New additions to college art gallery

One of the newest additions to the College’s Art Department is the new art gallery director, Sarah Cunningham. Having curated over 20 exhibits, Cunningham brings her skills in both administration and education to the College while, at the same time, sharing her passion toward art and the dialogue it creates within a community.

A Syracuse native, Cunningham always felt that art was an integral part of her life. Her father, a craftsman and gallery owner, had studio space in a warehouse building frequented by about 50 other artists. Every day after school, she visited the studio and observed the other artists’ work. “I got to see a huge range of work and a huge range of work styles and medium,” said Cunningham. “It was very inspirational.”

After receiving her master’s in fine arts at Syracuse University, Cunningham began her work as an arts administrator, educator, and curator. Among many other things, she became curator and resident caretaker of the Alice Austen House Museum in Staten Island. Shortly after, she worked as a teaching artist and gallery educator at the International Charter School in Rhode Island, where she visited the children of the school and worked to provide more art experience for them.

At the Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation, Cunningham also worked as a neighborhood artist-in-residence, where she worked on large scale community arts projects with at-risk teens. With all this experience, Cunningham acknowledges that "The great work of a gallery is the curating aspect, but, of course, there are a lot of administrative duties as well. So I come to this job with a balance of the administrative skills and the curating skills.”

Cunningham has already coordinated the annual Art Faculty Exhibit on display at Holman Hall. Some pieces include“Evolution III” and “Natural History IV,” two juxtaposed photographs of modern day people acting as outside observers to photographs of ancient people taken by Assistant Professor of Art Liselot van der Heijden. van der Heijden also included an audio-visual piece titled “Penn Station,” with various sounds of beats and stomps coming from an overturned plastic bucket.

Another eye-catcher is a piece by Assistant Professor of Art Ricardo Miranda titled “Fallout: What’s Left.” It’s an eclectic amalgamation of different types of media displaying issues concerning Nicaraguan culture and politics. It includes a video game console masked as an ATM, a series of political images displayed on a television screen, propaganda posters and wooden guerilla props.

One of the most controversial, however, is the art exhibit’s “Patriot Act: The Home Version” by Michael Kabbash, assistant professor of art, which is a parody of the popular game, Monopoly. Its winner is the one who can keep his or her civil liberties in tact by the end of the game. 

"I was very impressed by the faculty exhibit, especially the Patriot Act piece,” said digital arts major Luciane Pacius. “It’s great to see what the faculty are doing outside of the classroom.”

"The exhibit is an excellent opportunity to see the wide range of talent, media and conceptual ideas that the art faculty employ in their own work and share daily with their
students," said Cunningham

Aside from increasing both on and off campus attendance at the art gallery, Cunningham is also expecting to coordinate future exhibitions, including the National Drawing Exhibition, a juried drawing competition with up to $3,000 in prize money, and the annual Art Student Exhibition. Next up for the Art Gallery is the exhibit Between the Sheets: A Collection of Artists Books from the Women's Studio Workshop. Curated by Cunningham, the opening reception is Wednesday, October 25 from 5-7 p.m.