Javaka Steptoe (left) and Claudia Rahadjanoto (right) at Story Time: Tales on Sugar Hill
Photo Credit: Lauren Kelley
Saturday, October 3,2015
The new Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling provides children and families with a space to grow and learn about Sugar Hill and the world at large, through interactions with accomplished artists and storytellers, access to well-equipped art-making facilities, and firsthand experiences with historically significant and important contemporary works of art.
Developed by Broadway Housing Communities and designed by internationally acclaimed architects Adjaye Associates, SHCM is a cultural oasis where transformational experiences in art and storytelling create lasting change in the lives of young children.
Inaugural exhibitions include:
- People, Places, and Things: Selections from The Studio Museum
Organized by Lauren Haynes, from The Studio Museum in Harlem, this exhibition explores artworks created from the 1930s to 1980s and features everything from portraits to landscapes by a group of renowned artists who have depicted everyday life in communities throughout the U.S., including Harlem.
- Txt: art, language, media
This exhibition investigates new forms of literacy and its visual impact of this on everyday life, from the literature of “ABCs” to spoken word poetry to text messaging. Presented in partnership with El Museo del Barrio, and co-curated by Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, El Museo del Barrio and Lauren Kelley, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling.
- The Pollen Catchers’ Color Mixing Machine: Saya Woolfalk in collaboration with daughter Aya Mitchell
Filling the six walls of the Museum’s 3,000 square foot Main Gallery, Saya Woolfalk’s brilliant mural – created specifically for the Museum’s opening – is a wondrous dreamscape for all to explore. Curated by Lauren Kelley, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling and produced with the support of members of Cre8tive YouTH*ink’s Art School Without Walls.
- The 2015/2016 Artist in Residence, David Shrobe
A fourth generation Harlem resident, current Joan Mitchell Teaching Fellow and Hunter College MFA graduate, David Shrobe’s paintings, wall collages, and objects are an intimate rendering of the community as an evolving landscape. Selected in partnership with The Laundromat Project, David’s inaugural open studio will be a reflection of work produced at the start of his residency.
Featured Speakers, Artists and Guests:
– Ellen Baxter, President, Founder and Executive Director, Broadway Housing Communities
– Susan R. Delvalle, Director, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling
– David Adjaye, Adjaye Associates
– Alessandra Carnielli, Executive Director, Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation (pending confirmation)
– Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem (pending confirmation)
– Jorge Daniel Veneciano, Executive Director, El Museo del Barrio
– Lauren Kelley, Associate Director, Curatorial and Public Programs, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling
– Jennifer Ifil-Ryan, Associate Director, Education and Community Engagement, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum
– Lauren Haynes, Associate Curator, Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem
– Exhibition Artists: Andrew Demirjian, Iviva Olenick, Antonia Perez, David Shrobe and Saya Woolfalk
