"A Couple of Visions" Opens at the NRCA Rotunda Gallery

Just in time for Valentine’s Day a new exhibit at the NRCA Rotunda Gallery salutes the city’s first couple of art, Scott Seaboldt and Stacy Miller : A Couple of Visions celebrates their artistic achievements as well as a 25-year partnership rooted in love, dialogue, and shared creative commitment.

Scott Seaboldt has been an artist educator at New Rochelle High School since 2002, teaching Advanced Placement and PAVE ; he is also a visiting artist and lecturer at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. Stacy Miller is an artist and educator with management and teaching experience in the arts, art education, teacher training, museum education, and research; she is currently a faculty member and advises in the MFA Photography Program at Parsons. Together they have been pillars of the arts community in the community, anchoring the artist collective Highbrook Studios in Pelham.

A Couple of Visions, curated by Erika Hibbert, showcases works in a variety of mediums -- oil, pastel, watercolor, acrylic and ink as well as raku glazed ceramic. Both artists experiment with materials – “painting” with rust or spices and using nontraditional tools like sticks, toothbrushes and chopsticks to move paint or create textural effects. A glass cabinet displays artifacts from their studio, meant to reveal some of the artists’ process. Visitors to the gallery are invited to write their comments and reactions to the art on Post It notes and stick them on the wall, creating a dialogue between the artists and those viewing their work.

At an opening reception Wednesday, February 11th Scott Seaboldt joked “There’s a saying, “art takes two people: one to make it and one to say stop." But he also read a quote from Toni Morrison : “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

In their artist statement the couple write “It is in the spirit of Morrison’s words that we continue to make art during difficult times with more resolve than ever. We are dependent independents, guardians of each other’s solitude, nourishing one another’s creativity, all the while offering observations, ideas, and critique of each other’s work along the way.”

Curator Erika Hibbert says the exhibit honors “the rare balance they have achieved: two fully realized artistic voices, resonant and self-assured, strengthened rather than diluted by partnership. This exhibition is a testament to enduring commitment—between two people, to a place, and to the transformative power of art sustained over time.”

The NRCA Rotunda Gallery is located at City Hall, 515 North Avenue in New Rochelle, and the exhibit can be viewed during business hours through March 27th.

The New Rochelle Council on the Arts was founded in 1975; its mission is to encourage the study and presentation of the performing and fine arts, and over the years NRCA has sponsored art exhibitions, theatrical productions, dance recitals, film screenings, lectures, spoken word events, concert series and public art. Find out more about NRCA at www.newrochellearts.org.

The New Rochelle Council on the Arts is proud to be a grantee of ArtsWestchester with funding made possible by Westchester County government with the support of County Executive Ken Jenkins.