Working with Teaching Artist Geneve Brossard, thirty students at the Cobble Hill School of American Studies participated in the creation of a series of murals during a Rotunda Gallery Residency. This project combines self-portraiture with creative writing and celebrates the positive contribution students can have on their environment. During the creation of the murals, the students discussed the idea of public art in the classroom. The murals will hang permanently in the school's upper hallways.

The Department of Youth and Community Development, in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Council, has awarded Rotunda support through the new Cultural After School Adventures Initiative. This initiative partners nonprofit cultural organizations with DYCD Out-of-School-Time (OST) providers to create enriching, educational, and diverse experiences for our City's youth. The Gallery will collaborate with Sesame Flyers International at I.S. 68 in Canarsie to offer visual arts education to junior high school students.

The Sesame Flyers International OST Program seeks to improve the way the community views young people and the way youth look at their futures. Students gain knowledge as they are exposed to a diverse program of activities, including chess, hip hop, dance, drama, academics and basketball. The Rotunda Gallery is delighted to enhance the visual art component of this program. Working with Brooklyn-based artists, students will learn about contemporary art, discover new artmaking techniques and create a portfolio of original work.

The United Way of New York City has also awarded the Gallery a grant through the Literacy and Arts Initiative to create an afterschool bookmaking workshop at I.S. 49 in Bushwick. Teaching Artists Geneve Brossard, Dana Jerabak and Monique Schubert will transform the satellite Rotunda Gallery at I.S. 49 into a professional artist studio and artist book gallery. Students will learn to build a limited edition, one of a kind artist book from structure to content. To see this project firsthand, join us on Friday, March 24 from 10 am to noon for the opening of the upcoming I.S. 49 student exhibition, The Art of the Book. For more information, please contact Education Director Hawley Hussey at 718.875.4047 x12.

The Literacy and Arts Initiative is part of the Community Achievement Project in the Schools (CAPS), a collaboration of the United Way of New York City and the New York City Department of Education. Community-based youth specialists work with schools, parents and students to help youth who are skipping school, failing classes or struggling with personal problems succeed in school.

The Rotunda Gallery is pleased to announce the recipients of our ninth annual Artist Residency program. The Artist Residency Program is a project of BCAT/Brooklyn Community Access Television and the Rotunda Gallery, both programs of BRIC/Brooklyn Information & Culture. Made possible by a grant from the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts, the program provides Brooklyn-based artists the opportunity to explore video and multimedia as an artistic medium. Selected artists include: Sasha Chavchavadze, Soyeon Cho, Mareena Daredia, Suzanne Goldenberg, Paul Helzer, Millree Hughes, Laura Karetzky, James Leonardo, Ann Murphy, Margie Neuhaus, Elisabeth Smolarz, Cynthia Stephens, Jason Varone, and Tamara Yadao.

These fifteen artists will receive technical training and access to BCAT's state-of-the-art media center to create their own projects, all at no cost. They will gain valuable experience in television studio production, digital and video equipment and editing, or multimedia production. The residencies will take place between April and December of 2006.

The Rotunda Gallery announces the open call for applicants to The Gallery's Lori Ledis Curatorial Initiative. This program fosters emerging curatorial talent in the field of contemporary art. Each year, Rotunda dedicates its professional space and full staff support to realizing the vision of an emerging curator selected through this open call for proposals. The program is supported by a memorial fund named for this respected member of the New York arts community and long-time supporter of the Gallery. Previous exhibitions selected through this initiative have included Emotional Landscape (2006) curated by Paul Laster and Renée Riccardo; Decipher, Hand Painted Digital (2005) curated by Yasafumi Nakamori; A Slow Read (2004), curated by Katarina Wong; What Happened in Lime Mills? (2002) curated by Nelly Reifler; and Critical Consumption (2003), curated by Jonathan Allen.

The application deadline is Monday, May 8, 2006. Six finalists will be selected by a joint selection panel consisting of Rotunda Gallery, Advisory Committee members and professionals from the field. Emerging curators with any level of experience are eligible. More information is available online or by calling 718-875-4047 x10.

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The student exhibition Re: Place, an Artistic Look at Natural Disaster opened on Friday, December 16 at the Rotunda Gallery at I.S. 49 (223 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn NY). Contemporary artists and teachers Christian Curiel, Greg Fuchs, Michael Kaye, Deborah Wasserman, Roberta Weinstein, and Rachel Winborn have collaborated with I.S. 49 students in creating visual responses to the power of natural disaster. This program is made possible through the Empire State Partnership (ESP) of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the Project Arts Initiative of I.S. 49.

Re: Place represents an exciting collaboration between Brooklyn students at I.S. 49, working with the Rotunda Gallery, and New Orleans students displaced to Houston, working with the cultural organization KID smart and the artist collective Category 5. As students prepared for the exhibition, they created artwork with the same approach and at the same time as their peers in Houston. During the process, they also exchanged poetry, artwork and photographs documenting their progress. Finished pieces from Houston are shown at the I.S. 49 Gallery, and at the close of the exhibition, selections of the Brooklyn students' work will be sent to Houston. The Rotunda Gallery at I.S. 49 also welcomed New Orleans artists from Category 5 during the exhibition opening.

KID smart strives to increase student learning in all subjects through understanding, practice and appreciation of the arts. Through artists in residence, after-school programs, and other projects working with professional artist educators, KID smART promotes discipline, self-respect, teamwork, creative problem solving, and pride of accomplishment within the students.

Category 5 is a group of artists, educators and healers working with students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Category 5, an arts collective, was formed as a result of their displacement from NOLA. They are currently working to create a visual language of recovery for the residents and the Diaspora of New Orleans. Their goal is to create artwork that will help students find ways to begin healing from the trauma of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Using arts projects supplemented with yoga and meditation, Category 5 provided the students with tools for continuing healing after the program is over.

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Attention Brooklyn-affiliated artists: BCAT and Rotunda Gallery announce open call for applications to Artist Residency Program.

BCAT/Brooklyn Community Access Television and the Rotunda Gallery, both programs of BRIC/Brooklyn Information & Culture, announce the open call for applicants to their ninth annual joint residency program. Made possible by a grant from the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts, the program provides Brooklyn-based artists the opportunity to explore video and multimedia as an artistic medium. The artists selected for the residency will receive technical training and access to BCAT's state-of-the-art media center to create their own projects, all at no cost. They will gain valuable experience in television studio production, digital and video equipment and editing, or multimedia production. The residencies will take place between April and December of 2006.

The application deadline is Monday, February 28, 2006. Fifteen residency participants will be selected by a joint selection panel consisting of Rotunda Gallery, BCAT and BRIC staff, Advisory Committee members and professionals from the field. Artists of any level of experience with multi-media materials are eligible; a desire to explore the digital and video artistic mediums is all that is required. Residents will have a choice of workshops in the BCAT media center, based on their areas of focus and level of knowledge in the field. More information is available online or by calling 718-875-4047 x10.

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The Rotunda Gallery announces Paul Laster and Reneé Riccardo as this year's winners of the Lori Ledis Memorial Award for Curatorial Initiative.

Rotunda Gallery's Curatorial Initiative Program supports new and emerging curators and provides opportunities for them to realize their vision in a professional gallery setting. The program is supported by the Lori Ledis Memorial Fund, named for the respected member of the New York arts community and long-time supporter of the Rotunda Gallery.

The curatorial team of Paul Laster and Reneé Riccardo are this year's recipients of the award. Their exhibition, Emotional Landscape, will open on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 with a reception at the Gallery from 6 to 8 pm. Exploring the visual realms of dreams, recollections, and fantasies, Emotional Landscape presents the work of 13 artists who understand the psychological power of place. Situating their narratives around forests, deserts, mountains, and seas, they create a sense of mystery with representational imagery of a slightly strange sort.

Previous exhibitions selected through the Curatorial Initiative have included Critical Consumption (2003) curated by Jonathan Allen; A Slow Read (2004) curated by Katarina Wong; and Decipher: Hand-Painted Digital (2005), curated by Yasufumi Nakamori. Graham Parker

Artist, curator and social interventionist Graham Parker will participate in a year-long residency at the Rotunda Gallery that will both upend the very notion of an artist residency and further Parker's earlier work to expose underlying and often overlooked structures in various systems. His residency, operating almost entirely beyond the gallery walls, will explore the phenomeno- logy of Brooklyn as a cultural destination and will seek to articulate strategies by which art is exhibited, artists are presented, and real estate interests can fuel a cultural renaissance.

Drawing on historical and contemporary references such as the early 20th century Big Store phenomenon and duplicitous websites, where fictions and fantasies are used to manipulate the public, Parker will deploy the role of resident in a playful manner. Acting as artist, curator and interloper of a mirror site of the Rotunda Gallery at a remote location, Parker will engage the growing visual art constituency of Brooklyn, finding space for other artists, residents and visitors to momentarily share the residency with him. Parker will draw on his existing vocabulary of data surveys, walks, discreet performances and mapping as well as stock gallery conventions of openings, installation weeks, programming and archiving. Parker's residency will ultimately result in an installation at the Gallery in 2006.

Parker has a recognized track record as an artist, curator and cultural animateur. A recent alum of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, this year he was invited back to that program to work in the Architecture and Urbanism strand along with the Cooper Union School of Architecture. He was also this year awarded a 6-month studio residency by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. In addition to his work as an artist, Parker has curated over 40 shows by other artists, both as Director of floating ip and the galleries at Salford University in Manchester, England. He also writes for various magazines and lectures, most recently as course leader of the Tate Gallery North of England MA network. He has received major commissions from the LMCC, Henry Moore Institute and Tate Gallery. Parker has also shown throughout Europe, as well as in group shows in US cities and group and solo in New York. His work is held in several private collections worldwide and as well as in the British Government Art Collection.

Links:
floatingip.com
www.grahamparker.info

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The Rotunda Gallery is pleased to announce it has been awarded a prestigious Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) Museums for America Grant in the amount of $97,000 over two years for its arts-in-education programs, including its innovative in-school contemporary art residency program and professional development workshops for teachers and administrators.

"The Rotunda Gallery is thrilled to have been selected by this highly-competitive federal program that awards grants to the nation's most outstanding museums and non-profit galleries," noted Rotunda's Director of Education Hawley Hussey. "Contemporary art is a powerful means to develop authentic partnerships between artists, teachers, administrators and Brooklyn students, stimulating creative thinking and encouraging students to become lifelong learners."

Museums for America grants strengthen the ability of museums to serve the public more effectively by supporting high-priority activities that advance the institution's mission and strategic goals. The flexible grants can be used by a museum for ongoing activities, research, planning and behind-the-scenes work, new programs, the purchase of equipment or services, or technology upgrades and integration to improve overall institutional effectiveness.

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I.S. 49 Student Artwork Featured at Summer Seminar

"Pushing the Portrait," created by 7th grade art students at I.S. 49 in collaboration with Rotunda Gallery Teaching Artist Millie Burns and Classroom Teacher Mike Kaye, was showcased at the Hillwood Art Museum of Long Island University during the 9th annual Empire State Partnership Summer Seminar. The piece received an enthusiastic reception, energizing discussion and highlighting the incredible potential of in-school collaboration.

Burns noted, "I am so pleased by the positive reception of this work by our peers within the ESP community. This collaboration encouraged open communication among students and demonstrated a united approach to education on the part of the classroom art teacher and the Teaching Artist. Our collaboration is a reflection of the belief that learning skills are not antithetical to the nature of the creative mind and that developing these skills is essential to pursuing any career." Learn more.

Empire State Partnerships (ESP) is dedicated to identifying, supporting and developing promising practices in collaborations between cultural organizations and schools. Summer Seminar is an intensive, weeklong retreat held annually for a wide range of Empire State Partnership participants, including school-based practitioners and administrators, teaching artists and cultural administrators. Learn more about Rotunda Gallery's Empire State Partnership.

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2005 KidsDay Celebration Honors Brooklyn Diversity!

On June 9, 2005, hundreds of visitors to the Gallery participated in our annual KidsDay event, a day-long celebration presented by the Rotunda Gallery, The Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, and The New York Transit Museum.

Participants were invited to view KidsArt, the Rotunda Gallery's annual exhibition of artworks created by children participating in the Gallery's education program. Families also participated in free art-making workshops, inspired by the theme "Celebrating Brooklyn Diversity." Children painted original sideshow banners, inspired by the famous Coney Island sideshow paintings of Marie Roberts, and created their own Brooklyn Subway maps.

Pictured here, student Gail Kiebon proudly poses next to her class's artwork with Teaching Artist C.J. Stephens, Classroom Teacher Tammy Mahone, and Con Edison representative Phyllis White-Thorne. Five classes at P.S. 771, a special education multi-site organization, created a series of large collaborative artwork which incorporated a variety of artmaking techniques, including painting, printmaking, photography and collage. The project was inspired by Phoenix Rising, created by students at Julia Richman Education Complex in New York City.

As Phyllis White-Thorne remarked, "I really enjoyed myself at the exhibition and look forward to visiting others in the future. The kids were wonderful and the work -- just awesome."

KidsArt was generously supported by Astoria Federal and Citigroup.

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Student Work Highlighted at I.S. 33 Graduation

Under the direction of Teaching Artist Deborah Wasserman and Education Director Hawley Hussey, a team of students at I.S. 33 created a beautiful Japanese screen mandala during an intensive five-day residency.

Using exquisite hand-made paper, the students meticulously created this beautiful tribute to their school. The finished work was featured prominently onstage at I.S. 33's graduation this past June.

This project was made possible by generous support from the Citigroup Foundation.