personal research on historic Western influences on the Philippines, family archives, and personal experiences growing up as a second generation American who has never been to the Philippines. She uses national symbols such as the carabao, bangus, and mangoes to express characteristics she associates with her biculturalism, in an attempt to redefine their meaning and reclaim Filipino American narrative.
Jeanne received her BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in painting at New York University (2015). Jeanne has had solo shows with Taymour Grahne Projects (2021; virtual), Real Art Ways (2019; Hartford, CT), the Little Underground Gallery/ Jefferson Market Library (2018; New York, NY), and the Berkshire Art Museum (2018; North Adams, MA). Jeanne has exhibited in various group shows including “Considering Mass and Density” (2021; Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY), "Super Sarap" (2019; curated by Patricia Cariño Valdez, Asia Society Texas, Houston, TX), and curated "Cultural Cousins: a show of Filipinx and Latinx artists" (2019; ChaShaMa, New York, NY). Jeanne was an artist-in-residence at 36 Chase & Barns Residency ( 2018; North Adams, MA) and at the Textile Arts Center (2021; Brooklyn,NY).
Jeanne has been awarded the 2019 Real Art Award (Hartford, CT), and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Creative Engagement Grant (2019; New York, NY).
Black Visual Culture: Its Origins, Its Evolution and Its Impact - CANCELLED
We regret to inform you that the Black Visual Culture series with Nan Collymore has been cancelled. Due to unforeseen circumstances, health issues and scheduling conflicts, our speaker is unable to participate in our program.
We appreciate your interest in our programming and hope you will join us for our next offering. Please refer to this page for current programming and updates. Should we be able to reschedule this program, we will post new dates and information.
Thank you for your continued support and patronage.
Be well,
BCRC Staff
Friday July 2: Hostile Terrain IN-PERSON OPENING at 7pm
We are very excited to finally be able to open the long-awaited exhibition Hostile Terrain at Gallery 51 on the first weekend in July. This opening event will serve as our first Down Street Art program for the 2021 Summer and as our participation in the North Adams First Fridays initiative. Please join us to see the show and experience the work that culminates over a year and a half worth of collaboration between MCLA students, staff, and faculty as well as three amazing artists, Trinh Mai, Sergio DeLa Torre and Chris Treggiari of Sanctuary City Project. Check the exhibition website for more information at mclahostileterrain.com. Guests will also be able to participate in hanging toe tags on the Hostile Terrain Map. Our artists may join us virtually, so we hope you can join us to celebrate this long-awaited opening! Light refreshments will be served.
Gallery 51 will be adhering to state capacity restrictions. Refer to the MCLA website for details at mcla.edu.
The Black History in Art History: The Art Market during the Atlantic Slave Trade and its Aftermath
MCLA’s BCRC is excited to launch a series of discussions around American history, its art history and its Black History. Looking to explore and illuminate the understanding and impact of Black Culture, particularly Black visual culture on and in American culture, we will be talking with artists, scholars and practitioners across disciplines, to contribute to the discussion and share their research and knowledge. In July, we will offer virtual programming, kicking off with a 3-part series with artist and art historian Vincent Johnson.
Three-part virtual discussion series: Three Wednesdays in July. July 7, July 14, and July 21; 8-9:15pm EST/5-6:15pm PST on Zoom.
Artist and art historian, Vincent Johnson asked, “Why has the Harlem Renaissance never been perceived to have created a lightning aesthetic and sublime philosophical ideal equal to what is perceived to have been achieved by New York’s Abstract Expressionism followed by Pop?” Johnson’s nearly year-long history of the African Experience in America on social media garnered international attention showing the spectacular forces invested in the West’s elevation. Next, Johnson showed that the phenomenal wealth generated by the Atlantic Slave Trade was often the primary tool for fueling the cultural life of the Western arts from Paris to London and its colonies. It was the elite planters’ operations which created riches for patrons and art collectors on both continents of the Atlantic. Counter to this was the unrelenting multi-prong physical, written, visual and verbal devastating assault on the African in and out of America for centuries. The Harlem difference is therefore explained.
Vincent Johnson (b. 1956, Cleveland, Ohio) is a writer and artist based in Los Angeles, which provides landscape and inspiration for much of his work. Turning his camera often toward architectural artifacts, Johnson documents the transformation and decay of North American cities. He brings to his work immense research and knowledge of cinema, architecture, and art history, effortlessly alluding to phenomena like urban decay in the absence of human subjects. He likens his textured, rich photographs to staring through the window on a Los Angeles drive — a duality between the “temporary encounter” of an object and the “enduring intimacy” that memory savors. He received his MFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, and has exhibited widely at MoMA PS1, New York; the SK Stiftung, Cologne; Santa Monica Museum of Art; the Studio Museum in Harlem; and LAXART, Los Angeles.
Follow up Discussion with Vincent Johnson in the Fall will continue with Material Culture (Indigo, Denim, Rubber, Ivory, Belgian Congo Copal, Ripolin)
Register for the 3-part series HERE.
Wednesday July 7: The Atlantic Slave Trade: Patronage, Art Collections and Institution at 8pm EST/5pm PST
Part I of The Black History in Art History: The Art Market during the Atlantic Slave Trade and its Aftermath. Register HERE.
Wednesday July 14: Enter the Artist’s World (Paris, New York, Brussels, Barcelona, Berlin) at 8pm EST/5pm PST
Part 2 of The Black History in Art History: The Art Market during the Atlantic Slave Trade and its Aftermath. Register HERE.
Wednesday July 21: Where Are We Today, A Brief Historical Walk Through from the Mississippi Panorama Forward at 8pm EST/5pm PST
Part 3 of The Black History in Art History: The Art Market during the Atlantic Slave Trade and its Aftermath. Register HERE.
Sunday June 6: The Art for Social Justice Project Virtual Show Opening
This show was created by the young adults of the Arts in Recovery for Youth program to promote social justice and open community conversations. Through digital art, poetry and painting, the artists have chosen to express themes of racial injustice and political oppression, violence against women, bullying, rights of LGBTQIA+ persons, freedom of gender expression, body image and gender equality. The young adults showcase their art alongside the art of five mentoring social activists in the art world.
The AIRY young adult artists are Rachael Bentz, Kiara Bresett, Molly Harrington, Jack Kelly, and Jalencia Melendez. The mentoring guest artists are Katy Holt, Em Reim Ifrach, Caroline Kelley, Pops Peterson, and Marney Schorr.
Funding for the Art for Social Justice project was provided by New England Grassroots Environment Fund and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. For more info about AIRY's Art for Social Justice project please visit www.airyedu.com.
Thursday May 6: Gallery 51 Featured Artist Series - Matt Manalo at 5 pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance. A recording of this discussion will also live on the BCRC YouTube playlist for later viewing.
We want to highlight and showcase the talented artists in our community and across the globe. This week's Featured Artist, Matt Manalo, is an artist and community organizer. He was born and raised in Manila, Philippines and has called Houston, Texas home since 2004. He received his BFA in Painting at the University of Houston. He runs a community-based alternative art space called the Alief Art House and founded Filipinx Artists of Houston. Matt Manalo creates work which involves elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and printmaking. Being a first generation immigrant, Manalo discusses his experiences navigating around the physical and social structures of society while exploring social issues like erasure, colorism, and colonial mentality in his work. Click HERE to learn more about Matt's practice.
Thursday May 20: AIC Community Conversations - Whiteness in the Northern Berkshires at 5pm EST
This month MCLA Professor Hannah Noel Haynes joins AIC’s Community Conversations to discuss her ongoing research in Critical Whiteness Studies and the role whiteness plays in places like North Adams. Herself a native of the North Berkshires and an alum of Williams College, Prof. Haynes’ brings an important perspective to AIC’s ongoing discussions of racial equity in North Adams and beyond, and we are thrilled to welcome her. The event will begin with a short presentation of Prof. Haynes’ work, followed by small breakout groups for participants to discuss the implications of her research within our own spheres and what a word like “accountability” might mean in these contexts.
A recording of this conversation (omitting the break-out group discussions) will be uploaded to AIC’s YouTube channel for those unable to attend.
The North Adams Artist Impact Coalition (AIC) recognizes that racism and racial inequality still pervade the cultural sector and our community of the Northern Berkshires. By collectively committing 1-1.5 hours a month to productive conversation around this topic, we work towards racial justice in our community, we build trust and understanding within our arts community, and we work toward concrete goals within our institutions, our arts practices, and ourselves.
Artists and arts administrators in the Northern Berkshires are encouraged to attend, although anyone is welcome to join, whether from the Berkshires or beyond. We especially want to call in our white colleagues and those in positions of power. We are here to do the work. We hope you are, too.
Thursday April 1: Theatre Thursday, Discussion about the MCLA production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with Erica, Jeremy, and Special Guest at 5 pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
For our final "Theatre Thursday," David Lane will join Erica and Jeremy to discuss his production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. David is an adjunct instructor and is a master mask-maker and puppeteer, and will share with us how his experience in multiple story-telling modes has shaped this production of Shakespeare's great play.
Monday April 5: Galia Linn Talk Part 1 of 2 at 12 pm EST
Use the LINK to register in advance.
Should where one is born dictate access to immigration status?
Galia Linn is a sculptor and site-responsive installation artist born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, living and working in Los Angeles, California. Linn constructs relationships between subject, object and their environments by creating elemental tensions; a delicate balance between the mediums’ limits and Linn’s exploration with life’s imperfections. Influenced by an early childhood in Israel, a land full of ancient and contemporary relics of past and present civilizations, Linn’s work absorbs both her physical body through the manipulation of the material and the emotional and historical resonance of the artists’ life. What appears fragile, in the end is rock strong, the cracks become symbolic; a window into the internal makeup of the vessels, a metaphor for strength and beauty; a testament of surrender.
Linn immigrated to the United State in 1991 and became a citizen 15 years later. During the sessions Linn will share how her immgiration journey has influenced and informed her art practice bringing questions such as should where one is born in dictate access to immigration status to the forefront. Linn sees a distinct parallel between current immigration policies that punish people who are escaping violence to the treatment of the Jewish people who have survived the holcoast and the horror of concentration camps after WWII only to find themselves homeless and with no country willing to offer them refuge. It is Linn’s hope that by asking questions such as what responsibilities does the world community have to persons escaping violence? And by shedding a light on the trauma of the past we can create a better future.
To see more of Galia's work click HERE.
Thursday April 8: Closing the Gap on Herd Immunity at 5-6:30pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
Join the COVID-19 vaccine discussion with our panel of experts. Topics will include vaccine misinformation, how to increase access to vaccination, what’s next on our way to herd immunity, and more! Free and open to the public. All are welcome.
Monday April 12: Galia Linn Talk Part 2 of 2 at 12 pm EST
Use the LINK to register in advance.
Should where one is born dictate access to immigration status?
Galia Linn is a sculptor and site-responsive installation artist born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, living and working in Los Angeles, California. Linn constructs relationships between subject, object and their environments by creating elemental tensions; a delicate balance between the mediums’ limits and Linn’s exploration with life’s imperfections. Influenced by an early childhood in Israel, a land full of ancient and contemporary relics of past and present civilizations, Linn’s work absorbs both her physical body through the manipulation of the material and the emotional and historical resonance of the artists’ life. What appears fragile, in the end is rock strong, the cracks become symbolic; a window into the internal makeup of the vessels, a metaphor for strength and beauty; a testament of surrender.
Linn immigrated to the United State in 1991 and became a citizen 15 years later. During the sessions Linn will share how her immgiration journey has influenced and informed her art practice bringing questions such as should where one is born in dictate access to immigration status to the forefront. Linn sees a distinct parallel between current immigration policies that punish people who are escaping violence to the treatment of the Jewish people who have survived the holcoast and the horror of concentration camps after WWII only to find themselves homeless and with no country willing to offer them refuge. It is Linn’s hope that by asking questions such as what responsibilities does the world community have to persons escaping violence? And by shedding a light on the trauma of the past we can create a better future.
To see more of Galia's work click HERE.
Tuesday April 13: Trauma and Mending with Alex Younger
Use this LINK to join (with passcode dZGW98).
In observance of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and in partnership with the Division of Student Affairs, the Office of Title IX, Gallery 51, and Student Government Association, we are excited to welcome H. Alex Younger to MCLA. Ms. Younger is a Sexual Assault Activist and long-term artist in residence at MASS MoCA. Ms. Younger will speak on “Trauma and Mending” through her artwork and personal experiences followed by a Question & Answer session.
Gallery 51 is delighted to host Alex Younger's virtual show Trauma and Mending. Alex Younger is a multidisciplinary artist who was born in Oakland, California and raised in the Capital District of New York State. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Swarthmore College in 2012 with an Honors Major in English Literature and a Course Major/Honors Minor in Studio Art. She became a sexual assault activist in 2015, after the college adjudication of her case resulted in a punishment of 10 days of probation. In 2018, she received her MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a Gold Złoty Medal Laureate from the 16 th International Tapestry Triennial and a Silver Medal winner from the 13 th International Scythia Biennial. Her work has been shown internationally and across the United States, including Chicago, New York City, St Louis, Portugal, Ukraine, and Poland. She has taught through the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago and is currently a long-term resident with the Studios at MASS MoCA.
Alex Younger's virtual show Trauma and Mending is no longer available.
Thursday April 22: Gallery 51 Featured Artist Series - Alan Nakagawa at 5 pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance. A recording of this discussion will also live on the BCRC YouTube playlist for later viewing.
We want to highlight and showcase the talented artists in our community and across the globe. This week's Featured Artist, Alan Nakagawa, is an interdisciplinary artist primarily working with sound and occasionally incorporating video, sculpture, drawing, painting, performance, food and most recently perfumes. He has combined his passion for audio recording, visual arts, archiving, hidden cultural memory and the mechanism of listening; a robust and eclectic art career. Nakagawa has been the Artist in Resident for the Pasadena Buddhist Temple through Side Street Projects since 2019. Nakagawa was the first Creative Catalyst Artist in Resident for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. He has presented his work at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the Orange County Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is a recipient of two Art Matters grants, City of Los Angeles Artist Fellowship, California Community Foundation Mid-Career Artist Fellowship and a Monbusho Scholarship. He received a Masters of Fine Arts from University of California Irvine and a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Otis/ Parsons School of Art and Design. To learn more about Alan's practice, click HERE.
Friday April 23: Resist Covid Open Mic Night at 7pm EST
Use this LINK to join.
We invite the sharing of creative writing and visual work on all topics but especially in conversion with the following themes: 1) ways to normalize asking for help, 2) the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black and Brown communities, 3) the increased, pandemic-related violence to Asian American communities.
Saturday April 24 - Friday April 30: Hostile Terrain Border South Film Available for Viewing
Border South - Teaser (Summer_2018) from Andar Films on Vimeo.
Watch the film in English HERE or in Spanish HERE. For both links, use the password HT94@MCLA.
To stem the immigration tide, Mexico and the U.S. collaborate to crack down on migrants, forcing them into ever more dangerous territory.
Every year hundreds of thousands of migrants make their way along the trail running from southern Mexico to the US border. Gustavo’s gunshot wounds from Mexican police, which have achieved abundant press attention, might just earn him a ticket out of Nicaragua. Meanwhile anthropologist Jason painstakingly collects the trail’s remains, which have their own stories to tell. Fragmented stories from Hondurans crossing through southern Mexico assemble a vivid portrait of the thousands of immigrants who disappear along the trail. Border South reveals the immigrants’ resilience, ingenuity, and humor as it exposes a global migration system that renders human beings invisible in life as well as death.
Thursday April 29: Talk with Director Raúl Paz-Pastrana on Creating Border South at 6pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
Raúl Paz-Pastrana is a Mexican immigrant filmmaker, cinematographer, and multimedia creator. His work intersects contemporary art, political documentary, and visual ethnography to explore themes of “belonging” and “alienation” in immigrant communities. His films have screened worldwide, including at the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in New York City, at the Sheffield Doc/Fest in the UK, and at DocsMX in Mexico City. He is a 2018 Princess Grace Awards Special Project Grantee, an Art Matters/Jerome Foundation Cassis France Arts Fellow, a Tribeca Film Institute All Access grant recipient, a 2018 IFP Filmmaker Labs fellow, a 2018-20 Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow, and a 2018-19 Ford Foundation, JustFilms grantee.
Tuesday March 2: Hostile Terrain Virtual Preview with the Artists at 6 pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
Join us for a virtual preview of the next exhibition at Gallery 51, Hostile Terrain, on Tuesday, March 2 at 6pm EST. The exhibition is scheduled to open to the public later this year. Gallery 51 is honored to partake in this participatory art project sponsored and organized by the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), a non-profit research-art-education-media collective directed by anthropologist Jason De León. The exhibition is composed of ~3,200 handwritten toe tags that represent migrants who have died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona between the mid-1990s and 2019. This installation will simultaneously take place at a large number of institutions, both nationally and globally. To learn more about this project, visit their site here. In conjunction with the Hostile Terrain 94 project, Gallery 51 brought together three artists, whose work centers on the immigrant experience, to broaden the discussion and representation around this topic. The Hostile Terrain exhibition features the work of Sanctuary City Project, comprised of Sergio de la Torre and Chris Treggiari, along with artist Trinh Mai. All the artists collaborated with MCLA students, faculty and the community on a series of workshops and experiences that examine identity, belonging, fear and trauma. To learn more about this work at MCLA, visit our site here.
Thursday March 4: Theatre Thursday, Program Discussion with Erica, Jeremy, and Special Guest at 5 pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
Erica and Jeremy will be joined by Sara Katzoff, adjunct instructor and devisor/playwright/director of one of our two spring shows pal-imp-sest: 2021 remixes. Sara, a longtime Berkshire fixture in avant garde theatre-making, will chat with us about how she has partnered with the students to create a brand-new play out of whole cloth, for and about the MCLA student body.
Friday March 5: Natalia Serna: Music & Migration Talk/Performance/Q&A at 4pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
Natalia Serna, also known as La Muna, is a Colombian-American musician and sociologist who moved to the border city of Nogales, Sonora as a volunteer at the Kino Border Initiative Soup Kitchen. Corazόn Norte has been presented at migrant soup kitchens, detention centers, universities and theaters across Mexico, Guatemala and the U.S. Natalia's music on social justice has been used by the Discovery Channel, Two America’s film, Jesuit Refugee Services, Bread For the World, and Creighton Backpacker film el Deportado among others.
In this interactive session, Natalia will present her music and stories to MCLA students, introducing them to the experience of migrants at the border.
Corazόn Norte is a record made up of songs and interviews that seek to incarnate, through art, the stories of migrants. The record was born at the Kino Border Initiative soup kitchen on the Mexican American border as an effort to gift each traveller a song in honor of their journey. Experiences, feelings, and dreams make up the raw material of this record. Each story is unique, yet they all have in common a shared border and a shared dream of heading north.
Corazόn Norte hopes to offer the audience a richer understanding of migration by exploring the individual stories that embody its complexity, its horrors, and the depth of its humanity. Its ultimate goal is to light a passion for the dignity of each person regardless of which side on any line he or she stands.
Thursday March 11: Gallery 51 Featured Artist Series - Galia Linn at 5pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance. A recording of this discussion will also live on the BCRC YouTube playlist for later viewing.
We want to highlight and showcase the talented artists in our community and across the globe. This week's Featured Artist, Galia Linn, is a sculptor and site-specific installation artist living and working in Los Angeles. Linn constructs relationships between subject, object and their environments by creating elemental tensions; a delicate balance between the mediums’ limits and Linn’s exploration with life’s imperfections. Galia Linn has shown nationally and internationally, and is part of numerous private collections in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Paris, Brussels and Tel Aviv. She is also the founder of Blue Roof Studios in Los Angeles California. For Galia's full biography, click here. To learn more about her practice, click here.
Tuesday March 16: Gendered Politics and Constellations of Care along Central American Migrant Routes - Wendy Vogt at 4 pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
This talk focuses on the subject of Dr. Vogt’s book, Lives in Transit, which chronicles the dangerous journeys of Central American migrants in transit through Mexico. Drawing on fieldwork in humanitarian aid shelters and other key sites, Wendy A. Vogt examines the multiple forms of violence that migrants experience as their bodies, labor, and lives become implicated in global and local economies that profit from their mobility as racialized and gendered others. She also reveals new forms of intimacy, solidarity, and activism that have emerged along transit routes over the past decade. Through the stories of migrants, shelter workers, and local residents, Vogt encourages us to reimagine transit as a site of both violence and precarity as well as social struggle and resistance.
Wendy Vogt is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the author of the book, Lives in Transit: Violence and Intimacy on the Migrant Journey published by the University of California Press in the California Series for Public Anthropology.
Wednesday March 17: Just Ask Open Health Forum at 2-3pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
MCLA is striving to improve your health literacy through virtual conversation. This virtual opportunity is seeking to promote the individual’s personal health and wellness while removing barriers. All medical questions are open for discussion; nothing is off-limits. Participation can be anonymous or not-it is your choice. Come and chat with Health Services’ Nurse Practitioners, Drs. Jacqueline Krzanik, DNP, MS, FNP-BC and Aimée Bullett-Smith, DNP, MS, FNP-BC on March 17th 2-3PM. Our goal is to help improve your health awareness while increasing the control you have on your well-being.
Wednesday March 24: Gallery 51 Featured Artist Series - Papay Solomon at 5pm EST
Image by Puspa Lohmeyer
Use this LINK to register in advance. A recording of this discussion will also live on the BCRC YouTube playlist for later viewing.
We want to highlight and showcase the talented artists in our community and across the globe. This week's Featured Artist, Papay Solomon, is a Phoenix-based painter and Liberian war refugee. Papay Solomon lives in the space between two worlds, the world of his adopted home in America and that of his African heritage. His work boldly attempts to reconcile the two into a cohesive whole, with an artistic vision tempered by his formal education in the West and at the same time wildly alive with the indelible imprint of his home country. Known for his paintings of fellow members of the African diaspora, Solomon uses the vocabulary of classical works of art with a modern spin. To see more of his work, click here.
Spring 2021 - Exhibition Hostile Terrain
Visit mclahostileterrain.com for related program information
Originally scheduled for September 2020, we have postponed the exhibit to Spring 2021 as a result of COVID-19.
Gallery 51 is honored to partake in this participatory art project sponsored and organized by the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), a non-profit research-art-education-media collective, directed by anthropologist Jason De León. The exhibition is composed of ~3,200 handwritten toe tags that represent migrants who have died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona between the mid-1990s and 2019. These tags are geolocated on a wall map of the desert showing the exact locations where remains were found. This installation will simultaneously take place at a large number of institutions, both nationally and globally. To learn more about this project, visit their site here.
Thursday February 11: Theatre Thursday, Jeremy Winchester & May Beattie, 5 pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance.
A recording of this discussion will also live on the BCRC YouTube playlist for later viewing.
Join us for the first Theatre Thursday of the spring semester with Jeremy Winchester, Associate Professor, and Chair of the Fine and Performing Arts Department at MCLA. Jeremy will share with Gallery 51's May Beattie, what productions will be offered this Spring Theatre Season!
Saturday February 13: A Tourist in Your Own Home Virtual Opening/ Panel Discussion at 2pm EST
Image by Tania Zaidi
Use this LINK to register for the opening.
A Tourist In Your Own Home is an online exhibition, curated by artist, Shasha Dothan. Along with four artists Dothan invited, who are also immigrants to the United States, they created video works about their 2020 experience. This exhibition looks at each immigrant’s struggle with the notion of home. Is the new country you live in your home? Is the country you were born in your home? Being confined at home for the last few months due to Covid 19, immigrant artists may struggle even more with the questions of displacement. As executive orders are signed, that seem intended to change the lives of immigrants in the US are signed, uncertainty is a common factor in everyday life. The fears and hopes of the immigrant are in question, many not knowing what their future will look like. The questions about home and feeling like you don’t belong become more difficult.
Thursday February 18: Gallery 51 Featured Artist Series - Ilana Savdie at 5pm EST
Use this LINK to register in advance. A recording of this discussion will also live on the BCRC YouTube playlist for later viewing.
We want to highlight and showcase the talented artists in our community and across the globe. This week's Featured Artist, Ilana Savdie, was raised in Barranquilla, Colombia and Miami, FL and is now based in New York. Ilana received her MFA in Painting/Printmaking at Yale University in 2018 and her B.F.A from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008. She has since been included in numerous exhibitions across the globe. Ilana is currently a fellow at NXTHVN in New Haven Connecticut and will be an artist in residence at Palazzo Monti in Brescia, Italy in 2021. To learn more about her practice, click here.
Thursday January 21: Mass MoCA and BCRC In Session with Lisa Dent, Tracy Moore, Cameron Shaw, Eric Shiner, Dr. Mindy Fullilove, and Cecile Shellman at 6 pm EST
Click HERE to view.
Presented by MASS MoCA and the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center (BCRC) at MCLA, In Session is a series of four panel discussions on anti-racist work in museums, streamed live on MASS MoCA’s YouTube and Facebook. The first two sessions invite artists, curators, and arts administrators to discuss how museums and artists represent Black and Brown trauma in artwork, exhibitions, and performances, and navigate the resulting implications and challenges.
Tune in for our second panel on January 21 with museum leaders Lisa Dent, Executive
Director, Artspace New Haven; Tracy Moore, Interim Director, MASS MoCA; Cameron Shaw,
Deputy Director and Chief Curator, California African American Museum; and Eric Shiner,
Executive Director, Pioneer Works. The panel will begin with introductory remarks
by Dr. Mindy Fullilove, Social Psychiatrist and Professor, New School, and will be
moderated by Cecile Shellman, DEI Museum Consultant. Billy Sanders will provide ASL
interpretation.
Designed to pose more questions than answers, topics for this discussion include:
Why should art institutions move toward the work of anti-racism and social change?
In what ways should museums reflect broader socio-political mandates? What are an
art institution’s responsibilities toward BIPOC audiences when hosting challenging
work concerning violence enacted against Black and Brown bodies? What is an art institution’s
role in providing context (cultural, art historical, media, or otherwise) around a
work of art? How and when should artwork on view reflect structural and internal institutional
change?
Do any other questions come to mind? Submit your own questions via email to insession@massmoca.org.
