Neuberger Museum Receives $25,000 Grant

JP Morgan Chase Foundation awarded SUNY Purchase College's Neuberger Museum of Art a grant for $25,000, which will provide support for the museum's education programs in conjunction with the "American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold's Paintings of the 1960s" exhibition.

Emily Mello, curator of education at SUNY Purchase, explained that the grant helped expand on much of the educational outreach the museum has already been doing by increasing school tours this past fall. Students from Washington Heights, the Bronx and Yonkers benefited from the grant, which helped offset the cost of buses, provided lesson plans and other tools to bring the exhibit back to the classroom, and created Skype video chat capability.

"Many students were able to facilitate Skype conversations between the artist, Faith, and the students." Mello said this was a "rare opportunity" to ask questions and hear responses in real time. She added, "This was a learning experience to figure out how we might be able to grow our technology to make it more efficient. We need to continue with more funding and grow on this success."

Mello said the paintings are a wonderful way to explore relationships, and friendships in particular. They also tie into the social studies curriculum. "Faith deals in a beautiful way in a difficult time of our country's history…It was really compelling to our youngest visitors and visitors that lived those moments themselves."

The grant also provided the funding for the artist Faith Ringgold to do a public lecture on campus for more than 200 people. Ringgold, a professor at art at the University of California in San Diego, California, has been a painter for more than 35 years. According to her website, "She is in the permanent collection of many museums including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art.

Her first book, "Tar Beach," was a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration, among other honors. She has written and illustrated 11 children's books. Ringgold has also received more than 75 awards, fellowships, citations and honors, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship for painting, two National Endowment for the Arts Awards and 17 honorary doctorates, one of which is from her alma mater The City College of New York, according to her website.

The museum has several ongoing exhibitions. Ringgold's exhibition closes on Dec. 19. The Museum itself closes on Wednesday, Dec. 22 for the holiday and reopens on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011, with an exhibit called "Deconstructive Impulse: Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power."

Mello said this exhibit is about "women from the 70s through the 90s who use a lot of images from mass media—advertising, fashion, TV, film to expose and challenge stereotypes, often coming from a feminist perspective."

Thom Collins is  director of the exhibit, and Tracy Fitzpatrick is the exhibition curator.

Find out more at the Neuberger Museum of Art's website.