What better place than Brooklyn to conduct an artist talk about change?
Over the last two decades, so many of the borough’s industrial have turned into vibrant neighborhoods with new high-rises and a meteoric rise in the cost of living.
On Sept. 29, the St. Joseph’s College Council for the Arts held an artist talk titled “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” (The more things change, the more they stay the same), centered around the group exhibit of the same name on display in the Alumni Room Gallery of Tuohy Hall until Oct. 28.
The Common Hour event featured a discussion of art and Brooklyn. Four of the 12 artists featured in the exhibit – Christina Massey, Kathleen Migliore-Newton, Doug Newton and Iviva Olenick – participated in the event.
A room full of SJC Brooklyn students had the opportunity to ask the artists about their craft, their motivation and their own distinct expression of change.
From the the exhibition’s curator, Maribeth Flynn:
“The vibrant collection of works made by these 12 artists, all rooted in Brooklyn and working in a broad range of media — paint, printmaking, photographs, ceramic tile and fabric — demonstrates the varying ways that they, and all of us, respond to and explore not just the past but our reactions, our accommodations to a fluid present.
“The works ask us to consider that mutability, movement, physical and environmental adjustment, internal transformation we all encounter as we live change, every minute.
“While SJC, founding in 1916, has been a witness to a tumultuous century, this exhibition was not a look at the past with a historical lens, but rather a reflection on the concept of change itself. Thus, ‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’ was an invitation to Brooklyn artists to reflect on the concept of change in the broadest possible manner.”
