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Library Exhibits and Events: Current Exhibits & Events

Spring 2023

Magisterial Feminae 1930-1980 When: May 2, 2023 - December, 2023 Where: Archives & Special Collections Exhibit Area Opening Reception When: Tuesday May 2, 2023, 5pm-7pm Drawing upon the rich resources of the Brooklyn College Archives & Special Collections, this exhibit focuses on Brooklyn College female faculty members from 1930-1980, their contributions to the study of the pre-modern world, their teaching legacies, their service to the college, and the lasting institutional structures dedicated to the study of the humanities and the premodern that they helped create – namely, the Women & Gender Studies Program, the Latin Greek Institute, the Brooklyn College Core Curriculum, and the Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities. These women overcame many obstacles as they sought to be taken seriously at time when female faculty were regularly discriminated against in the academy. Tours of the exhibit will be given during the HSS Expo and Faculty Day, and the exhibit will be on display through December 2023. Curated by History professor Lauren Mancia and Director of the Latin/Greek Institute Lucas Rubin, with ten student researchers from the History and Classics Departments supported by the Kurz Undergraduate Research Assistanship program, and Associate Archivist Marianne LaBatto.
The Free Black Women's Library Installation When: February 21 - March 20, 2023 Where: Library Lobby Gallery PANEL CONVERSATION: Libraries Filling Voids, Libraries Making Connections, and Libraries Fostering Collaborations: Perspectives From Three Innovators Invigorating American Culture When: Monday, March 20, 2023 9:30-10:30am Where: The Woody Tanger Auditorium Library spaces and the books they offer have not always been reflective of the communities they serve. In response, libraries have begun to offer the perspectives of marginalized voices in the BIPOC and LGBTQA+ communities. This evolution has led to push back from conservatives who are legislating to silence these emerging voices. Many in the library community are resisting and insisting on serving their users and meeting their needs. Three panelists will discuss their innovative work that is changing the nature of libraries and their relation to the wider community. Our speakers include: Ola Ronke Akinmowo – Artist, scholar and founder of The Free Black Women’s Library, a Bedford-Stuyvesant library and community space. Rakisha Kearns-White – Brooklyn Public Library senior young adult services librarian responsible for sex education programming and menstrual literacy education. Summer Boismier – In charge of teen initiatives at Brooklyn Public Library, formerly a high school English teacher in Oklahoma who gained national attention for promoting the BPL “Books Unbanned” for her students and for having her teaching license threatened to be revoked as a result. Book Swap to follow! Bring a book by a Black woman or non-binary author and exchange it for a book in The Free Black Women’s Library Installation in the Library exhibit space!
30^th Annual Author Reception Attention Faculty and Staff! The Library's Annual Book Party, honoring the College's authors who have written, co-written, edited, or co-edited a book this year. When: Tuesday, May 9, 2023 12:15 -1:45pm Where: Kimmich Reading Room Additional Information: http://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bookparty
Places of Silence Paintings by Asya Dodina, M.F.A '00 and Slava Polishchuk, M.F.A. '02 When: Spring 2023 Where: Library Lobby Gallery Artists’ Statements Our images are a reminder of the cataclysmic situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The world has faced disastrous effects of an unprecedented pandemic: loss of human lives, loneliness, lack of personal interaction, anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness. During 2020/21, we were struck by the silence in the streets, abandoned buildings, and outdoor spaces. We saw familiar places from an entirely different perspective-they were silent and without people. Our ongoing project “Places of Silence” reflects our personal experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. Another aspect of the project is depicting the sublime beauty of landscapes surrounding us. Looking at nature brings a balance and hope as well as leads to self-reflection, understanding oneself and one’s responsibility to other people. The project consists of large-scale mixed media paintings on canvases and works on paper. We have chosen paper as the integral material for the series since paper is derived from nature. Its texture and brittleness reflect the amazing vitality and fragility of nature. We applied black acrylic paint on oriental rice paper creating a palette of different hues and then attached small pieces of paper to the canvas the same way as if we would be using paint. Dense layers, lumps of liquid mass soaked in water, monochrome colors, an endless gradation from black to white allows us to create a rich earth like surface for our landscape works. ------------ Based in New York, Asya Dodina and Slava Polishchuk have worked in collaboration since 2003. They work in several media: drawing, mixed media painting, and printmaking. Their solo exhibitions include: The Narthex Gallery, St. Peter’s Church, NY; Fox & Fowle Gallery, NY; Pace University, NY; Brooklyn College Library, CUNY, NY; International Center of Arts, Remagen, Germany; Moscow International Art Salon. Their works are in numerous museums and galleries including: The National Arts Club, NY; Drawing Center, NY; The Trenton City Museum of Ellarslie, NJ; BAC Gallery, NY; Chelsea Art Museum, NY; S. Tucker Cooke Gallery, The University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC; Islip Art Museum, NY; Hilliard University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA; Kentler International Drawing Space, NY; The Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ; Ca’ Foscari Zattere Cultural Flow Zone, Venice; Stadtgalerie Alter Turn, Niederkassel, Germany. Asya and Slava’s works are in public and private collections including Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, NJ; The Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ; Kolodzei Foundation, NJ; Brooklyn College Library, NY; Fox & Fowle Architects, NY; Con Edison, NY; State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow; The Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts; Moscow Ministry of Arts; Moscow Union of Artists; Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Russia. Their art awards include: Stephen Bruce Award for Achievement in Unique Media, The Trenton City Museum of Ellarslie; Project Grant for Exhibition; NY State Council of the Arts; Award of Excellence; Firehouse Art Gallery; Nassau Community College; The Joan Mitchell Foundation Nominee; Jewish Artists Awards Finalist; The Ben Uri Gallery, London; Medal of Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow.