518 587-2100, ext. 2918 or Ral Manzano 718 907-5740
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMIGRANTS: Reinventing Amrica: A Multicultural Celebration (BROOKLYN, N.Y., Oct. 7, 2014) Empire State College will present IMMIGRANTS: Reinventing Amrica, a multimedia exhibit showcasing the work of current students and alumni sharing their views, contributions, and experiences in the making of a new Amrica.
The opening reception is Wednesday, Oct. 8, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the Livingston Gallery, sixth floor, 177 Livingston Street, Brooklyn. Ral Manzano, college faculty mentor and gallery coordinator, is the curator of the exhibition, which will be on display from Oct. 8 through Dec. 18, Monday through Thursday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Empire state college president Merodie A. Hancock said, This wonderful exhibition is one way that Empire State College is participating in the dialogue around our changing national demographics. This nation was built upon waves of immigrants, who brought their talents, hard work and perseverence to contribute to the growth and vitality of this country. As our country engages in debate about immigration, it is helpful to stop and consider what wonderful contributions immigrants have made, and are still making, to our common culture. We are pleased to partner with PAMAR for another year to highlight these contributions and stories, and educate our surrounding community. We invite everyone to stop by. ~ Paula Hewitt Amram is a storytelling artist. Her drawings deal with the migration of people, food, and animals, the rights of boys and girls, and the relationship between humans and nature. Such constant interactions nurture her creativity and the world as she sees it.
~Self-taught, Brooklyn-born artist, Michelle Laverne Bossier explores abstraction and color to illustrate multifaceted aspects of her community.
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~ Street photographer Chris John Bowman is fascinated with the many cultures in his neighborhood known as Little Pakistan, where he finds comfort and feels welcome to learn how cultures live side-by- side, particularly during a time of often-controversial gentrification and worldwide societal conflict.
~Multimedia and installation Venezuelan artist Patricia Cazorla Sifuentes depicts the hard labor children of immigrants are exposed to, and exploited by, unscrupulous corporations. She aims to raise awareness about inhumane working conditions in farms and unfair trades.
~Filomena McEwan, a first-generation Italian, portrays a personal narrative of her family journey and contribution to America in a collage mosaic. She came to America when she was four years old. Sailing from Naples, Italy, she depicts her first impressions of her new home, New York, and takes a great pride on her great-uncles work as a sandhog during the construction of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, now knows as The Hugh L. Cary Tunnel.
~ Javier Medina, too, is a socially concerned artist. His work moved from the underground artistic world of Manhattans West Village and the Lower East Side designing flyers and covers for unknown artists and promoters to satire the social fabric of modern capitalist America. From graphite style to expressionistic representations, he conveys the world of the other.
America is not a melting pot. It is a multi-colored mosaic with sharp lines of distinction that serve as a catalyst for co-existence among its masses, says self-taught Mexican descendant artist Gabriel Rivera. In his mixed-media painting, he portrays the many faces of the New World.
Brazilian artist Claudia Rocha-van Holt calls herself an accidental artist, one that loves old dusty books and ancient things. She takes nothing for granted and every story she hears become part of her creativity. As a mixed-media artist, she creates nonlinear dynamic compositions where color and contrast juxtapose to unveil images or an imaginary landscape.
Stephan van Holt, also a street photographer, focuses on social realities. For him there is more than black and white but rather many shades of gray, each one with its one current which can draw you in to do good or evil if one allows it to happen.
Manzano, a Colombian immigrant himself, and an ESC alumnus, has been with the faculty since 2006. For him, This multicultural coalition of students, mentors, and artists is an example of the schools commitment to diversity. The United States has been built and rebuilt, shaped and reshaped by immigrants for a new Amrica. When you facilitate a place for people to live, share, and learn about each others differences and similarities, you open your heart and mind to greater understanding of humanity contributing to build kinder societies. 3
The college is participating in the ninth annual Latin American Cultural Week in New York City by working with artistic institutions promoting and enriching the arts and bringing together the community at large. The week is a festival that showcases music, dance, visual arts, theater, film, literature and auctions throughout the New York City area. The LACW is a program of Pan American Musical Art Research, founded and directed by Uruguayan pianist Polly Ferman. This year, PAMAR is celebrating its 30th anniversary. For more information about Ferman, visit www.pamar.org or www.pollyferman.net. About SUNY Empire State College
Empire State College, the nontraditional, open college of the SUNY system, educates more than 20,000 students worldwide at eight international sites, more than 35 locations in the state of New York, online, as well as face to face and through a blend of both, at the associate, bachelors and masters levels.
The average age of an undergraduate student at the college is 35 and graduate students average age 40. Most Empire State College students are working adults. Many are raising families and meeting civic commitments in the communities where they live, while studying part time. In addition to awarding credit for prior college-level learning, the college pairs each undergraduate student with a faculty mentor who supports that student throughout his or her college career.
Working with their mentors, students design an individual degree program and engage in guided independent study and course work onsite, online or through a combination of both, which provides the flexibility for students to choose where, when and how to learn. Students have the opportunity to enroll five times during the year.
The colleges 70,000 alumni are active in their communities as entrepreneurs, politicians, business professionals, artists, nonprofit agency employees, teachers, veterans and active military, union members and more.
The college was first established in 1971 by the SUNY Board of Trustees with the encouragement of the late Ernest L. Boyer, chancellor of the SUNY system from 1970 to 1977. Boyer also served as United States commissioner of education during the administration of President Jimmy Carter and then as president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
More information about the college is available at www.esc.edu.
Directions: 2,3 trains to Hoyt Street or A,C,G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets #