October 22, 2014

Everett Raymond Kinstler, Henry Lee
To Speak 11/15 at HCC Hall of Fame Gala

Musician Jerry Vigorito To Be Inducted

Tickets Available Until Nov. 7

BRIDGEPORT – Tickets are still available for Housatonic Community College’s Nov. 15 Hall of Fame Gala, which will feature speakers from the world of art and science.

Presidential portrait artist Everett Raymond Kinstler and world-renowned forensic scientist Henry C. Lee and will be the guest speakers at the event. HCC alumnus and musician Jerry Vigorito will be inducted into the Hall.
Tickets, which are $250 apiece, will be available until Nov. 7. For more information, contact Emily Hyde at 203-332-5038 or .

Kinstler has painted portraits of seven presidents and numerous government officials and celebrities. His work includes portraits of Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, as well as two first ladies, Lady Bird Johnson and Betty Ford. His portraits of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford are the official White House portraits.

Kinstler’s 1,500-plus portrait subjects include personalities Tony Bennett, Carol Burnett, James Cagney, Katharine Hepburn, Mary Tyler Moore, Paul Newman, Peter O’Toole, Gregory Peck, Christopher Plummer, and John Wayne. Others who have posed for him include government officials such as Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harry Blackmun; U.S. Senators Bob Dole and Daniel Patrick Moynihan; four U.S. Secretaries of State; ten state governors; business leaders including John D. Rockefeller lll and Donald Trump; writers Arthur Miller, Ayn Rand, Tennessee Williams, and Tom Wolfe; and astronauts Alan Shepard and Scott Carpenter.

In addition, he has painted more than sixty U.S. Cabinet officers, more than any artist in the country’s history. In 2005, PBS aired a documentary on his career.

Lee, who has appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows and hosted his own show on Court TV, has been a prominent player in many of the most challenging cases of the last 40 years. He has worked with law enforcement agencies to help solve more than 6,000 cases.

Lee’s testimony figured prominently in the O. J. Simpson trial, and in the conviction of Woodchipper murderer Richard Crafts. Lee has assisted local and state police in their investigations of other famous crimes, such as the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado, the 1993 suicide of White House Counsel Vincent Foster, the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City, the murder of Laci Peterson in Modesto, CA, and the reinvestigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

He served as Commissioner of Public Safety for the State of Connecticut for over two years and as the state’s Chief Criminalist from 1979 to 2000.

Vigorito is the co-founder of Band Together, a group of musicians that holds performances to raise funds for families in need of a helping hand. As the band’s website says, the goal of these performances is “to make and enjoy music,” to use the band’s talent and influence to help people in need, to develop a network of supporters for concerts and programs, and “to get one step closer to Heaven.”

Band Together events helped raise over $1.3 million for local charities and families. It has worked with the late Paul Newman and Meryl Streep to raise millions to protect Connecticut farmland. Awards include Citations of Honor from the US Congress, the Connecticut State General Assembly and former CT Governor M. Jodi Rell for commitment to helping Connecticut families. 

The band has been the subject of articles in the New York Times, and Venu magazine, http://issuu.com/venumagazine/docs/venu_4,m, p. 34..

Proceeds from the Gala will be used to support the Housatonic Community College Foundation’s scholarship fund, which disburses some $150,000 annually to deserving HCC students.

The Gala will begin at 6 p.m. in the Events Center in Beacon Hall on the HCC campus The college is located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in Downtown Bridgeport, less than 150 yards off I-95 and Rte.8, a block from the Harbor Yard sports complex. Free parking is available in the Housatonic garage.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
ROBBIN ZELLA at (203) 332-5052

HCC Offering Art-Handling and
Collections Emergencies Course

Dec. 5, 6

BRIDGEPORT – Housatonic Community College next month is offering a two-day course on art-handling and collections emergencies.

The course, to be offered Dec. 5 and 6, will cover art-handling principles and exercises, and adapt them to recovery techniques to be used following water-related events, severe weather and manmade incidents. The workshop will consist of presentations, exercises, and practice scenarios.

“Art handlers must have a solid knowledge of how to handle art objects safely and efficiently,” said Robbin Zella, director of HCC’s Housatonic Museum of Art. “These workshops allow people new to the field to acquire important skillsets that open the door to well-paying entry-level jobs in museums, galleries, art-storage facilities and fine art transport firms.”

Presenters at the workshop include Gretchen Guidess, assistant conservator of objects and textiles at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Williamstown, MA. and Nancy Valley, senior museum technician at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Guidess graduated from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, completing a M.Sc. in textile conservation with a concentration in preventive conservation studies. As part of her third-year curriculum, she completed internships at the New York State Bureau of Historic Sites/Peebles Island Resource Center, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Canadian Conservation Institute. She was the 2010 -2012 Mellon Fellow at Historic New England.

Valley has been point person on countless Yale art installations and art packing projects, and has helped see the collection through some major museum renovation and storage relocations. She serves as the primary art-handling trainer for the gallery’s new employee training program 

The workshop will be held Sat., Dec. 5, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sun., Dec. 6, 9 a.m.-Noon in Room A101 in Lafayette Hall. . Registration is $159. For more information, contact Evelyn Melendez at 203-332-5057.

Housatonic is located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in downtown Bridgeport, less than 150 yards off I-95 (Exit 27) and Rte. 8, a block from the Harbor Yard Sports Complex. Free parking is available in the Housatonic garage.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
ANSON SMITH AT 203-332-5339

HCC Receives $200,000 Grant From National Science Foundation To Enhance Teaching STEM Courses

BRIDGEPORT – Housatonic Community College has received a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop teaching modules that will enhance the teaching a variety of science, technology, engineering and math courses with the aid of 3-D solid modeling software

The modules will allow students to create three-dimensional objects through the use of three-dimensional equations, thus bringing the educational experience from the theoretical realm to the real-world.

The modules will allow students to see the results of their equations in 3-D on computer screens. Then, using 3-D printers, the students will be able to create an object they can hold in their hand the equation they just developed

The use of the software in multidisciplinary courses mirrors the real-world practices. In industry, the design of a product is a multidisciplinary effort in which engineers and technologists integrate the laws of physics, optics, chemistry and thermodynamics and use algorithmic technical computing to analyze the design.

However, instruction in these technical fields has been along rigid disciplinary lines. HCC’s software modules will break down these disciplinary barriers.

The modules being developed will be tested, assessed and disseminated to the state’s 12 community colleges and four state universities. Ultimately, this method of instruction and learning will be spread to high school students and educators.

Support for this grant is provided by the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program under grant number DUE1400551.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
ROBBIN ZELLA at (203) 332-5052

HCC To Preview
“Make.Art.Work.2015” Program
Sat., 11/22, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Events Center, Beacon Hall

BRIDGEPORT – Housatonic Community College, on November 22, will preview the Make.Art.Work. 2015 program.
At the event, artist-author Andrew Simonet will discuss the importance of developing the professional skills needed to keep your career as an artist moving forward. Simonet, a dancer, choreographer, and author, penned the book Making Your Life as an Artist, a guide to building a balanced, sustainable artistic life.

In Simonet’s words, “Nothing makes you a real artist except your devotion to making.” 

At the HCC event, Make.Art.Work. instructors Jeannie Thomma and Ryan Odinak will offer an overview of the program, while a panel of program graduates will offer their insight into the program and its benefits.

The program is a comprehensive career-training program for visual artists in Connecticut that’s being offered in Fairfield, Hartford and New Haven counties. The program helps artists develop needed business and entrepreneurial skills in a supportive peer environment.

From January to June 2015, artists will meet monthly in three-hour evening sessions, combining learning with coaching and peer support. The program will consist of a workshop series run concurrently in the three regions of the state. At the culmination, artists will curate and produce a group exhibition in their region.

The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Events Center in Beacon Hall. Registration is $20, which includes lunch.

Housatonic is located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in downtown Bridgeport, less than 150 yards off I-95 (Exit 27) and Rte. 8, a block from the Harbor Yard Sports Complex. Free parking is available in the Housatonic garage.

 

October 8, 2016
For immediate release
Contact: Robbin Zella, 203-332-5052

Housatonic Museum of Art Exhibition:
"Rendezvous In Black," features Cindy Sherman and Ann Chernow

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 10 from 5:30-7pm at the Housatonic Museum of Art, located at 900 Lafayette Blvd in Bridgeport, CT. Film professor and author Dr. Richard L. Edwards, Ball State University, will give a talk about women and film noir at 6pm.

Cindy Sherman and Ann Chernow draw from the film noir style to create photographs and prints that are contemporary, yet offer moments that could have been documented on the movie sets themselves. Both artists explore the three roles women commonly play in noir films: the good woman, the marrying woman and the femme-fatale. The "stills" are provocative, mysterious and dare the viewer to decide what’s happening in each scene.

About the Exhibition
Cindy Sherman and Ann Chernow draw from the film noir style to create pieces that are contemporary yet offer moments that could have been seen on the movie sets themselves. Both artists mine the noir genre teasing out visual tropes and female roles are explored, and the frames are provocative, mysterious and dare the viewer to decide what’s happening in each scene.”

Cindy Sherman’s series, Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980), re-presented female identity by deconstructing the prevailing visual tropes of femininity. Utilizing the 8 x 10” format of film stills used to promote a Hollywood starlet’s most recent B film, Sherman created numerous female identities. Twelve of the sixty-nine photographs that comprise this series are on view in the exhibition and evoke the three roles women commonly play in noir films: the good woman, the marrying woman and the femme-fatale.

The femme fatale rejects the position of “saintly woman,” as well as the equally confining job of wife. Noir’s femme fatale is dedicated to not becoming tied down by conformity: love, commitment, and family life. Independence and personal agency are often the fundamental values that lead the femme fatale to murder, using sex and desire to manipulate men, a necessary means to achieving her freedom. Unrepentant, even in the face of her own destruction, she will remain loyal to herself alone.

Ann Chernow’s NOIR series of stone lithographs are inspired by the characters and contexts of classic film noir, focusing mainly on the femme fatale.  Each work intimately draws us into a gritty world filled with danger, intrigue and seduction. Chernow’s women capture the spirt of the film style, causing viewers to pause and consider multiple interpretations of their placement within the frame, each posture and expression creates opportunities for conflicting meaning, all in startling realism. 

The film depicts a society where the working-class, particularly women, has such limited options that even murder becomes a viable social mobility strategy. But as American politics shifted sharply rightward after World War II, sympathy for workers was replaced with attacks on unions for waging strikes, the passage of the anti-union Taft-Hartley law in 1947, the outbreak of the Cold War, and a fervent anti-communism designed to destroy progressive activism. Noir screenwriters like Abraham Polonsky, whoseForce of Evil (1948) used the numbers racket to attack the unfairness of capitalism, found themselves on Hollywood blacklists.

About Film Noir

Viennese film maker, Fritz Lang, released M in 1931, a thriller acknowledged as the “ultimate proto-noir,” and in 1933, Lang’s film, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, caught the attention of Germany’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who invited Lang to make propaganda films for the Nazis. Lang, of Jewish heritage, fled to Paris, and ultimately made his way to MGM Studios in Hollywood, directing movies that blended the theatricality of German Expressionism with pop culture’s pulp fiction, and a distinctly American film genre emerged: noir.

Noir filmmaking incorporated the stylistic elements of deep shadows, striated light, distorted angles, menacing alleys and dead end streets, with cops and killers, marks and dupes, and gumshoes and bums.  The result: an atmosphere of anxiety, distrust and uneasiness within the viewer. But of all the character types portrayed, there is none so compelling as the femme-fatale. This double-crossing dame played a pivotal role, establishing much of the tension and intensity that have become the hallmarks of noir. All movies will be shown in the Burt Chernow Galleries, located in Lafayette Hall.

Saturday, November 12 @ Noon
M by director Fritz Lang and featuring Peter Lorre. Germany, 1931
Whistling a haunting tune, serial killer Hans Bekert searches for his next victim in this harrowing masterwork.  Fritz Lang creates a psychological thriller with chilling suspense as it explores the madness of a predator and his terrorizing effect on a community.

Thursday, November 17 @ 7PM
The Maltese Falcon by director John Huston and featuring Humphrey Bogart in his career-defining role. USA, 1941.
Film historians consider this the first, and the best, American film noir replete with witty dialogue, deceitful characters, and menacing scenes. A low budget and highly stylistic film, it is remembered for a number of notable portrayals of corrupt, deceitful, hard-nosed villains and tough heroes, as they move through a labyrinth of complex interactions that include double-crossing intrigues and deceptions, betrayals and greed.

Saturday, November 19 @ Noon
Night of the Hunter by director Charles Laughton and featuring Robert Mitchum. USA, 1955.
This is the only film directed by the celebrated English stage and character actor, Charles Laughton, and is considered a one-of-a-kind masterwork that blends elements of horror with the noir aesthetic. A traveling preacher turned serial killer, played with sinister perfection by Bridgeport’s own Robert Mitchum, whistles into town in search of his executed cellmate’s wife, Willa, played by Shelley Winters. The film is based on a true story of Harry Powers who murdered two widows and three children in West Virginia.
The Night of the Hunter was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1992. In 2008, the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma selected The Night of the Hunter  as the second-best film of all time, behind Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane.

Thursday, December 1 @ 7pm
In a Lonely Place by director Nicholas Ray, USA, 1950.
A down on his luck screenwriter, played by Humphrey Bogart, becomes the prime suspect in a vicious Hollywood murder. With a hair-trigger temper and a propensity toward violence, he eventually alienates his only alibi (and love interest), Gloria Grahame. Adapted from a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, In a Lonely Place, is the devastating tale of two people caught up in a turbulent love affair where violence and fear eventually corrupt and destroy any hope of a life together. Bogart and Grahame deliver powerhouse performances in a film that is considered a masterpiece of 1950s noir and a hallmark in the career of auteur, Nicholas Ray.

Saturday, December 3 @ Noon
Out of the Past directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring Robert Mitchum. USA, 1947
Considered one of the quintessential noir films of all time, Out of the Past weaves a multi-layered tale through the definitive use of flashbacks along with all the elements of the noir aesthetic for maximum melodramatic impact.  In the California town of Bridgeport, one-time investigator turned gas station owner, played by the sleepy-lidded, laconic Mitchum, is tracked down by gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and pulled out of retirement to track down his former girlfriend, the dangerous and double-crossing, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer). Betrayal, corruption, erotic obsession and a heavy dose of fatalism lead all three characters to their inevitable downfall.

Thursday, December 8 @ 7pm
Christmas Holiday directed by Robert Siodmak with Gene Kelly and Deanna Durbin. USA, 1944.

Considered the primary architect of the noir genre, no director produced more quality thrillers than Siodmak. His oeuvre is mandatory viewing for any authentic study of the genre. His most notable film noirs include Phantom Lady, The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, The Spiral Staircase, The Killers, The Dark Mirror, Cry of the City, Criss Cross and The File on Thelma Jordan.

Siodmak’s films employ psychological trauma, domestic strife, gender conflicts, professional criminals and violence that is never coincidental. His deft use of modernist cinematic techniques such as deep focusing, multiple flashbacks, meticulous set design, and expressionistic lighting are considered masterful by film historians and filmmakers alike. Based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, Christmas Holiday is neither about Christmas nor a holiday, rather we are gifted with a dark story of love, sex, betrayal and revenge woven together by one of the incomparable masters of noir.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
ROBBIN ZELLA at (203) 332-5052

Housatonic Museum of Art Presents
David Hayes: Modern Master of American Abstraction

Bridgeport, CT – Join Housatonic Museum of Art for the opening reception of David Hayes: Modern Master of American Abstraction in celebration of this important Connecticut sculptor whose career spanned six decades. David Hayes continued to paint, sculpt and exhibit until his death on April 9, 2013. The drawings and maquettes on view here are studies for his monumental sculptures and include the biomorphic and geometric forms that comprise his signature style. This event is free and open to the public and will take place in the Burt Chernow Galleries at the HMA on Thursday, December 11 from 5:30 – 7:00pm.

Born in Hartford, he maintained a home and studio in Coventry, CT where dozens of his sculptures are situated throughout fifty-plus acres of bucolic farm and woodlands. The influence of his mentor David Smith and his friend Alexander Calder are visible in the playful welded steel polychrome works on display in the gallery. Hayes drew his inspiration from nature, translating delicate foliage into lyrical, brightly painted industrial strength sculptures.

David Hayes (1931-2013) earned his MFA from Indiana University where, as noted above, he studied with internationally renowned Abstract Expressionist sculptor David Smith. He was the recipient of a Fulbright Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His works are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Brooklyn Museum, Everson Museum, Carnegie Institute and Fitchburg Museum, Detroit Institute of the Arts, and the Wadsworth Atheneum as well as numerous corporate and private collections.

About Housatonic Museum of Art:
The Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA) is home to one of the premier college art collections in the United States. Its collection offers students and the community alike the opportunity to view works that span the history of art from the ancient to the contemporary. Unique to the Housatonic Community College campus, this permanent collection is on continuous display throughout the 300,000 square foot facility, offering a rare opportunity for both art enthusiasts and casual observers to view and interact with the art on a daily basis. 

The Museum, founded by Burt Chernow, Professor Emeritus (1933-1997), is dedicated to the presentation, preservation and interpretation of objects of artistic or historic value. The collection provides a basis for exhibitions and educational programs for faculty, students and the public; for research and study by scholars, historians and curators, for special lectures and symposia, and for cultural and educational enrichment of the academic community and public-at-large. Under the direction of Robbin Zella, the Museum also presents lectures, programs and changing exhibitions in the Burt Chernow Galleries, and continues to be recognized as a major cultural resource for the Greater Bridgeport area and the region.

For immediate release,
Robbin Zella (203) 332-5052

Bridgeport, CT—As Marshall McLuhan, the media theoretician, argued, the automobile is a medium not unlike the printing press, radio or phonograph. It is “an extension of man” and a means of expression, and therefore can be a medium for art. Westport sculptor, Harry Moritz, explores the framework of contemporary culture from the perspective of the machinery that makes human imperialism possible. With a fascination of the Interstate Highway System and a deep knowledge of mechanics and machines,Moritz is able to infuse a unique perspective about Globalization and the accelerated rate of expansion of first world economies into third world countries. His work explores Globalization while deeply grounding the human body within the context of the work.

Moritz argues that the body and the machine have melded into what he refers to as the Humachine. The body resides in the situation of the Humachanical Complex which he defines as the immersion of machines into everyday life. The highway and machinery are a visual metaphor for the human body and encapsulate the Humachanical experiences of life in the present day. 

Harry Moritz will offer a talk about his work to be held in the Events Center in Beacon Hall on the campus of Housatonic Community College on Wednesday, March 16th at 5:30pm. This event is free and the public is cordially invited to attend
Visit the website, www.HousatonicMuseum.org for gallery hours

About the Artist
After graduating from Pratt Institute in May 2015, Harry is now attending Housatonic College in Bridgeport, CT, where he is enrolled in the Advanced Manufacturing Program. Here, he is conducting intensive artistic research to learn Computer Numerical Control which is the basis for the manufacturing industry in the 21st century. Harry's aim is to use this in depth knowledge of Manufacturing to continue creating a highly informed and grounded body of work. 

For immediate release,
Contact: Robbin Zella
203-332-5052

Bridgeport, CT, December 02, 2015 - Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA) was awarded $20,356 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under its 2015 Museums for America program for Collections Stewardship.

This grant will fund an independent contractor to design, supply, and install custom, cost-effective modern-day storage systems that optimize the physical footprint of the current storage areas, improve organization, and maximize storage capacity for the museum's extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, textiles, and other objects. By improving the HMA’s storage facilities museum staff expect to increase the number of works that will stored in optimal conditions to ensure the collection's preservation. The Housatonic Museum of Art is located at 900 Lafayette Boulevard in Bridgeport and specializes in 19th, 20th and 21st century art. The Housatonic Museum of Art is currently exhibiting Larry Silver: Then and Now through December 17.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.

For more information, contact
Robbin Zella at 203-332-5052

Bridgeport, CT –The 50 Objects/Fifty Years: Highlights from the Collection exhibit represents the start of a year- long program of special events, lectures, and exhibits celebrating 50 years since Housatonic Community College was founded. It will involve alumni, students, community, faculty and staff, and supporters of the college. The Housatonic Museum of Art is the fitting host of the opening as the art collection is a cornerstone of the history, growth and development as well as the cultural outreach of the college. The exhibit will be on view from September 10 through October 16, 2015 in the Burt Chernow Galleries. An opening reception will be held September 10, from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. and the public is cordially invited to attend. The Burt Chernow Galleries are free and open seven days a week. Visit the website, www.HousatonicMuseum.org for gallery hours.

50 Objects/50 Years features works from the collection that span across time from ancient to contemporary and include examples of Greek, Roman and Pre-Columbian earthenware to Native American artifacts. Also on view are photographers such as Ansel Adams, Cartier-Bresson and Cindy Sherman alongside such recognized masters as Warhol, Picasso, Rodin, Cassatt, Durer, De Kooning and Alex Katz, to name a few.

Founded in 1966, the Housatonic Community College soon became home to a world-class art collection when Burt Chernow joined the faculty of the art department. Dedicating his life to teaching art and building an important collection, Burt worked tirelessly to acquire work from contemporary artists, many of them at start of their careers. After retiring from the college in 1983, Burt began a second career as an art appraiser often encouraging his clients to contribute to the still growing collection that now began to include works from Bali, China, Indonesia, Russia and Peru.

Burt Chernow envisioned the Housatonic Museum of Art as a kind of visual library, or endless labyrinth, with each work of art providing each individual a unique opportunity to travel through the world of art and ideas.

The Housatonic Museum of Art’s collection contains over 5000 works of art spanning ancient through modern times and is one of the largest permanent collections of any two-year college in the Northeast. Exhibitions and programs are funded in part by the Werth Family Foundation, Lumpkin Family Foundation, Fairfield County Community Foundation, Downtown Special Services District and individual donors.

 

 

For immediate release,
Contact: Robbin Zella
203-332-5052

Bridgeport, CT—The Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA) is pleased to announce the opening of two new installation pieces by New York artists Mary Giehl and Kim Waale. With both artists using maps to orient the viewers, the installations are intended to raise awareness about our relationship to the environment and, in the case of Giehl’s work, its/our ability to sustain life and to support the almost 1 billion people now facing issues of hunger, water shortages and habitat destruction. Both exhibits will be on view from February 12 through March 18, 2016. The HMA will host an opening reception for the artists on Thursday, February 11 from 6pm until 7:30 pm. with an informal gallery talk by the artists from 5:30 until 6:00 pm. This event is free and the public is cordially invited to attend. 

On March 18, the last day of the show, from Noon until 5:30pm the public is invited to bring a canned food item to be donated to the Bridgeport Rescue Mission and in return will receive one of the bowls from the Rice Is Life installation to keep.

Maps tell stories. They speak of discovery and conquest, of inequality and exploitation, and of privilege and power. Maps not only provide a concrete shape of the world, but they also shape our ideas and knowledge about the world, informing our perceptions of others as well as our own identity.  Although both artists use maps to situate us within their works, each artist leads us to a very different place:  Mary Giehl’s Rice is Life navigates the geopolitics of food while Simulacrutopia (again,) constructed by Kim Waale, leads us on a melancholy journey to a “make-believe” environment that bears no relationship to the real one.

Rice is Life, is the visual manifestation of world hunger. In the first decade of the 21st century, according to foreign policy writer Lester R. Brown, access to grains has emerged as the dominant issue while the world transitions from “an era of food surpluses to a new politics of food scarcity.” Giehluses rice, the main food staple for people around the globe, as a sculptural medium, to fashion bowls comprised of white, red and black rice. Red threads shoot through each vessel and serve as a metaphor for our interconnectivity and interdependence as global citizens. Giehl’s work beautifully documents the largest populations within developing nations such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean that depend on rice as the mainstay of their diet.  The bowls are suspended from the gallery ceiling, like looming clouds of uncertainty, that warn of rising temperatures, water shortages and population growth that threaten the world’s food security.

Simulacrutopia (again), on the other hand, underscores the prophetic vision of the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard who observed that our postmodern society no longer makes a distinction between the real and artifice, stating that there is only the simulacrum.  ”On Exactitude of Science,” a story by poet and writer Jorge Luis Borges, describes the replacement of the real with artifice. In the fable, a Cartographer’s Guild is charged with the making of a map designed to record (and replace) the Empire perfectly, so that the image of place is paramount to the place itself. Borges’ story aptly illustrates Baudrillard’s assertion that post-modern society has no relationship to the real, a world where style now trumps substance. Simulacra replaced the real, leaving us “outside” nature, essentially at a remove from the natural world. But Borges’ tale is also a metaphor for post-colonialism as well as postmodernism, the map merely a tattered remnant of cultures, fragments of meaning, and difference. And while we inhabit a world of illusion, of spectacle, a virtual reality as it were, very real events threaten our existence.

46.5 million Americans face crises every day, choosing between nutrition, housing and healthcare, while 795 million people world-wide are struggling with malnutrition and hunger according to 2015 estimates provided by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Right here in Connecticut 11.9% of residents is food insecure. Although current food production could feed every person on the planet, poverty prevents the purchase of and access to food. In addition, global warming has resulted in extremes in weather conditions such as floods, droughts and disruption of the growing seasons---all affecting the food security of people around the world. Rice is Life and Simulacratopia (again) strikingly maps out the magnitude of the issues that we, as a global society, must address.

November 2, 2016
For immediate release
Contact: Laura Roberts 203-332-5226

The Housatonic Museum of Art Presents a Lecture: “Art, Crime, and SoHo Sins”

Lecture Highlights Debut Novel by Richard Vine, Managing Editor of Art in America

BRIDGEPORT, CTThe Housatonic Museum of Art presents a lecture with Richard Vine, the Managing Editor of Art in America. “Art, Crime and SoHo Sins” will highlight Vine’s debut novel, "SoHo Sins," followed by a book signing and reception with the author. The event takes place Tuesday, November 29 at 6 pm at the Museum, located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in Bridgeport, CT.

All are welcome and encouraged to come.

The lecture relates to the museum’s latest exhibition, "Rendezvous In Black," featuring two solo shows by artists Cindy Sherman and Ann Chernow. The entirely black and white exhibition is inspired by film noir, a dark and edgy film style that emerged in the early 1940s; and is on display through December 16.

Throughout history, art and crime have been deeply intertwined. Not only have artworks been the target of criminal behavior—vandalism, theft, and forgery—they have also frequently taken crimes as their subject matter: Andy Warhol’s “13 Most Wanted Men,” Weegee’s murder-victim photographs, Mike Kelley’s installation in response to serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Equally disturbing, artworks themselves have often been regarded as criminal acts, accused of sacrilege (Andres Serrano’s "Piss Christ"), obscenity (Robert Mapplethorpe’s “X Portfolio”), treason (Dread Scott’s "What Is the Proper Way to Display US Flag?"), and other malfeasance.

Finally, such recent events as the fraud charges brought against Knoedler Gallery personnel, and the release of the Panama Papers, confirming financial chicanery among top collectors, prompt one to ask if the contemporary art world is itself, in many respects, a criminal environment.

Is the flow of stupendous wealth through a largely unregulated global art system a ready prescription for legal (to say nothing of moral) wrongdoing? Is there some deep link between hardcore crime and the aesthetic rule-breaking and “outlaw” imaginative freedom that we routinely associate with artistic creativity?

In conjunction with the release of his art world crime novel SoHo Sins, Richard Vine, the longtime managing editor of Art in America, will analyze these and other related issues, drawing equally from art history, the news, and his own noir fiction.

Vine’s debut novel—characterized by one commentator as “The Great Gatsby meets Raymond Chandler”—offers an insider’s tour of the strangely fascinating art world of 1990s New York, and a searing visit to the darkest chambers of the human heart.

Major support for the Housatonic Museum of Art is provided by the Werth Family Foundation, Fairfield County’s Community Foundation, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Arts/Art Works as well as many generous individual donors.

About the Housatonic Museum of Art

The Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA) is home to one of the premier college art collections in the United States. Its collection offers students and the community alike the opportunity to view works that span the history of art from the ancient to the contemporary. Unique to the Housatonic Community College campus, this permanent collection is on continuous display throughout the 300,000 square foot facility, offering a rare opportunity for both art enthusiasts and casual observers to view and interact with the art on a daily basis. Visit www.HousatonicMuseum.org to learn more.

Image to accompany the release: SoHoSins Cover.jpg

Caption: The Housatonic Museum of Art Presents a lecture, book signing and reception with Richard Vine, Managing Editor of Art in America, highlighting his debut novel, SoHo Sins.

For immediate release:

Contact: Robbin Zella (203)-332-5052

Lisa Lampanelli Comedy Show
Benefit for the Housatonic Museum of Art

Housatonic Museum of Art will host a benefit stand-up comedy show starring the Lovable Queen of Mean, Lisa Lampanelli, on Saturday, May 16, at 8 p.m. in the Events Center in Beacon Hall. The show will follow a VIP champagne reception and special exhibition of artwork by Leonard Lampugnale, Lisa’s father and an alumnus of Housatonic Community College, in the Burt Chernow Galleries at 6 p.m.

The VIP reception in honor of Leonard Lampugnale will include a meet-and-greet and exclusive one-on-one photographs with the comedian. This special evening will benefit the Museum’s general operating fund, educational programs and the care, study and exhibition of the collection.

Lisa Lampanelli, known best from her appearances on the Comedy Central and ESPN roasts, Howard Stern’s Sirius Satellite radio shows, and the “Celebrity Apprentice, Season 5” has also appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Show with David Letterman,” NBC’s “Today” show, “Chelsea Lately,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Dr. Oz Show,” and “Good Morning America.”

In 2009, Lisa entered the ranks of comic greats when she premiered her first ever one-hour HBO comedy special, “Long Live the Queen,” to tremendous ratings. That same year, her autobiography, “Chocolate Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat and Freaks,” hit the bookstores to critical acclaim.

Lifelong learning and access to education is the core mission of Housatonic Community College, and the Housatonic Museum of Art is an essential part of that mission, providing students, faculty members, administrators and visitors with an opportunity to experience art as an integral part of the learning environment. Leonard Lampugnale, after a twenty-five year career with Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, enrolled in the studio art program at HCC to pursue his passion for painting and drawing. He attended classes at the school between 1986 and 1996 and demonstrated a commitment to lifelong learning, therefore an Honorary Alumnus Award will be given to Lisa Lampanelli on behalf of her father. This exhibition will be on view in the Burt Chernow Galleries in Lafayette Hall, through May 31, 2015.

Tickets for the benefit range from $65 to $150, and can be purchased by visiting www.Housatonicmuseum.org. The ticket levels are as follows:

• $150.00 ticket level includes one ticket for the Lisa Lampanelli Comedy Benefit show for Housatonic Museum of Art and includes access to the special VIP reception, exhibition and a photograph with Lisa Lampanelli.
• $65.00 ticket level includes one ticket to the Lisa Lampanelli Comedy Benefit show in the Events Center.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
ROBBIN ZELLA AT 203-332-5052

Rick Shaefer Draws the Line at Housatonic Museum of Art

Bridgeport, CT – The Housatonic Museum of Art presents Rick Shaefer: Drawing the Line on view in the Burt Chernow Galleries, 900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, CT, from February 12 through March 27, 2015 with a reception open to the public on February 12 from 5:30-7:00 pm. The Burt Chernow Galleries are free and open seven days a week. Visit the website, www.HousatonicMuseum.org for gallery hours.

Drawing is essential to the training of an artist. It is the most direct medium between the artist and his observations, thoughts, feelings and experiences—serving both as a record and as a revealer of truth. Drawing is both a cognitive and manual process that provides the foundation for painting, sculpture and architecture. Fairfield artist Rick Shaefer’s monumental, breath-taking drawings offer viewers an adventure in looking with his technically precise and visually poetic drawings of animals and nature. 

At first glance, it is clear that Shaefer has more than a passing acquaintance with works of art across time. Of all the masters he has studied, it is Albrecht Durer that has influenced him most. In the 16th century, the natural world of animals and plants had become the focus of scientific and cultural interest as explorers returned from far-flung places carrying examples and illustrations of exotic new species. One of Durer’s best known pen drawings, Rhinoceros, 1515, demonstrates the artist’s fascination with recording the curiosities and wonders of the world. Paradoxically, Shaefer’s own African Rhinoceros, beautifully rendered in rich charcoal on vellum, comes full circle by documenting what now may be the waning days of these magnificent beasts.

Shaefer’s trees, crowned with leaves or barren and in varying states of decay, are densely detailed and sensitively modeled through the use of tonal gradations. Majestic oaks and tangled vines allow the artist to mine the sculptural properties of a charcoal line, expressing not only what he observes but how he feels. A dramatic narrative unfolds before the eye, compelling the viewer to travel along through the light and into the shadows.

And, like the rhinoceros, these powerful and confident drawings circle around a common theme: the effects of human activity on nature. Climate change specifically could lead to the massive destruction of forests as well as the extinction of countless species. Global warming has led to the increase of forest fires as well as a proliferation of pests and diseases. Rick Shaefer: Drawing the Line looks to the rich tradition of drawing in order to explore the critical issues of our time.

Biography

Rick Shaefer, of Fairfield, Connecticut, maintains a studio at The Nest in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Shaefer studied painting at Duke University and then took up the study of photography at Art Center College in Los Angeles. After art school, he moved to New York City and opened a photography studio specializing in fashion and photo-illustration working primarily for magazines as well as designing book jackets, album covers and movie posters. Since the 1990s, Shaefer has devoted his time exclusively to painting and drawing and he is represented by the Sears Peyton Gallery in NYC.

April 6, 2016

For immediate release

Contact: Robbin Zella
203-332-5052

Waking the Dead: Housatonic Museum of Art presents Forensic Sculptor Lisa Bailey

Bridgeport, CT...Forensic sculptors combine artistic talents with in depth knowledge of anatomy to assist law enforcement in identification. Sculptors might perform facial reconstructions on unidentified remains or use age-progression techniques to develop busts of missing persons. Waking the Dead is a lecture and demonstration by forensic sculptor and author, Lisa Bailey. This lecture and demonstration is sponsored by the Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT. The lecture will be heldFriday, May 6, 2016 in the Burt Chernow Galleries in Lafayette Hall from 9:30 am to 11:00 am. Space is limited and registration for this free event is recommended. Call (203) 332-5052.

There are but a handful of forensic sculptors working today; a field that stands at the crossroads of art, crime, science, anthropology and plain old gut instinct. To that end, Housatonic Community College has introduced “Facial Reconstruction,” a brand new course in its Forensic Science Program, and a requirement toward the completion of course work in Forensic Anthropology. Professor Robin L. Avant said, “Lisa Bailey’s expertise comes from education, practice as an artist and her work experience, making her one of a kind. We are so pleased that she will be here sharing her knowledge as an artist and a scientist with our students.”

Lisa Bailey is a forensic artist, sculptor, and author based in Virginia. Her work involves the reconstruction of unidentified remains through facial reconstruction utilizing the human skull, often the only information with which to work. She also conducts research in the field of forensic facial imaging. She has instructed forensic art courses and has been a guest lecturer to numerous state and federal law enforcement agencies. Her book “Ask a Forensic Artist” provides a unique insight into one the of the most fascinating jobs in law enforcement, as well as providing career guidance for aspiring forensic artists. She can be reached through her website www.askaforensicartist.com.

For further information contact Robbin Zella at the Housatonic Museum of Art at  or (203) 332-5052.

For immediate release

Contact: Robbin Zella
203-332-5052

Bridgeport, CT--The Werth Family Foundation has awarded $55,000 to benefit the Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA). This commitment will allow the Museum to continue its conservation efforts, a key element in maintaining the integrity of this important art collection. The gift also ensures the continuation of the Peer Docent Program and will provide for a Museum Curator/Collections Manager. It will also support special exhibits. All activities of the Museum are open to the public at no charge.

The Werth Family Foundation has enabled the museum to bring important exhibits to the region including David Hayes: Modern Master of American Abstraction featuring drawings and sculptures by the Connecticut sculptorand the upcoming show by internationally acclaimed Magnum photographer, Steve McCurry. In addition the HMA presentedLarry Silver: Then and Now comprised of works by the renowned Westport artist and, finally, the celebratory exhibition,50 Objects/50 Years, that highlighted fifty of the most important works in the collection as well as marking the anniversary of the HMA.

Funds were also leveraged dollar for dollar with the Fairfield County Community Foundation to fund the Peer Docent Program. The HMA’s educational outreach program, now in its 15th year, introduces middle and high school students to art, architecture and art history and teaches them how to look critically at art, equipping them with the visual and analytical skills that will assist them in all areas of study. In addition to learning the history of architecture, students visit other sites with such iconic buildings as The Glass House in New Caanan and the Chrysler, Seagram and Empire State buildings in New York City. At the end of the program, the students share what they have learned with their classmates who come to Housatonic for architecture tours of downtown Bridgeport given by the docents.

The Housatonic Community College Foundation was formed in 1990 to assist the College and its students beyond the fundamentals provided by the state.  The Foundation provides resources for scholarships, equipment, program enhancements, community outreach and support for the Housatonic Museum of Art. 
For more information about the Museum visit www.HousatonicMuseum.org