Vilcek Foundation showcases what’s new with SPQ this May!

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A Busy May for Social Practice Queens

A Fresh Civility at The Plaxall Gallery

Even though the school year is coming to an end, Social Practice Queens isn’t slowing down its efforts to share socially engaged art. In the next month, the collaborative graduate program (run by Queens College in partnership with the Queens Museum) will showcase MFA students’ art at its annual group exhibition, release a textbook on social practice, and share two students’ work at a major conference.

Social practice art can take many forms. The diversity of the work being done by the students at SPQ can be seen in the MFA program’s annual exhibition, which is currently on view at The Plaxall Gallery in Long Island City. Titled A Fresh Civility  and curated by acclaimed poet and critic John Yau, the show is an exploration of the question “What does it mean to be civil in a world in which name-calling and inflammatory positions have superseded dialog and debate?” The varied responses of the 16 featured artists include performance, video, painting, drawing, ceramics, and quiltmaking. Assistant Professor Chloë Bass, who served as a faculty advisor to the exhibition stated, ”I’ve been delighted by the responses from diverse audiences about how these creative works share poetic truths about the times we live in, demonstrating the beauty of social and aesthetic engagement.” The show will wrap up with a closing reception on May 10, and the last day to view the exhibition will be May 13.

Series: My Big Fat Catholic Tsunami by Ed Majkowski

Two SPQ students, Cody Herrmann and Julian Louis Phillips, in partnership with artist Margaretha Haughwout, will also present Trees of Tomorrow as part of Open Engagement, a three-day conference focused on socially engaged art which will take place at the Queens Museum from May 11 to May 13. The work, made in collaboration with the John Bowne High School agriculture department, is a tour of the trees in Flushing that “expos[es] the ways trees shape, and are shaped by, neighborhoods, economies, and soils.”

SPQ is one of a few programs in the country that offer an MFA in social practice, but it is working to increase prevalence of the medium in schools. To that end, SPQ is releasing Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art. Edited by SPQ professors Gregory Sholette and Chloë Bass, the book explains the basics of the medium, as well as provides pedagogical projects to teach a variety of topics at the high school and college level. “Greg and I are incredibly excited to share the work of Social Practice Queens, and our engaged friends and collaborators throughout the United States and abroad, with a larger audience, in a way that we hope will be practical, exciting, and change-oriented for the classroom,” said Chloë. The launch of the book will be celebrated on May 11 with an event hosted by the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation at The 8th Floor arts space, and the book will be available for purchase starting May 22. Pre-orders can be placed through Amazon.

SPQ MFA Student UNO offers workshop at Queens Library!

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This winter, artists UNO (MFA 18) and Cheon Pyo Lee staged an interactive yet personal project on the experience of having a broken heart. The workshop series was titled, Broken Hearts: The Words We Say, The Pictures We See. Participants were invited to describe and draw their story of heartbreak while exploring how memories are shaped through words, physical gestures ,and art. The program was open to adults and older adults.

Queens Library Location:
Fresh Meadows Library 193-20 Horace Harding Expressway
BrokenHearts_Uno

Cody Herrmann to Present at Pratt | March 24th

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8TH ANNUAL SUSTAINABILITY CRASH COURSE, MARCH 24TH

SUSTAINABILITY CRASH COURSE 2018
Pratt Center for Sustainable Design Strategies

On Saturday, March 24, 2018, Pratt’s CSDS will host the 8th annual Sustainability Crash Course, a day-long series of presentations, panel discussions and workshops with a host of experts from Pratt’s faculty and elsewhere.  In years past we have had over 20 different speakers present topics including Ecology, Biomimicry, Packaging Design, Life-Cycle Assessment, Fashion, Architecture, Policy and Environmental Activism. This year we have an entirely new line up of exciting and inspiring presenters. As in the past, the event is free and open to the Pratt Community as well as the general public, but registration is required. View the eventbrite page.

FEATURED PRESENTATION

Up Sh*t’s Creek: Creative Approaches to Organizing in Flushing, Queens

Cody Ann Herrmann – Artist and Grassroots Organizer

Drawing from participatory design and socially engaged art practices, artist and organizer Cody Ann Herrmann asks– how might ecological issues be communicated to the public? Using NYC’s Flushing Creek as a case, the artist’s ongoing series of workshops, tours, performances, and onsite interventions are explored to understand effective methods for documenting and sharing information about pollution and land-use issues impacting the dynamic waterway.

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Cody Ann Herrmann is a New York City based artist and community organizer with an interest in participatory design methods, public space, and local sustainable development. Through multidisciplinary arts, community engagement exercises, and urban design practices she applies an iterative, human centered approach to ecological problem solving. Cody’s work explores the relationships between land-use, urban infrastructure, and environmental degradation with a focus on communicating the problems and solutions of environmental issues to the populations they directly impact. Working in her hometown of Flushing, Queens, Cody started an ongoing series of multidisciplinary work in 2015 addressing pollution and development in and around Flushing Bay and Creek. Cody is currently studying to receive an MFA from Social Practice Queens at CUNY Queens College.

http://www.codyannherrmann.com/

Art As Social Action Book Launch — May 11

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Friday, May 11, 6-8pm
The 8th Floor, 17 West 17th Street, NYC
Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art
Book Launch with Social Practice Queens
 
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation will host a book launch for Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art, edited by Gregory Sholette and Chloë Bass of Social Practice Queens (a 2018 Rubin Foundation grantee). Art as Social Action is both a general introduction to, and an illustrated, practical textbook for the field of social practice, an art medium that has been gaining popularity in the public sphere. With content arranged thematically around such topics as direct action, alternative organizing, urban imaginaries, anti-bias work, and collective learning, among others, Art as Social Action is a comprehensive manual for educators on how to teach art as social practice. Several of the book’s contributors will be present to discuss their work in social practice.
About The 8th Floor
The 8th Floor is an exhibition and events space established in 2010 by Shelley and Donald Rubin, dedicated to promoting cultural and philanthropic initiatives, and to expanding artistic and cultural accessibility in New York City. The 8th Floor is located at 17 West 17th Street and is free and open to the public. Schools groups are encouraged. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm. the8thfloor.org
 
About The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
The Foundation believes in art as a cornerstone of cohesive, resilient communities and greater participation in civic life. In its mission to make art available to the broader public, in particular to underserved communities, the Foundation provides direct support to, and facilitates partnerships between, cultural organizations and advocates of social justice across the public and private sectors. Through grantmaking, the Foundation supports cross-disciplinary work connecting art with social justice via experimental collaborations, as well as extending cultural resources to organizations and areas of New York City in need. www.sdrubin.org
Join the conversation with the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation on Facebook   (The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation), Twitter (@rubinfoundation), and Instagram (@rubinfoundation) with the hashtags #The8thFloor, #RubinFoundation, and #ArtandSocialJustice.

Prospective Students Info Session: March 6th

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SPQ Apply Today

Social Practice Queens (SPQ) will be holding an info session for prospective students. Join us and meet with current faculty and students, tour the Art Dept. facilities and graduate studios + learn more about our MFA and Advanced Certificate Programs.
 
Tuesday, March 6th
12:00PM – 1:30PM
 
Queens College CUNY
Art Department
Klapper Hall, Room 672
65-30 Kissena Boulevard 
Flushing, NY 11367
Directions
 


Please RSVP: socialpracticequeens@gmail.com

by March 4th.

Access/Points at CUE Art Foundaiton – January 24 & February 14

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Social Practice Queens is proud to partner with CUE Art Foundation on the series Access/Points: Approaches to Disability Arts!

Access/Points: Approaches to Disability Arts is a series of conversations, workshops, and artist projects that explores ability as the crux of radical inclusion and access in the arts and beyond. The series investigates the ways that artists, cultural producers, and institutions are redefining disability and accessibility in contemporary art while reorienting power structures by destabilizing our notions of neutral public spaces and arts organizations and move towards inclusive body politics and social infrastructures.

All events are free and open to the general public. RSVP is required.

CUE Art Foundation and partner facilities are wheelchair accessible. Sign Language Interpretation and Real Time Captioning are available upon request with at least two weeks advance notice. Please contact Programs Assistant, Eva Elmore at (212) 206-3583 or eva@cueartfoundation.org to submit your request. Service dogs are welcome. There is an all-gender, ADA compliant, single stall bathroom in the gallery. The space is not scent-free, but we do request all those attending come low-scent. Children are welcome. The nearest wheelchair accessible MTA subway stations are Penn Station and Herald Square Station.

 

SCHEDULE

Part 2 – Access/Points Roundtable: Disability Arts
Wednesday, January 21, 2018, 6:30-8:00pm
Venue: CUE Art Foundation
Free and open to the general public. RSVP is required.

Join us for a public convening and discussion at CUE. The roundtable will bring together artists and representatives from various art and social service organizations to share approaches to building institutions that serve disabled audiences and artists who are often excluded from mainstream art resources. The session will feature a collection of guest discussants who will lead the conversation through presentations.  MORE>>

Part 1 – Let’s Keep in Touch Youth Workshop
Sunday, November 12, 2017, 12:30-3:30pm
Venue: Queens Museum

Let’s Keep in Touch (LKiT) is a multifaceted collaborative project which investigates tactility in the context of art via community dialogue, embodied learning, and the development of new critical practices and methodologies. Produced by Carmen Papalia and Whitney Mashburn in 2016, the project aims to set a precedent for tactile engagement and haptic criticism to become viable practices within contemporary art.  MORE>>

Part 3 – Let’s Keep in Touch Presentation and Open Access Workshop
Wednesday, February 14, 2018, Noon-3:00pm
Venue: CUE Art Foundation
Free and open to the general public. RSVP is required.

Artist Carmen Papalia and curator Whitney Mashburn will lead a public workshop on the topic of Open Access – a relational model for accessibility that Papalia produced in 2015. The event highlights documentation, objects, ephemera, and a lexicon produced through non-visual and tactility-based learning activities with youth collaborators who participated in the Let’s Keep in Touch workshop at Queens Museum in November.  MORE>>

Professor Chloë Bass – Solo Exhibiton at Washington and Lee University

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Chloë Bass: The Book of Everyday Instruction
Washington and Lee University

I put these words in the bathroom because the bathroom is a place where people read

Artist’s Talk and Reception
Monday, January 22, 5:30pm
Wilson Hall’s Concert Hall

Multi-form artist Chloë Bass uses daily life as a site of deep research to study scales of intimacy: where patterns hold and break as group sizes expand. The Book of Everyday Instruction, her second phase of the intimacy series, is an eight-chapter investigation of one-on-one social interaction and the meaning of pairing. This exhibition brings together work from all eight chapters, focusing on such central questions as “how do we know when we’re really together?” or “how do we tell a story based on the proximity of two bodies in space?” Odd-numbered chapters, completed in partnership with communities and organizations in Cleveland, Greensboro, St. Louis, and New Orleans, have a social practice focus; even-numbered chapters were more meditative works produced more privately in the artist’s studio.

Find out more about Professor Bass’s upcoming exhibitions.
Image details: I put these words in the bathroom because the bathroom is a place where people read, from The Book of Everyday Instruction, Chapter Four: It’s amazing we don’t have more fights. 2016, installation in shared multistall unisex bathroom, dimensions variable

Let’s Keep in Touch: Carmen Papalia & Whitney Mashburn | November 12

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Let’s Keep in Touch
Youth Workshop with Carmen Papalia and Whitney Mashburn

Nov 12 2017
12:30pm–3:30pm

What could you learn about a piece of art if you were allowed to walk right up to it and touch it?

Find out at Let’s Keep in Touch and discover the world that opens up when you close your eyes! Join artist and disability activist Carmen Papalia, curator Whitney Mashburn, and the students of Social Practice Queens for a workshop that will change the way you look at art in the museum.

You will learn how to use the different parts of the hand to identify tactile detail and interpret different textures found in nature, sculpture, and the city. Participants are asked to bring a few personal items of varying sizes – like mementos, keepsakes, or toys – that
they enjoy holding and which the group can take turns examining with eyes closed. If you are interested, please contribute a small personal item as part of the workshop to be included in a presentation at the CUE Art Foundation in February of 2018. Organizers will arrange the return of your items once the show comes to a close.

Workshop is free, but please RSVP: socialpracticequeens@gmail.com or visit the Queens
Museum website. www.queensmuseum.org

————

Carmen Papalia is a Vancouver, British Columbia based social practice artist who makes participatory projects on the topic of access as it relates to public space, the Art institution and visual culture. His work has been featured as part of exhibitions and programming at: The Whitney Museum of American Art, the L.A Craft and Folk Art Museum, the Grand Central Art Center, the Canter Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, the Portland Art Museum, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Papalia holds a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and a Master of Fine Arts from Portland State University. He has lectured on his work at the University of Sunderland (UK), the California College of the Arts, Portland State University, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the University of Michigan, York University, and at Emily Carr University. His recent writings can be found in Stay Solid: A Radical Handbook for Youth (AK Press, 2013); Reference Points: Temporary Services (Publication Studio, 2013); and in the “Museum Experience and Blindness” issue of Disability Studies Quarterly.

Whitney Mashburn is a Boston-based curator. She holds an M.A. in Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute, an M.A. in Disability Studies and Counselor Education, and a B.A. in History of Art and Studio Art from Vanderbilt University. She has interned at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts as a curatorial research assistant, is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor (CRC), and has worked both in disability services offices and as a researcher and editor in art history in Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and Archives and in their History of Art department. Her current research investigates tactile aesthetics, accessibility, and the role of conversation in social practice and institutional critique.

Let’s Keep in Touch was organized by Jeff Kasper (2017 Public Programs Fellow, CUE Art Foundation) and Social Practice Queens (SPQ) as part of Access/Points a new series of public programs on disability and the arts organized by CUE Art Foundation. SPQ is supported in part by Queens College CUNY, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Queens Museum, and Vilcek Foundation.

Image: Carmen Papalia. The Touchy Subject , 2013. Perceptual tour,
dimensions variable. Photo courtesy Filip Wolak.

 

A Reflection of Resistance | Nov. 14

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Social Practice Queens:

A Reflection of Resistance

Join Us for a Performance and Conversation around what this year has been, for Resistance, Art, and Communities.

November 14th, 7pm – 9th

Queens Museum

Studio #9

New York City Building, Corona, NY 11368

rsvp: socialpracticequeens@gmail.com

SPQ featured by Vilcek Foundation

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“Social Practice Queens Brings Art to the People”

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2017 SPQ Action Art student-led community art projects and scholarships for foreign born, international, and recent immigrant student have been generously provided by the Vilcek Foundaiton. Check out more on their profile on SPQ and recent student projects here.

 

 

Beacon of Pluralism at Fall Unity Walk

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2017FallUnitywalk

2017 Fall Unity Walk
Sunday, October 15th 1-5pm

The Beacon of Pluralism project led by SPQ / QC MFA alumni Gina Minielli and Nancy Bruno will be exhibited at the Free Synagogue after Saturday October 8th to celebrate its 100 years during Open House New York. The Free Synagogue will be the starting point of the Fall Unity Walk on October 15.

Upcoming: Photographs from the first Beacon of Pluralism event in January 2017 are to be housed and exhibited at the Flushing Quaker Meeting House. Stay tuned for more information.

City of Gods – Book Talk with R. Scott Hanson

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cityofgods

Join Social Practice Queens (SPQ) in welcoming R. Scott Hanson to Queens College October 17th, 6:30-8pm. He will be talking about his research on Religious Diversity and Tolerance in Flushing, Queens.

Event co-organized with “Beacon of Pluralism” a collaborative community project led by SPQ/QC MFA Alumni, Gina Minielli Gunkel and Nancy Bruno. Event supported by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation and Vilcek Foundation.

Co-sponsored by The Dean of Social Sciences, the QC Art Department, and QC Urban Studies Department. Refreshments provided by office of the Dean of Social Sciences.

 

Presence is Required | Thesis catalog by Alix Camacho

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‘Presence is Required’ | A SPQ Thesis catalog by Alix Camacho

Presence is Required includes diagrams, instructions, objects, and situations created by Alix Camacho. The exhibition investigates forms and dynamics produced by bodies in the same physical space. Focusing on elements such as time, balance, height, and body proximity, the artist presents a series of reflections about different types of social assemblies. This show aims to work as a space for participants experiencing and reflecting about their physical interactions with other people and the elements conditioning those interactions.

View it here.

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Artist Talks: New Media Art and Social Practice | Sept 23

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Artist Talks: New Media Art and Social Practice

September 23 at 8:30 am – 5:30 pm

Lefrak Concert Hall
65-30 Kissena Boulevard
Queens, NY 11367

View Map

HG Contemporary Art Center has organized a symposium on New Media and Social Practice in art, featuring artist-professors from Queens College and beyond. Registration is free and includes lectures from the featured artists and a panel discussion. Visit the Symposium Page for more information and a full schedule of events. Registration for the event can be found at this link!

HG Contemporary Art Center, together with the Art Department of Queens College, The City University of New York will be holding an academic symposium with an initiative committed to exploring the ways in which new media artists can initiate projects that engage community participants to foster new forms of public engagement. The theme of the symposium is titled 【New Media Arts and Social Practice】．

The speakers were selected based on their in-depth review of their contributions within the field of socially engaged art, as well as their ability to positively connect with members of the public as collaborators and/or co-creators. These artists / scholars are currently undertaking several projects, respectively, that are socially engaged and are rooted from the various issues observed in their respective communities.

The New Media Arts Symposium will present the following speakers:

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Professor Gregory Sholette, Ph.D, artist and professor of Queens College, The City University of New York.

PANEL SPEAKERS

Professor Chloe Bass, MFA, artist and public practioner, assistant professor, Queens College, The City University of New York;

Professor Jonah Bucker-Cohen, Ph.D., artist and assistant professor, Lehman College, The City University of New York; and

Professor Bo Zheng, Ph.D., artist and assistant professor, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

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Home of Practice on view August 19-29th

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Home of Practice

‘Building Shared Identities’ at Queens Museum | June 25th

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Join Social Practice Queens (SPQ) Sunday, June 25th from 1-4:30 at Queens Museum for a collection of 5 public events, performances and workshops from current MFA students and recent graduates! Take a look below for the line up!

Queens Museum
New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Queens, NY 11368

To register for Collective ExplorAction please contact: nung-hsin@queensmuseum.org

Support for these projects provided generously by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Vilcek Foundation, Queens College CUNY, and Queens Museum.
​

Schedule of Events:

heart2heart
Floor Grootenhuis
Time: 2-4:30 pm
Throughout the museum, Unisphere Gallery Windows

heart2heart, 2017 is an invitation to investigate the gestures we perform naturally when we seek connection. How do we present our bodies to each other to create a space for our differences, express our empathy and mirror our affect? The performance consists of exchanges of gestures in one-to-one conversations with the public. As they are collected by the artist, the gestures will be redrawn on the windows of the Unisphere Gallery forming a temporary archive of connection. 

Patches for a Safe Community
Paula Frisch
Duration: 1:00-4:30pm
Unisphere Gallery
Participants unlimited, all ages

The artist will be facilitating a hands-on activity focused on making patches—like the kind someone would attach to a backpack or jacket. This activity stems from her ongoing project titled A Quilt for Now, which includes a patchwork quilt comprised of text responses to surveys. The questions at the core of this project are: What makes you feel safe? What makes you feel threatened? How do these things impact the everyday decisions you make? The patch making activity will explore these questions, with a particular focus on safety. Participants will be prompted to think about what makes them feel safe and to create a personalized patch that speaks to that. Each will receive a blank square patch and access to fabric scraps, glue and fabric markers to create their motif of safety. They may choose to keep their work or contribute it to be sewn into the quilt.

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park’s Sunday Menu
Pedro Vintimilla

12-4:30pm
Unisphere Gallery
Participants unlimited, all agesThe artist will be walking around the park between 12:00-2:00pm. He will be inviting families throughout the park to participate in Sunday Menu by coloring a paper plate with the names of the food they will be preparing that day. From 3:00-4:30 the plates will be exhibited at the Unisphere Gallery showcasing the many recipes enjoyed by our neighbors, encouraging the public to try new foods at home from a variety of cultures found here in Queens.

Collective ExplorAction
Alix Camacho and Jiemin Yang
Time: 2-4:30 pm
Unisphere Gallery
RSVP required

Email: nung-hsin@queensmuseum.org to RSVP
This is an exploratory and collaborative workshop created to encourage people to use different games to communicate and work together to accomplish a common goal. The workshop involves ideas coming from choreography, theater, and community organization. (Comfortable clothing is highly recommended.)
​


You Don’t Know
Uno Nam
Location: Triangle Gallery
Duration: 2:00pm, 3:00pm

You Don’t Know is a sound and visual performance. In this work, Uno Nam considers how collective events reach individuals through personal experiences, provoking the possibility for art to enable encounters with these intimate moments. Through sound and visual devices, the approximately ten minute long performance recreates an immigrant’s experience of the January 2017 Executive Order 13769, titled: ‘Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.’ The performance will amplify the impact of the executive order on the individual, attempting to translate the experience of one to a collective event.

Art As A Tool for Resistance @ Queens Museum June 11th 1-4:30pm

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debtbank question

Art as a Tool for Resistance

with Social Practice Queens (SPQ)

Jun 11 2017
1:00pm–4:30pm

Resistance Theatre 
Artists: Julian Phillips, Zaid Islam, Floor Grootenhuis

Location: Unisphere gallery
Schedule: 1:30-2:30pm, 3:00-4:00pm

To register, please contact: nung-hsin@queensmuseum.org

During Resistance Theatre participants will have an opportunity to explore the practical and interpersonal facets of protest and authority. First the group will talk about what it is that each participant seeks to resist while creating representative protest signs. As part of this, the group will discuss what is needed to physically resist. After, participants will use their bodies to explore various spacial restrictions that are used during demonstrations and how these restrictions are used to dominate. Finally participants will discuss how to foster resistance to certain authorities both in the larger social as well as personal contexts.

DEBTBANK
Artists: Alix Camacho Vargas, Jeff Kasper

Location: West-side library corner
Duration: 1:00-4:30pm

DebtBank is a surreal bilingual (Spanish/English) resource desk that sets up shop in various community venues, like museum and libraries, in order to provide a space where the public can ask a question or answer a neighbor’s query about debt. Thought participatory written prompts and video diaries that spark dialogue and collects research. (Website coming soon!) The project aims to: (a) visualize debt as a shared phenomena while illuminating the experiences of all of us; (b) provoke individual understandings of debt and autonomy while searching for creative solutions; (c) foster  alternative forms of crowd-sourced resource-sharing about economic equity.

(Artwork courtesy of DebtBank.)

‘Presence is Required’ by Alix Camacho | May 16th

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“Presence is Required” includes diagrams, instructions, objects, and situations by Alix Camacho that investigate forms produced by bodies present in a same physical space. Camacho’s works focus on elements such as time, balance, height, and body proximity that are part of different social assemblies.

This event is part of Alix Camacho’s MFA thesis in Art and Social Practice at CUNY, Queens College.

Opening reception: Tuesday, May 16th, 2017 (6:00 – 9:00 pm.)
Queens College
Klapper Hall 4th Floor
65-30 Kissena Blvd
Flushing, New York

 

May 5th 6-9pm Closing Reception of [intimate distance] new works by Jeff Kasper (MFA 17)

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Join SPQ Friday, May 5 (6-8pm) for a Reception and audio narration of new & ongoing body of videos, text, audio, performance by SPQ student Jeff Kasper (17) investigating the choreography of relationships and pursuit of publicness and physical connection, particularly between men.

Where?:
Queens College CUNY
Klapper Gallery
Klapper Hall 4th Floor
65-30 Kissena Blvd
Flushing, New York
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Intersectionality, Art & Activism Panel Discussion | Tuesday 28th March, 6 – 8 pm

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Intersectionality, Art & Activism Panel Discussion
Tuesday 28th March, 6 – 8 pm
Klapper Gallery, Klapper Hall 4th Fl
Queens College CUNY

Special guests: 
 . Daisy Bulgarin (Semillas Collective Co-founder)
 . Fernanda Espinosa (People´s Collective Arts Member)
 . Amin Husain (G.U.L.F., MTL, NYC Solidarity with
   Palestina Co-founder and Gulf Labor Coalition Member)
 . Kerbie Joseph (ANSWER Coalition and Party for
   Socialism & Liberation Organizer)
 . Zelene Pineda Suchilt (Political Organizer, Artist Activist & Storyteller)
 . Charlie Urichima (Kichwa Hatari Co-founder and NICE
   organizer)
 . Lino Wampusrik (NYC Shuar Organization President)
   Organized & Moderated by Alejandro Salgado Cendales (MFA ’17)
   Sponsored by Social Practice Queens (SPQ)
   with support by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
RSVP on facebook:

Beacon of Pluralism brings together faith communities across Flushing

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Quaker

“There’s a kind of renewal that can happen for people spiritually or through community that can really sustain us in these times,” said Chloe Bass, a visiting professor at Queens College.” (NY1 Flushing)

The Beacon of Pluralism project joins together the diverse cultural, ethnic & religious communities of Flushing, Queens to remember the basic right of religious freedom that Flushing prides itself on. Located in the heart of Flushing, are two historic sites: The Bowne House, former home of John Bowne, a pioneer in the American struggle for religious liberty and the Quaker Meeting House a place of worship for Flushing’s early Dutch settlers. John Bowne and the community joined together to deliver the Flushing Remonstrance to Governor Stuyvesant on December 27, 1657, marking the beginning of religious freedom in America.

The project is led by Gina Minielli Gunkel, a professional social documentary photographer (SPQ class of 2016), and Nancy Bruno, a NYC public school teacher and ceramic sculpture artist (Queens College MFA class of 2017).

The first Beacon of Pluralism event took place in January 2017, just days after Trump’s proposed “Muslim ban.” The event was held at the Flushing Quaker Meeting House which is considered by historians to be the birthplace of religious freedom in the United States. This event was well-attended and received positive reactions form the community. The dialogue ceremony was covered by local news media outlets including NY1 (television), and print & digital editions of the Queens Chronicle (QNS.com) and US China Press.

Read & watch more about the January event:

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/queens/news/2017/01/31/flushing-religious-communities-comes-together-to-spread-hope.html

Protecting Our Nature and Our Sacred Land – Exhibit Closes March 4th

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Don’t miss ‘Protecting Our Nature and Our Sacred Land: Images of Oak Flat by Standing Fox & Social Practice Queens MFA candidates Floor Grootenhuis, Erin Turner and Uno Nam at the Queens Museum.

Read more

Alix Camacho Vargas (MFA ’17) in Afterimage

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Check out current SPQ MFA student Alix Camacho Vargas‘ (’17) new article in Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, here.

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‘Protecting Our Nature and Our Sacred Land at Oak Flat’ at the Peace Table | 01/29

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Protecting Our Nature and Our Sacred Land at Oak Flat
A Social Practice Queens Discussion at the Peace Table

Jan 29 2017
3:30pm–5:00pm

You are invited to participate in a pertinent conversation on land, protection and culture, that surround the case of Oak Flat, sacred to San Carlos Apache in Arizona.

Oak Flat Campground is located outside of Superior, Arizona in a part of Tonto National Forest and has been protected since 1955 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. This area of land is sacred to the San Carlos Apache, and contains more than 2,400 acres of land, wildlife, petroglyphs, sacred spaces, water resources, and lying beneath the surface, a copper deposit thought to be the largest in the hemisphere. Through a controversial land-swap presented in an unrelated 2015 National Defense Bill by John McCain, this land-swap would allow Resolution Copper (a joint venture by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton) to develop a block cave mine which as perceived would create a 2-mile wide crater.

Convening at Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Peace Table, Social Practice Queens invites Mr. Wendlser Nosie Sr. (pictured above), former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Reservation, and Standing Fox, Apache Stronghold member, Bedonkohe Apache photographer and artist to lead a conversation about the current situation at Oak Flat including the repeal of the Defense Bill, the protection of sacred spaces, mining contamination in important riparian habitats, and the importance of environmental stewardship.

We are incredibly honored to have this conversation in Queens to support the San Carlos Apache tribe’s vision in “creating environments that ensure the greatest opportunity to succeed, and to become self-sufficient for Indigenous and all communities.”

This conversation will be accompanied by photography and video by Standing Fox, and current SPQ MFA candidates Floor Grootenhuis, and Erin Turner.

The event has been generously supported by Queens College CUNY, Queens Museum and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation.

Further Resources:

Apache Stronghold Website

Petition to save Oak Flat

 

A Curator Talks Social Practice at Queens College

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Located about an hour outside of the usual New York City art hubs, Queens College has long been renowned for its studio-based Social Practice MFA program with current and former professors including artist Chloë Bass, Vito Acconci, Maureen Connor, and Judith Bernstein.

After having been given the opportunity to curate an all-female show in the student gallery, I was stunned by the variety of available media at the facility, including a woodshop and a bronze-casting studio. Material Archive (April 2016) aims to present the viewer with diversity in materiality while also offering an investigation of the notion of the artwork as a vessel of personal, historical and cultural memory.

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