(an)OTHER Show

Selected works by Artists of Color from Connecticut State University Faculty

September 11 - October 9, 2008

Artists' Reception: September 18, 2008, 4:00 - 7:00 PM

AnOther Show Events and Lectures:

Wednesday, September 24: Gallery Talk and Presentation by Mary Kordak*
"Don't Box Me In: Art and Diversity in a Multicultural Society"

Session 1: 2 PM - 3 PM

Session 2: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

*Mary Kordak, former curator of education at the Yale University Art Gallery,
will present a gallery talk and workshop titled, "Don't Box Me In: Art
and Diversity in a Multicultural Society".  Ms. Kordak was a museum
educator for many years and has authored several articles on African American
and African art. She has received a Fulbright Fellowship and the Connecticut
Museum Educator of the Year award.

Tuesday, October 7: Artists' Panel 2 PM - 4 PM
The panel will discuss issues surrounding art, ethnicity,
and diversity as it relates to the larger society.

At the Artists Panel, from Left to Right:

Lula Mae Blocton, Imna Arroyo, Claudia Widdiss, Vicente Garcia,  Jesse Whitehead, James Buxton, Sheri Fafunwa-Ndibe

Featuring Selected Works by Artists:
 

Imna Arroyo					Qimin Liu
Lula Mae Blocton					Cora Marshall
James L. Buxton, Jr.					Thuan VU
Abe Echevarria					Jessie Whitehead
Sheri Fafunwa-Ndibe					Claudia Widdiss
Vicente Garcia

“Diversity: The art of thinking independently together."
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes

The creative work by artists of color is as varied as the artists who create it. There are artists of color who employ recognizably African, Native American, Latino, or Asian icons and symbols in works that speak to our shared and individual histories. For other artists, process is the subject and driving concern in creating their work. These, frequently abstract or semi-abstract works, hint at imaged worlds of endless possibilities.  For other artists of color, their ethnicity informs their work as subtle underlying principles just below the surface of explicit expression. Spiritual healing takes precedence, for some artists and they compose new narratives inspired by their ancestral pasts. As stated earlier, the creative work by artists of color is as varied as the artists who create it.

Even so, too often galleries and other exhibition spaces still limit (or save up) artists of color for a particular event or thematic month: February is for artists of African descent; November is Native American; May is Asian; September is Hispanic, and so forth. One result is that viewers are disappointed or surprised when they attend exhibitions by Other-American artists if the work does not conform to their expectations of “ethnic” art but looks instead like just “another” show.

This exhibition features select works of artists of color from the Connecticut State University System faculty whose breadth of work spans a variety of media, content, styles, and intentions. The underlying aim of the exhibition is to begin a dialogue about the diversity of approaches to creative processes, a

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