Renowned Artists to Speak at St. Joseph's

ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE WELCOMES LORNA SIMPSON AND JAMES CASEBERE

World-Renowned Artists to Discuss Their Works at Inaugural Presidential Arts Colloquium

St. Joseph's College Council for the Arts is pleased to announce that contemporary artists Lorna Simpson and James Casebere will discuss their individual approaches to visual expression as the featured speakers at the College's inaugural Presidential Arts Colloquium. Following their talks, both artists will take questions from the audience after their separate addresses. These lectures, which are also a part of the "Identity Formed And Transformed: My Self, My Community, My World" series, will take place on Thursday, April 3rd at the Tuohy Hall Auditorium, 245 Clinton Avenue, at 6:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Lorna Simpson’s art practice has consistently examined the unseen forces that guide our reasoning around race, gender, identity and culture, challenging viewers’ perceptions of these subjects. Simpson first gained recognition for her pioneering large-scale, conceptual, photograph-and-text works that presented the African-American woman as a visual point of departure. In later photographic exhibits, she once again used the figure of an African-American woman with interjected text to challenge narrowly preconceived notions of race, gender, and identity. Most recently, Simpson has focused on conceptual video. Her latest DVD's examine themes of race, control, class and the viewer's perception of these issues. Last year, her career was the subject of a 20-year retrospective featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Along with this, Simpson's works have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Miami Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

For two decades, James Casebere has created increasingly complex table-sized models based on architectural and historical sources. The works are constructed of simple materials, and are reduced to their most important details. After they are built, Casebere takes the models into his studio and photographs them with artful lighting. The focus of his art is to examine institutional spaces and to bring into focus their relationships to social control and societal structures. For his most recent work, “The Levant,” Casebere’s research took him to the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. From his study, he created representations of archetypal Ottoman spaces to examine the "architecture of absence and silence.” His works have been shown at the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, to name a few.

Exhibit at St. Joseph's

BROOKLYN, N.Y.: January 7, 2008 - St. Joseph's College Council for the Arts is pleased to announce that it will feature works by well-known Brooklyn artists Ramona Candy and Felicia Megginson in an exhibit entitled: "Facing Self: There's a Story Here." This exhibit, the first in the Council's special series, "Identities Formed and Transformed: Myself, My Community, My World," will be on display at the Alumni Room Gallery, Tuohy Hall, 245 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y., from January 23rd to February 14th. There will be a gallery talk with both artists on Tuesday, February 5th at 12:40 p.m., and receptions on Monday, January 28th from 5:30 – 8 p.m. and Saturday, February 9th from 12 – 3 p.m. Regular gallery hours are Monday and Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m. and on Saturday from 12 to 3 p.m.

Artist, dancer, teacher, Ramona Candy was born in Brooklyn, New York and began painting and drawing as a child. She went on to earn a degree in Art at CCNY and during her studies, and after, maintained an active dance career. According to Ms. Candy, "Following my dance career, it is only natural that movement be a part of my artwork. Though many of my paintings and collages are inspired by dance, it is also pride in my rich Haitian/Caribbean heritage and growing up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn that influences my work. My goal is to lift you, the audience, engage you in the “dance” and help bring to mind your own roots, heritage and those things that make you smile."

In her photographs, Ms. Megginson places herself in nature through a technique that constructs evocative double-exposure images. Her face, feet, or hands are photographed sequentially in the surroundings to expose both the place and the person. In this series, she explores the “ancestral pull” of the forest. “These images allow me to make a connection with a time when my ancestors viewed the natural world as a place that was both sacred and profane, a place that was filled with life, death, and regenerative energy,” says Felicia. Megginson earned her B.A. at the University of Virginia and M.A. at New York University. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation in Ithaca, NY, The Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY. Currently, she lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Founded by Sister Elizabeth A. Hill, CSJ, J.D., president, the St. Joseph’s College Council for the Arts is a coalition of students, faculty members and staff who serve as a focal point for St. Joseph’s College’s educational and community outreach programming in the arts. By expanding and integrating campus arts activities, the Council seeks to enhance the public image of the College as a cultural center in Brooklyn. For more information about this, please call (718) 399-6755.

Godspell at St. Joseph's

The St. Joseph's College Chapel Players will present themusical "Godspell" from November 7th to November 10th at the College's Tuohy Hall Auditorium on 245 Clinton Avenue. Originally conceived and directed by John-Michael Tebelak, with music & new lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, composer of the recent hit "Wicked," "Godspell" is a musical based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The plot is a loose interpretation of the teachings of Christ as portrayed throughout St. Matthew's New Testament, and the show portrays Jesus as teacher, guiding his individual and diverse followers into a single-faith community. The show celebrates that spirit of community as well as the basic principles that to this day form the bedrock of Christianity. The curtain drops at 7 p.m on the 8th and 9th and at 8 p.m. on the 10th. Prices are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Please call Jaime Vacca-Hoefner for reservations or more information at 718-399-2602.

James Sanders to Speak at St. Joseph's College

Emmy-Award Winning Writer and Renowned Architect James Sanders to Speak at St. Joseph's College Annual Founders Day Lecture BROOKLYN, N.Y - October 11, 2007 - St. Joseph's College is pleased to announce that Mr. James Sanders will serve as the guest lecturer for the College's annual Founders Day lecture. On Monday, October 22, 2007, he will deliver a talk entitled, "Ever-Changing City: New York Past, Present and Future," at 4:30 p.m. at the Tuohy Hall Auditorium on 245 Clinton Avenue. The event is free and open to the public.

With Ric Burns, Mr. Sanders co-conceived and co-wrote the 172-hour, eight-part PBS series, “New York: A Documentary Film,” and co-authored its companion volume, New York: An Illustrated History. Widely viewed and critically acclaimed across the country, the series received six Emmy nominations, two Emmy Awards, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. Mr. Sanders and Mr. Burns also co-wrote “Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film,” which received a George Foster Peabody Award in 2007.

Mr. Sanders is a regular contributor to the New York Times, and has written articles for the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, and Architectural Record. As the principal of the architecture and urban design firm James Sanders & Associates, his projects include public work for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Pershing Square Management Association in Los Angeles, and the Parks Council, where he co-designed and implemented an innovative series of urban amenities and improvements for Bryant Park in Manhattan. In addition, his book, Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies, an exploration of the century-long relationship of the city and film, became the basis for a major multimedia exhibit in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, sponsored by Turner Classic Movies and Time Warner Cable.