Opening Reception: May 18, 6-8pm
BRIC is pleased to present Identities: Real & Imagined, The 28th Annual Contemporary Art Education Exhibition. The exhibition celebrates the creative spirit of over 800 students from 30 public schools, grades K-12, who participated in BRIC’s school-based residency programs, which bring professional artists and their studio practices into the classroom. This year, the students in BRIC’s in-school Teaching Artist Residency Program drew from personal experience, current events, fairy tales, and world cultures to create works that reflect their communities, hopes and imagination. Identities: Real & Imagined is on view from May 19 – June 19 and is curated by BRIC’s Education Team.
Since 1988, BRIC has sent practicing artists directly into public school classrooms where they use visual art and media concepts and techniques to help students better understand a range of academic subjects, from science and math to English as a second language. Guided by this extraordinary group of BRIC Teaching Artists, this year’s students produced works in a wide range of media including mosaic, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, animation and filmmaking, exploring the characteristics that shape our personal and social identity - past, present and future.
Highlights from the exhibition include short anti-gun violence documentaries created by 7th and 8th grade students of Boys & Girls High School and PS 308 in Bedford-Stuyvesant answering the question “what do guns mean to our community;” a collaborative “Enchanted Four Season Tree” project made by kindergarten and 1st grade students of PS 297 in Bushwick, inspired by French artist Jean Dubuffet’s Group of Four Trees and integrated into the school’s Fairytales and Fables unity of study; and a video, sound and sculpture installation created by high school students of Juan Morel Campos Secondary School in Williamsburg inspired by artists such as Félix González-Torres, Banks Violette, Yayoi Kusama, and the Fluxus movement.
Special thanks to Howard Brickner & Tracy Makow and Julia Kahr & Brian Colton for their exceptional support of this exhibition.
This program was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant #MA-10-15-0423-15, Con Edison, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, and TD Charitable Foundation.
Venue Information:
The 3,000 square-foot Gallery in BRIC House has soaring 18-foot ceilings that permit major exhibitions focusing on emerging and mid-career artists and curators.
Beginning Nov. 1, 2022, attendees of any BRIC House programming will no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter the building. Masks are encouraged but not required in all BRIC operated spaces. If you have questions regarding this protocol, please email Safety@bricartsmedia.org