Perspectives on Homelessness and the Indigent - An Exhibit of Visual Art and Poetry



"COWBOY 2" / Living on the Edge
Luther E. Vann

 Tompkins County Public Library presents Perspectives on Homlessness and the Indigent, a Visual Art and Poetry Exhibit curated by Benn Tedrus Feshbach Nadelman on display March 10 through May 24, 2012.

An opening reception, panel presentation and public forum, The Homeless and Indigent; Causes, Effects and Solutions will take place on Thursday, April 5 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community room.

 

"How did you get here?"
Daphne Sola

 This timely, important exhibit addresses an important subject through the eyes of 41 visual artists and poets including creative professionals, those administering to the indigent, students and those who are members of the indigent community.

The works featured represent a vast range of sociopolitical, demographic and aesthetic perspectives and include art work in all media as well as poetry.

"Mario"
Amelia Burns

When inviting people to participate in this exhibit, curator Benn Nadelman’s primary criteria was that artwork and poems should address the subject/theme and be appropriate for viewing by the general public. There has been no content editing either by the curator nor the Library.

Some exhibits in the show are for sale.  The Library takes no commission but asks patrons to deal directly with the artists, some of whom will be donating the proceeds of their sales to charitable organizations serving the indigent.

This exhibit is made possible in part by grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

Three small but distinctive exhibits, open in the Avenue of the Friends and Youth Services

A book and photographic exhibit of the Life and Work of Nobel Prize winning poet Czeslaw Milosz presented by Ithaca City of Asylum opened on March 2 and will be on display in the Avenue of the Friends through April 15 2012.

The exhibit features photographs recording Milosz’ 1981 return visit to Poland, after 30 years of exile to the United States and books printed by underground publishers. Pieces included in the exhibit are on loan from Pawel Bakowski, former owner of the Literary Salon, an underground publishing house based in Warsaw and current visiting scholar at Cornell University.

Milosz’ work was banned in Poland until 1980 when he was awarded the Noble Prize.  At that time, Bakowski and his friends in the underground publishing business, known as NOWa, began printing and distributing his work.  NOWa members faced political persecution for their actions, but kept Milosz' work available throughout the country.

On April 1 at 2:00 PM in the BorgWarner Community Room, the poetry of Milosz will be celebrated with a reading by members of the local Polish and poetry communities. Bakowski will also give a short account of the story behind this collection of photos and books. 

An exhibit Celebrating 40 years of Charlotte’s Web will be on display March 10 through April 15, 2012.  Presented by the Family Reading Partnership, this exhibit features E.B. White’s personal papers and photos on-loan from Cornell University’s Kroch Library Rare Book and Manuscript Collection.The papers include a facisimile of the first 8 pages from the author’s original mauscript together with letters from school children.  Artwork and writing from area elementary students will also be on display.

Roma Pals – Paintings by Roma children

To celebrate International Roma Day, April 8, and as part of their project Getting to Know the New Europe, the Cornell Institute for European Studies (CIES) is hosting a Roma Awareness month.   During March and April CIES is sponsoring an exhibit of paintings entitled Roma Pals which will be displayed in the Youth Services Department through the end of  April 2012.

This collection of vividly colored paintings, Roma Pals, was created twenty years ago by Roma children under the tutelage of Slovakian art teacher Jan Sajko.  Jan Sajko became widely known because of his ability to awaken the artistic talent of his primary school students in a very poor Romany settlement, Jarovnice, in eastern Slovakia. Having seen traditional teaching methods fail the Roma students, Sajko encouraged them to explore their own culture and history in their paintings and to create on their own terms. He also strove to teach students that through hard work they could change their lives; they were not condemned to the life of poverty and idleness that has been the fate of so many Roma in Europe. The works by Sajko’s students have been shown around the world, and have won many awards.  We are pleased to present them here at TCPL.