Educational Programs

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We are excited to announce a lecture by Sterling Downey and Melissa Proietti, co-founders and co-directors of the annual Under Pressure graffiti festivals and Fresh Paint Gallery in Montréal.

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Under Pressure is an annual graffiti festival that focuses on community development, artist empowerment, as well as positive youth development through ownership and responsibility of a shared space. Having just completed its twentieth year, the festival is the longest running graffiti and hip hop festival in North America. It’s an event done by the community for the community, kept alive on a volunteer basis. The festival takes place over two days during the first full weekend in August, throughout which stages are given over to performers from across Canada. B-boy and b-girl battles take place on Sunday afternoon. A kids’ area lets little ones get creative, and a skate ramp is set up for competition and open jams.

Founded in 2011 by the Under Pressure Graffiti International Convention, Fresh Paint is an alternative project working on giving new life to empty spaces by turning them into temporary cultural spaces. Fresh Paint Gallery is a space for exhibitions, education, and events. Influenced by street art and graffiti movements, Fresh Paint shows collective exhibitions with a mix of local and international artists. The space presents the best of emerging artists in street art, graffiti, pop art, graphic design, and illustrations.

Fresh Paint offers an alternative to the institutionalized and commercialized cultural system for artists and the public. Forget white walls, posh openings, elitism and egos, their project is authentic, for the people and accessible. Their volunteer team works hard to develop the following:

– promoting urban culture values such as DIY, authenticity, sharing, mentoring, self-affirmation, creativity, work, and involvement
– demystifying visual art
– supporting new emerging generations of independent artists.

As part of the Secret Mantra exhibition at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, the artist Le Quoc Viet will present a live action painting in front of the Student Center on Tuesday, October 21, at 12:15 p.m.  Guests are invited to wear silk robes designed by the artist!

Viet painting character copy

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A group of St. Lawrence University students, faculty, and staff have organized a town hall meeting entitled “How do we talk about prisons in New York State?” for Thursday, April 3, at 7:00 p.m. in the Noble Center Room 109.

Savannah Crowley ’14 and Allison Paludi ’14, both global studies majors and members of Amnesty International, will introduce a panel comprised of Natasha Haverty, journalist and producer of North Country Public Radio’s Prison Time Media Project; Rev. David Van Epps, retired state chaplain at the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility; and Lauren Melodia, campaign organizer for Milk Not Jails.  Dr. Mary Jane Smith, associate professor of history, will moderate the discussion with time set aside for community members’ comments and questions.

Crowley and Paludi note that “the purpose of this event is to facilitate a community dialogue about prisons in New York State that are so economically, politically and socially important to the North Country.  In consideration of prisons’ role in our society and their effects on our communities, it is vital we add local voices to a larger political conversation.”

Visitors are also encouraged to view art and prison exhibitions at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery that will be on display in the same building through April 12, 2014: Cellblock Visions: Set Free in the Penitentiary; Photo Requests from Solitary; Milk Not Jails, and drawings by former inmate turned prison reform activist Five Mualimm-ak.

For more information, contact Savannah Crowley at smcrow10@stlawu.edu, Mary Jane Smith at msm1@stlawu.edu, or Catherine Tedford at ctedford@stlawu.edu.

 

NCPR has done an amazing job of reporting on the important issues of incarceration and prisons in our region; recent stories have featured visiting artist and social activist Five Mualimm-ak and curator Phyllis Kornfeld, who organized the Cellblock Visions exhibition.

Cellblock Visions will be on display in the Brush Gallery until April 12.

In coordination with the Brush Gallery and other programs on campus, SLU’s Global Studies department is holding a symposium on prison reform.

The symposium will include several events dedicated to raising awareness and facilitating conversation between North Country students, faculty, and community members on issues such as the prison industrial complex, solitary confinement, and prison reform efforts across the United States. Through these events, we hope to foster a dialogue about northern New York’s role in these larger processes, which are often missing from mainstream news coverage. 

The first event is a lecture by prison reform and social justice activist Five Omar Mualimm-ak at 7:00 p.m., in Griffiths 123.  Mualimm-ak’s drawings are featured as part of the Brush Gallery’s current exhibitions, which address  issues of incarceration in New York State and the nation.

The symposium’s events are sponsored by SLU Amnesty International, the African American Studies Department, SAGA (Sexuality and Gender Activists), the Weave, the Brush Gallery, and North Country Public Radio’s Prison Time project.

On Tuesday morning, the Alexander String Quartet visited the gallery and played while students from Karen Gibson’s FYP (Children’s Literature and Its Life-Long Lessons) engaged in a drawing assignment. The members of the ASQ seem to enjoy interacting with students — especially Sandy Wilson (cello) and Paul Yarbrough (viola), who added historical context to the music that the group played.  I forget the individual pieces that were played, but they began with Mozart and followed that with Ravel and then Britten.

On Friday morning, NCPR aired a story on the ASQ as part of its Live Music Friday series.

Last week, Drew Matott and Margaret Mahan from Peace Paper were on campus to conduct Panty Pulping workshops in papermaking and printmaking.  Drew and Margaret have been on campus before to for workshops and to make paper, but this was the first time that panties have been pulped on campus!

As they describe the project, “Panty Pulping workshops bring people together to share their strengths and joy through the transformation of their most intimate garments into paper. The concept of creating paper from clothing with personal significance reaches a new level as participants of all ages snip, beat, and reform their underwear together. When we pulp our underwear, we make a statement that violence will not be tolerated.  We stand together in solidarity for survivors, for the global advancement of women, and for creative revolutions.”

This week-long, multi-layered event brought awareness of sexual assault to a wide audience through active participation and hands-on learning. The content is social activism through the vehicle of art-making.

This morning, NCPR aired a story by Zach Hirsch which describes the Panty Pulping project:  Margaret and Drew interviewed by Zach Hirsch, NCPR.

And more photographs are available on the gallery’s flickr site.

 

 

On September 27th, a group of students from Ray Whalen’s art class at Parishville-Hopkinton Central School visited the gallery.  The Alexander String Quartet was in residence at SLU that week, and the students sketched as the quartet played works by Mozart, Shostakovich and Beethoven — not a lightweight program by any means!

Violist Paul Yarbrough spoke briefly between each of the three pieces, giving historical and social context for the music.  It was an amazing opportunity for students to hear a performance by world-class musicians in a small, informal setting.

 

 

Artist Daniel Heyman made the trip to Canton from Philadelphia, PA, earlier this week, visiting campus in conjunction with the Bearing Witness exhibition, which features his gouache paintings and prints (including a huge etching on multiple pieces of plywood).

While here, he gave a very moving artist’s lecture, met with students and members from the local community, and also taught Japanese wood block printing to Melissa Schulenberg’s beginning printmaking class. And he made a lithograph with Melissa, too! All this in just 2 1/2 action-packed days.

I really enjoyed getting to know Daniel — and his snappy sense of humor!

 

Gong meditation and relaxation for creativity with Gurumantra Kaur
Tuesday, November 8, 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Richard F. Brush Art Gallery

Gurumantra Kaur is a certified Kundalini Research Institute yoga instructor, registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance, member of International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association, 3H0, and international associate of Yoga Therapists.  She specializes in gong meditation and relaxation, addiction therapy, mental health awareness, fertility susceptibility, fitness for senior citizens, and meditational classes from beginners to advanced.

Gurumantra Kaur (center) with friends

This vegan yogi expands conscious thought about body awareness, mental health, and healing with sound currents.  She uses kundalini yoga as a way to exercise the mind, body, and spirit—a technique which enables one to reach a higher state of awareness, emotional stability, and strength by using several techniques, including pranayama, kriyas, meditation, bhandas, mudras, mantras, and visualization.

For more information visit www.yogistrong.com.

Meditation and gong relaxation with Gurumantra Kaur is presented in conjunction with the ELEMENTALS Birds exhibition on display through December 10, 2011, with Inga and Andy Hamilton, artists from Northern Ireland, in residence through Thursday, November 10.  ELEMENTALS Birds is an experiment to see if artists, printmakers, and craftspeople can physically embody feelings of peace, harmony, and goodwill in their artwork and tangibly affect the space around them.

This event is free and open to the public.  Bring a cushion or mat if you have one.  Please share this information with students and friends!

 

 

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