A Multi-Cultural Genocide Exhibition and Symposium
Exhibit Dates: March 18 - April 25, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 21, 2-4PM
Symposium: Saturday, April 18, 1-4PM
In recognition of April being International Genocide Month, the Whistler House Museum of Art is presenting a Multi-Cultural Genocide exhibition and symposium entitled Pursuing Justice Through Art: 2015.
The exhibition runs from March 18 to April 25, 2015. The exhibition runs from March 18 to April 25, where works of art will be displayed by artists whose themes are rooted in genocide and Holocaust memories and commemoration. The opening reception for the exhibition will take place on Saturday, March 21 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.
The word "genocide" was coined in 1944 to name a particularly shocking and horrific crime of violence. Genocide is the systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of an entire national, racial, religious, or ethnic group. That it has been put into practice so many times in one century is even more shocking. Genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law.
More than 262 million people throughout the world were murdered as a result of genocide in the 20th century. Armenian, Jewish, Cambodian, Bosnian, Guatemalan, Rwandan, Sudanese, and Native Americans are only a few of the nationalities that have been affected by genocide. It is the hope that education and awareness through the medium of art can be used to help ensure a more peaceful future in the 21st century.
The year 2015 is significant in genocide history. It is the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the 70th Anniversary of the end of the Jewish Holocaust, and the 40th Anniversary of the Cambodian Genocide. The exhibition and symposium are also inspired by Arshile Gorky, the Father of Abstract Expressionism and considered to be one of the most famous survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
Exhibiting Artists
Included in the exhibition are works by: Mohammed Ali and Al Asadi, Gagik Aroutiunian, Bayda Asbridge, John Avakian, Ani Babaian, Stephen Clements, Ellen Davison, Adrienne Der Marderosian, Dave Drinon, Charlotte Eckler, Amy Fagin, Fanardjian (loaned by Stephen Dulgarian), Lynne Foy, Gillian Frazier, Charles Gallagher, Mary Hart, Sirarpi Heghinian Walzer, Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, James Higgins, Raymond Howell (loaned by Eve Soroken), JoAnn Janjigian, Andrew Ellis Johnson, David Jones, Lucine Kasbarian, Mico Kaufman, Chantha Khem, Puthearith Kret, Sandra Lauterbach, Markus Lewis, Yary Livan, Adam Mastoon,Talin Megherian, Kevork Mourad, Crissie Murphy, Ruth Naylor, Marsha Nouritza Odabashian, Judith Peck, Dany Pen, Sandra Presley, Bill Reedy, Hope Ricciardi, Jennifer Rocco Stone, Alain Rogier, LinDa Saphan, Ruth T. Segaloff, Susanne Slavick, Jessica Sperandio, Nora Tang, Sopheap Theam and New England Quilt Museum’s Community Quilters, Rose Sielian Theriault, Rita Thompson, Robert Thurlow, Holly Tomlinson, James Aguer Tungarliit, Carol Vinick, Denise Warren, Youxin Yang, and Berge Ara Zabian.
Pursuing Justice Symposium
The symposium will take place on Saturday, April 18, from 1-4PM. Several speakers and a poet are scheduled to present, including:
Diana Der-Hovanessian: Diana Der-Hovanessian will present "Why were poets (250 of them) the first victims of the 1915 genocide?" Der-Hovanessian, a New England born poet, was twice a Fulbright professor of American Poetry and is the author of more than 25 books of poetry and translations. She has awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Society of America, PEN/Columbia Translation Center, National Writers Union, Armenian Writers Union, Paterson Poetry Center, Prairie Schooner, American Scholar, and the Armenian Ministry of Culture. Her poems have appeared in Agni, American Poetry Review, Ararat, CSM, Poetry, Partisan, Prairie Schooner, Nation, etc., and in anthologies such as Against Forgetting, Women on War, On Prejudice, Finding Home, Leading Contemporary Poets, Orpheus and Company, Identity Lessons, Voices of Conscience, Two Worlds Walking, etc. She works as a visiting poet and guest lecturer on American poetry, Armenian poetry in translation, and the literature of human rights at various universities in the USA and abroad. She serves as president of the New England Poetry Club.
Kim Servart Theriault, Ph.D.: Dr. Theriault will present "Trauma, Memory and the Dilemma of Representation." Dr. Theriault holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Virginia and is currently a Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at Dominican University in River Forest, IL. She has several academic publications to her credit including Rethinking Arshile Gorky and the essay "Exile, Trauma, and Arshile Gorky's The Artist and His Mother" and the published catalog for the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective. She has given art historical lectures at venues such as the Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, and Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and universities such as Oxford, the University of London, UCLA, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.
Dr. Elliott W. Salloway: Dr. Salloway will present "Genocide...The Paradox of Human Nature." Dr. Salloway is the USA founder of Project eXodus, an international organization that explores the issues of genocide and human nature through art exhibitions, raising awareness throughout the world. He is the COO of the Boston Global Forum, founded to bring together leaders and experts from around the globe to discuss and solve the most critical issues affecting the world at large. As a faculty member at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, he has used art extensively as a teaching tool. Dr. Salloway has been a periodontist in Worcester for 49 years and is an avid painter and photographer whose works have been exhibited at the Miami Historical Museum, Worcester City Arts, Boston City Arts, The New Gallery in Boston, Panopticon Gallery in Boston and Waltham, Arts Worcester, and the Davis Art Gallery. He studied art at Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Worcester Art Museum.
Sayon Soeun: Sayon Soeun is a survivor of the Cambodian Genocide and featured in the documentary Lost Child: Sayon's Journey. Sayon will present his story and a short clip of the documentary. He was abducted at the age of six, exploited by the Khmer Rouge, his family life and education stolen. His recovery and redemption from unimaginable evil entails his transition from an orphanage in a refugee camp to adoption by a loving American family. After more than 35 years, he recently made contact with brothers and a sister he assumed were dead. The documentary follows his journey back to Cambodia to heal himself by finding the family that let him slip away and forgiving himself for his complicity as a Khmer Rouge child soldier.
Amy Fagin: Amy Fagin will present "Genocide: Chronology and Geography; A Global Perspective." Amy Fagin is a U.S. based visual artist specializing in the traditional art form of manuscript illumination. Her body of work represents a meta-modernist approach to the materials, techniques and theoretical principals used in manuscript illumination as a re-mediated visual art form for contemporary consideration. She is author of Beyond Genocide; an emerging series of illuminations narrating a visual perspective on global incidents of genocide and mass violence. Ms. Fagin is also an independent scholar in genocide studies and conducts research / seminars, lectures, workshops and advisory work on global initiatives of memory and memorialization through individual and collective arts expression and the museum experience. She has contributed expertise in international consultative events such as the African Union Human Rights Memorial Project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the 5th International Symposium on Genocide and the Pursuit of Justice in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ms. Fagin served on the advisory board of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and regularly publishes editorials, reviews and essays on genocide, art and 21st century expression and education.
RSVP
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Media Links
Download the Press Release here.
Image (above): Hope Ricciardi, Diaspora, collage and oil on fir panels, 24 x 24 in. For a higher image resolution click here.
Crissie Murphy, A Hard Place, oil, charcoal, and graphite, 24x36." For a higher resolution image click here.
Gagik Aroutiunian, The Family, Life Goes On, oil paint on paper mounted on canvas, 20x25." For a higher resolution image click here.
Jennifer Rocco Stone, Blood of the Innocent, acrylic on canvas, 24x30." For a higher resolution image click here.
Ruth Tiffany Naylor, Fourteen Million Six Hundred Thirty Thousand, Disappeared, acrylic and mixed media on linen and stretcher bars, 18x24." For a higher resolution image click here.
This program is sponsored in part by the following:
