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Art Students League Announces February Public Programming Tied To Upcoming Exhibition Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists

Discussions And Lectures Include: The Origins Of Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists & An Interview With Ray Grist, Former Cinque Artist
 
In conjunction with the upcoming exhibit Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists (May 3-July 4, 2021), The Art Students League announces its public programming for spring 2021. The League is the first institution to present an introductory survey of Cinque Gallery, one of the United States’ most innovative and enduring non-profit artists’ spaces. This ground-breaking exhibition will celebrate a diverse selection of late twentieth-century and contemporary artists who participated from 1969 – 2004 in this pioneering artist collaborative enterprise. The Romare Bearden Foundation is an institutional partner of The Art Students League in this unprecedented tribute. 
 
This series of public programs is meant to shed light on the ground-breaking artists who got their start in Cinque, explore the themes of the show in further detail, as well as, encourage a continued discussion about the eclectic collective.
 
All programs will be released via The League’s YouTube Channel on the dates listed below.
 
FEBRUARY 10TH, 2021
THE ORIGINS OF “CREATING COMMUNITY: CINQUE GALLERY ARTISTS"
 
Over centuries, artistic communities have fostered a camaraderie where an exchange of ideas and networking takes place. The Art Students League, a community established in 1875, is recognizing Cinque Gallery, an African American run space founded in 1969 to exhibit African American artists, with the exhibition, "Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists." 
 
“The Origins of Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists” panel covers how this exhibition came to life. It will touch on the origins of the Cinque Gallery, founded by three artists (Norman Lewis, Ernie Crichlow, and Romare Bearden) and the origins of the Art Students League. 
 
Panelists include Diedra Harris-Kelly (the Co-Director of the Romare Bearden Foundation), Genevieve Martin (the former Director of External Affairs at the Art Students League), Susan Stedman (the Curator for "Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists"), and Nanette Carter (artist and Program Curator for this exhibition).
*SUSAN STEDMAN, Guest Exhibition Curator, is an arts administrator, grant-maker, and advisor to museums, arts, and social justice organizations. She also is an independent curator and manager for artists’ estates and collections. She recently contributed to the catalog and exhibition “Procession. The Art of Norman Lewis” at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
*NANETTE CARTER, Guest Program Curator, is an artist who presently teaches art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Her paintings and drawings can be found in the collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; The Newark Museum; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; and many others. Carter had a solo exhibition at Cinque Gallery and served on its artistic advisory committee, 1988-1994, and on the board of the Harlem School of the Arts, 2002 – 2006.
*GENEVIEVE MARTIN is an arts administrator specializing in institutional partnerships. She was the Director of External Affairs at The Art Students League of New York from 2018-2020 and is now the Managing Director of the Center for Italian Modern Art in SoHo. A native New Yorker, Genevieve did her MA work in Arts Administration at Baruch College and graduated from The Cooper Union and The Horace Mann School with honors. She previously worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Morgan Library & Museum, The Moving Museum, and Christie’s.
*DIEDRA HARRIS-KELLEY is a Co-Director of the Romare Bearden Foundation. She has been part of the team celebrating the artistic and intellectual legacies of Romare Bearden for over 30 years. She teaches a seminar course on Bearden as part of the Harlem College of Arts Semester. Diedra is also a painter and independent curator living in NYC.
 
FEBRUARY 24TH, 2021
PROGRAM CURATOR NANETTE CARTER INTERVIEWS CINQUE ARTIST RAY GRIST
RAY GRIST is an artist with an extensive career in film and is a painter and educator who grew up in East Harlem. Upon returning to New York after a two-month sponsored symposium in Austria in 1969 he had his first solo show with Cinque at the New York Public Theater by Astor Place, in 1970. A selection of Grist's video presentations is available on YouTube.
Nanette Carter: Guest Program Curator, is an artist who presently teaches art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Her paintings and drawings can be found in the collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; The Newark Museum; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; and many others. Carter had a solo exhibition at Cinque Gallery and served on its artistic advisory committee, 1988-1994, and on the board of the Harlem School of the Arts, 2002 – 2006.
 
ABOUT THE ART STUDENTS LEAGUE OF NEW YORK:
The Art Students League of New York was founded in 1875 by students breaking away from the National Academy of Design. That independent spirit remains at The League today, where students pursue their work unconstrained by dogma, politics, or burdensome tuition. The League educates students in the language and process of making art in an environment where anyone who wishes to pursue arts education can realize his or her full potential. The League fulfills this mission by offering affordable, high-quality education and instruction in painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and assemblage. Artists who have studied at the League include Georgia O'Keeffe, Norman Rockwell, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, James Rosenquist, and Ai-Weiwei, among others. www.theartstudentsleague.org 
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
 
Mikaela Duhs
 
Rebecca Shapiro