BELOVED COMMUNITY

Art And Social Justice Project Enters Sixth Year

panels, as well as lectures by visiting artists, a presentation about community-engaged public murals, and a collaborative chalkboard wall drawing. Participating alums included Ingrid Morales, Phoenix Harring, Rohan Mitra, Zahra Bukhari, Evie Horton, Anna Reid, Luis Romero, Cassadee Sicherer, and Hanifa Abdul Hameed

Department chair Marc Handelman says the festival was meant to focus on students’ experiences and interests outside classroom and studio settings.

“Rather than seeing these [skills and interests] merely as extracurricular activities, we recognize that what takes place in the classroom and studio has to be connected to our lives and passions and supported by our relationships, collaborations and the social life of our community,” he says.

BFA student Gracelda Neri led a workshop that focused on balancing one’s digital, social, and academic lives. Graduate student Robbie Acklen led a workshop called “Water Works: Assembling a Human Fountain Sculpture,” an experiment in kinetic sculpture and collaboration.

Acklen, who has taught an analog photography course at Mason Gross and was one of the co-DJs for the festival’s dance party, saw the festival as “an opportunity for faculty to demonstrate to the students that learning is a lifelong endeavor.”

And, says Handelman, “If the festival works as we envision it, students will have the simultaneous experience of giving, learning, exchanging, and growing in all of these areas that are just beyond the periphery of their coursework, all the while feeling a sense of reprieve, of rest, of joy, and inspiration.”

Student Vanessa Nuckols’s graphic novel Reclaiming My Voice reflects her partnership with the Middlesex County Center for Empowerment, which supports survivors and significant others affected by sexual violence and works to eliminate sexual violence through community awareness and education. Reclaiming My Voice was on display in a window of the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick as part of the annual Windows of Understanding arts and social justice initiative.

Early in the spring semester, Windows of Understanding, an arts-based social justice initiative launched in 2018 by Art & Design administrator of communications and collaboration Cassandra Oliveras-Moreno and other Rutgers alums, featured events and art interventions around New Brunswick, Highland Park, and beyond.

This year, more than 20 nonprofits paired with artist facilitators— including nine MGSA students and alums—to highlight the work these organizations are doing to reckon with issues surrounding mental health, violence prevention, women’s health, and food equity. Participating from Art & Design were alums Sarah and Usra Attalla, MFA student Alfred Dudley III, BFA students Salma Hussein Qutub, Vanessa Nuckols, Shreya Segu, and Fariah Siddiqui, BA student Ria Monga, as well as Theater alum Mahkai Dominique

STUDENT COMMISSIONED TO CREATE ART REFLECTING SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK’S MISSION

Last fall, the Rutgers School of Social Work (SSW) commissioned BA Art & Design student Ria Monga to produce a public art project. The charge: create a piece of art that communicates the school’s strategic plan, Toward a More Just Future

Monga responded with an audacious, 20-panel vinyl installation stretching across the SSW building’s ground-floor windows at the intersection of George and Albany streets. The project was installed in March, featuring the school’s name in tomato-red graffiti-inspired lettering, the strategic plan’s title, as well as bold, swirling imagery referencing, among other things, the Black Lives Matter movement, the LGBTQIA+ community, and the school’s commitment to social justice, inclusion, and community.

Program Aims To Provide Resources To Local High School Student Artists And Prepare Them For Higher Ed

By Risa Barisch

During the fall 2022 semester, Mason Gross School of the Arts and Rutgers Community Arts partnered with the Arts Institute of Middlesex County to present a portfolio development program to New Brunswick High School students. The series of art classes and artist talks, which took place on Saturdays from October 22 to December 17, featured workshops and professional-development seminars led by Art & Design students and recent alumni.

Students in the program created art in a range of media including drawing, print, painting, and digital and participated in discussions with guest speakers who introduced topics including building a career as a working artist, the business of art—like setting up an LLC, how to price work, and generating invoices—and ideas about where to hold an exhibition.

Instructors and guests included alumni Kyle b. co., Francesca Strada, Richard Siggillino, and

“Art is not just a reflection of our community, but a tool to shape it,” says Monga, who is earning a BA in Visual Arts and minor in Human Resource Management.

“…Cultivating the designs required an understanding and drive to learn more, all in the service of shedding light on important issues and inspiring positive change.”

Monga’s commission—SSW says they chose her from a pool of candidates—is part of a broader initiative that the Department of Art & Design has undertaken to foment community partnerships involving faculty and students.

Cassandra Oliveras-Moreno, the Department of Art & Design’s administrator of communications and collaboration, helped coordinate the project.

“Opportunities like this to activate, disrupt, and collaborate, fuel us in Art & Design,” Oliveras-Moreno says. “Seeing the work of our students extend far beyond the comfort of their studio walls is a great reminder of their agency. This installation at the intersection of Albany and George sits also at the intersection of art and social impact.”

Handelman says the program— which is expected to expand next year—serves to expose high school students who are passionate about art to a supportive studio experience while introducing resources available in a university context.

“Coming to campus each week and working with our instructors and learning about college life also helps to demystify higher education,” Handelman adds. “Ultimately, we want this portfolio development program to support and inspire high school students on their path to art school, whether that is at Mason Gross or elsewhere.”

Jahi Sabater; MFA student Sacha Vega and BFA student Tehyla McLeod; and local artist Louie Blaka. In addition, Mandy Feiler, assistant dean for admissions and enrollment management, and Marc Handelman, chair of the Department of Art & Design, spoke to students about the college application process and portfolio preparation.

Anasely G., a sophomore at New Brunswick High School, is an aspiring architect who participated in the program for professional development as well as the luxury of time to be creative.

“Art is my passion,” says Anasely G., “and knowing that I could devote my time to art was convenient because at home I don’t have time to do much of my art.”

Anasely G. says one of her goals in making art was to “show people that it’s more about creativity than skill.”

“A lot of people think of art as being able to draw something exactly how they look at it, but that’s not always the case,” Anasely G. says. “Art comes in different forms and not a lot of people understand that.”

Work by Anasely G. and other students was featured in a special exhibition at the Civic Square Building in downtown New Brunswick at the conclusion of the program.

The pilot program was funded by a grant from the Arts Institute of Middlesex County and underscores the county’s commitment to helping local organizations, including Rutgers, increase engagement with their communities, says Jared Cardenas, head of education, outreach, and administration at the institute.

“We’re bridging people at the municipal level, the institutional university level, the county level, and the state level, where everybody is coming together to think about how to create access that could potentially be transformative for students,” says Cardenas. “So many institutions have voiced a sincere interest in having an impact locally and improving the lives of people who live here.”