The mission of the CUNNEEN-HACKETT ARTS CENTER is to meet the artistic and cultural needs of the Hudson Valley by showcasing professional and community artists in theatre, music, dance and the visual arts as well as to preserve two historically significant and beautiful Victorian age buildings - #9 Vassar Street and #12 Vassar Street - that provide a variety of performance, exhibition and office spaces.
ARTIST STUDIO: UJAMAA STUDIOS & EMERGENCE SANCTUARY
9 Vassar Street, Suites 26 & 34
ARTIST: ONAJE BENJAMIN
photography
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ABOUT THE ARTIST:
My photography reflects a passion for social justice and activism. My images capture urban settings and the cultural and artistic tensions which evolve in these rapidly changing environments. My work ranges from images of street taggers and muralist, to portraits of street people and the structural and architectural evolution which symbolizes gentrification and the uprooting of disenfranchised communities.
ABOUT THE STUDIO:
Ujamaa is a Swahili term for cooperative economics and familyhood. Ujamaa Studio’s mission is to support the work of historically disenfranchised artist; especially those impacted by America’s system of mass incarceration. The studio promotes the work of its owner, photographer & archival custom picture framer Onaje Benjamin, and seeks partnerships and projects to promote individuals and organizations which support social justice and the arts.
ARTIST: SHIRLEY PARKER-BENJAMIN
mixed media, sculpture, painting
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
"I am an interdisciplinary artist creating work across the across the genres of sculptural mixed media, assemblage and installation. In my work, I explores the intersection between ancestral, spiritual metaphysical African/African Diasporic traditions and the feminine. I integrate found objects, natural materials, metals, minerals, pigments, beadwork and fiber to create the work."
ARTIST STUDIO: L WASHBURN GALLERY
9 Vassar Street, Suite 32
Guest Artist: Jacqueline Schreiber (Painting)
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
"My desire is bringing beauty and happiness into people’s life. Art is therapeutic. It has the power of healing the most profound wounds and promoting insight. Through the use of water media, I express my deepest emotions.
My inspiration comes from my personal feelings, from the emotions I feel when I look at a mother holding her child, at lovers looking at each other. I use lines and colors to morph shapes that express those feelings as stored in my memories, in my dreams. I call my work human-nature, because it is human nature to express all feelings. It is sharing them that allows us to connect to each other.
I paint because it makes me feel happy. It is my hope that when you look at my work we can share that moment of happiness. To be able to express myself in new ways. Through my art I express how I truly feel about the world around me. I find that the materials and techniques I use have a lot to do with my personality. They allow me to release energy in unexpected ways. The results are, many times, surprising. "
SOLO ART SHOW: MORGAN KENNEDY
9 Vassar Street, Victorian Gallery
ARTIST: MORGAN KENNEDY (she/her)
Mixed-Media, Photography
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Morgan Kennedy was born and raised on Long Island. She attended Adelphi University in NY for her undergraduate studies in psychology and photography. She received her masters in clinical social work from Columbia University in 2006. Parallel to the beginnings of her career in mental health treatment, Morgan began freelancing as a photographer focusing on fashion editorial, nightlife and press kit development. Her body of work, “The Dark Side of Nightlife” was exhibited in 2008 at Stereo NYC. In 2009 Morgan focused on a body of work entitled “The Study of Androgyny” that explored gender non-conformity.
In the 2010s, Morgan shifted focus to travel photography documenting moody locations in the Scottish Highlands and English countryside. She also began expanding her artistic mediums to include painting, film and sculpture. In 2016, a sampling of these works was exhibited in “The Rise From Rock Bottom: A Multimedia Exhibition of Mindfulness.
Morgan’s recent mixed media series, “Haunt Couture” reflects on her experience as a late-in-life diagnosed Autistic woman. The work attempts to express feelings of otherness and alienation juxtaposed to a desire to feel accepted and connected to others.
What identities are important to you and how have they impacted your practice?
"In regards to identity, the series “Haunt Couture” is a reflection of my identity as an Autistic woman. I explain more in the artist statement. I’m not sure if it’s relevant, but I am a psychotherapist who specializes in working with neurodiversity."
Featured Artists: Destiny Arianna, Mary Flad
9 Vassar Street, Parlor Room & South Porch
ARTIST: DESTINY ARIANNA
painting
Artist Demos; Live Painting with Destiny; Saturday only!
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Destiny Arianna (b.1999, New York, New York) is an Afro-Indigenous, multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur in New York. With a background in oil painting, collage, and photography, her work explores themes of identity, heritage, and beauty. As a proud member of the Chappaquiddick Wampanoag tribe, Destiny's Indigenous heritage plays a significant role in her art. Arianna graduated from Bowdoin College with a degree in Africana Studies, Visual Art, and Art History. Her experiences ignited her passion for art in the lack of representation of Black figures in the teaching of her undergraduate studio art courses. This led her to self-teach focusing on Black and Indigenous figures. Destiny's works have been featured in galleries and exhibitions throughout the city of Poughkeepsie and her debut solo exhibition, Beauty in Remembrance (2022), on Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard).
What identities of yours are important to you and how have they impacted your practice?
Arianna continues to focus on depictions of her identity in art. Arianna has used painting, photography, and collage to embrace her Black and Indigenous identity, with a focus on land, lineage, and language. Her works address her racial and cultural identities' hypervisibility, visibility, and invisibility. Arianna engages the deeply rooted connection between the rich culture she was immersed in growing up and its relation to the violent history of her ancestry to reconstruct and amplify a narrative of beauty, resilience, and survival in her work.
ARTIST: MARY FLAD
woven tapestry, as well as other textile wall hangings; and flatweave rugs
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ABOUT THE ARTIST:
"I am a fiber artist, and work primarily in the medium of woven tapestry. Over the last four decades I have designed and made close to a hundred pieces, including several commissioned works for public buildings. Themes that have inspired my work include landscapes, and the weather, and various botanical sources -- trees, and weeds, and farm fields, and flower gardens."
What identities are important to you and how have they impacted your practice?
"I try to bring a bit of the wisdom of age to my work!"
Weaving Demonstrations by Mary; Saturday & Sunday
Solo Art Show: FRANK RITTER
12 Vassar Street, Reception Gallery and Hancock Gallery
ARTIST: FRANK RITTER
photography
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
"My photographic exhibit is a compilation of photography of over twenty years of documenting the World Trade Center attack on 9/11/2001. As I look back over twenty years as we Remember that day, I feel my photographs document not just images of the destruction of that day but our Renewal, and Hope.
.Not to be overlooked is the reason why we were attacked. Our core American values including freedom of religion, speech, and liberty were an anathema to the terrorists who attached us. However we have had the resolve to rise from the ashes.
As a lifelong resident of the Hudson Valley I have highlighted many of our local heroes as well. With a “shout out” to these heroes photographically, we are honoring the diversity of our population and its inclusivity. Our New Yorkers were attacked attesting to the inclusivity of our trading partners but the diversity of our citizens representing well over one hundred nations."
Frank Ritter has worked as an architectural/interior photographer for well over twenty years. He has been a contributor to the American Institute of American Metro Division and other leading architectural publications. With his exhibit there is a companion book available for sale entitled
9/11 Remembrance.Renewal.Hope. A twenty-year journey both photographed and written by Frank Ritter.
Comments and inquiries are welcomed at frank@ritterphoto.com