Press Releases

Community Folk Art Center Exhibition Opening Reflection and Identity: Works by W. Michelle Harris and Michael Roman

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Our Spring 2012 exhibition, opening February 25, will feature Rochester Institute of Technology associate professor and artist W. Michelle Harris and Atlanta-based artist and Syracuse University alumnus Michael Roman. These two, young artists embrace questions of gender, identity and societal expectations in their work.  

While the materials used by each artist sit at opposite ends of the technological spectrum—Harris uses multimedia and Roman uses charcoal-- both individuals seek to examine topics of an interrelated and highly personal nature.

Harris is an associate professor in the Department of Interactive Games and Media at RIT, and the use toys and games appears in her work. In her multimedia piece Barbie Mirror, she uses small, pixel-like images of Barbie dolls to form a larger picture of a woman. She makes introspective art out of children’s games and toys concerning how female identity is presented.

“Michelle is looking at expectations of gender and stereotypes,” CFAC curator Chris Battaglia said. “While Michael is taking a more aesthetic approach. He approaches the female form with an idealized point of view.”

Roman creates pictures with charcoal that have the expressiveness of a portrait. He is drawn to the female form, paying special attention to curves in the hips and showing movement with the hair. His figures look like ribbons in the wind, but these women do not seem easily broken. He also plays with bird images in his nudes as an acknowledgement of the divine, with a light around them similar to that in depictions of the Virgin Mary.

Roman is a former student of CFAC’s executive director Kheli Willetts, Ph.D and she has been eager to have his work in the gallery as we celebrate our 40^th anniversary. 

“Roman has found a way to capture the essence of humanity with his subtle use of artist technique,” she said. “In particular there’s a reflection of sensitivity in the way he renders the female form. He captures the subtlety of femininity with a pen.” 

Willetts saw Harris’s work when it was entered into a city-wide art show, and she became intrigued by the feminist message concerning depictions of women.

  “I love her creative meditations, deconstructing Barbie in a way that critiques stereotypically informed perceptions of black womanhood and identity.”

The opening reception will be Saturday, February 25 from noon-2p.m. In tandem with the exhibit we are also having a Live Figure Drawing Workshop March 10 from 1p.m.- 4p.m. in the gallery, and a film screening of “Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour,” with discussion featuring W. Michelle Harris Thursday, April 5 6p.m. - 9p.m. 

The Community Folk Art Center, founded in 1972, is a proud unit of the African American Studies Department at Syracuse University. We are a beacon of artistry, creativity and cultural expression engaging the Syracuse community, the region and the world.  

Gallery Hours are Tuesday - Friday 10a.m. - 5p.m. and Saturday 11a.m. - 5p.m. For more information visit CommunityFolkArtCenter.org, follow us on Twitter @cfac or call (315) 442-2230. 

Community Folk Art Center Caribbean Cinematic Festival

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Community Folk Art Center to host An Evening of Jazz Wine Tasting

Friday, March 25, 2011

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (March 4, 2011) - Community Folk Art Center (CFAC), 805 E. Genesee St., will be hosting An Evening of Jazz and Wine Tasting on Friday, March 25, at 6:30 p.m.  Featuring jazz music and tastings of local wines, this event will benefit CFAC’s 40th anniversary celebration in 2012. Tickets for the fundraiser are available to purchase for $25 by visiting www.communityfolkartcenter.org.

Headlining the evening will be internationally renowned jazz vocalist Nancy Kelly, who will be performing with The Young Giants of Jazz, a group of college musicians.  Born in Rochester, Kelly has been involved with music since the age of four.  She attended the Eastman School of Music for voice and has since toured around the world as a jazz vocalist.  Kelly regularly performs in New York City at prestigious jazz clubs, including The Blue Note, Birdland and Dizzy’s Coca Cola Club at Lincoln Center. She has recorded four albums, and she has twice been named “Best Female Jazz Vocalist” in DownBeat Magazine’s readers’ poll.

Wine tastings will be presented by vineyards from around New York state, including Lakeland Winery, T. Edwards Wines and Fox Run Vineyards.  Additionally, a raffle will be held for three luxury gift baskets containing items generously donated by local Syracuse businesses.

“Our upcoming 40th anniversary is a huge milestone for our institution, and we are excited to celebrate with everyone in the extended CFAC family,” says Kheli Willetts, executive director of Community Folk Art Center.  “We look forward to an exciting year of programming which will culminate with our anniversary celebration in 2012, and we will strive to uphold the mission of our founders as we continue to serve the Syracuse community through the arts.”

Community Folk Art Center was founded in 1972 by the late Herbert T. Williams, a professor in the African American Studies department at Syracuse University, in collaboration with Syracuse University faculty and students, local artists and Syracuse city residents. The primary motivation and objective for the establishment of CFAC was to provide a high quality showcase for African Diasporan artists, creating a setting for dialogue and interaction among emerging, mid-career and professional artists.  In addition to Williams, CFAC founders included Shirley Harrison, Jack White, George Campbell, Mary Schmidt Campbell Jr., David MacDonald, and Basheer Alim. 

For more information about the fundraiser or any other programming, contact CFAC at (315) 442-2230 or at cfac@syr.edu.

"Amos Kennedy Prints!"

Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.

Run: February 16 - April 12, 2011

Printmaking Workshop: February 16-18 (Feb. 16 & 17: noon-8 p.m.; Feb 18: noon - 5 p.m.)

Opening Reception: February 19, noon-2 p.m.

Community Folk Art Center will be hosting “Amos Kennedy Prints!” from Feb. 16 through April 2.  Focusing on issues of race, violence and community, “Amos Kennedy Prints!” features the hand printed works of Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. and will include prints created at CFAC.  By transforming the gallery into an active printmaking workshop, Kennedy will collaborate with students from the Syracuse area and Syracuse University to create images and broadsides that reflect issues of race, gender and politics and illustrate the impact of violence in the city on their lives and community.

The workshop will run from Wednesday, Feb. 16, through Friday, Feb. 18, from noon-8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and from noon-5 p.m. on Friday.  The public is invited to meet Kennedy and to observe and participate in the printmaking process.  The completed exhibition will open with a cash and carry reception on Saturday, Feb. 19, from noon-2 p.m., where all prints will be available to purchase for $20 each. 

Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. is internationally known for his focus on delicate social subjects through his in-your-face prints, posters and broadsides.  Formerly a computer programmer, Kennedy walked away from his life to become an artist in the lost crafts of printing and book art.  Kennedy prints out of Gordo, Ala., under the imprint “Kennedy Prints!” and focuses on posters, community broadsides and other ephemera.  Kennedy also lectures and teaches all over the United States.

“Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. is a major figure in contemporary printmaking, giving the letterpress print a loud voice in the digital world,” said Andrew Saluti, assistant director at Syracuse University Art Galleries and co-curator of the exhibition.  “His text-based imagery commands interaction – communicating so much more than an e-mail or tweet ever could.”

“To my knowledge we have never had an exhibition at CFAC quite like ‘Amos Kennedy Prints,’” said Christopher Battaglia, interim curator at Community Folk Art Center.  “Having Amos create and sell pieces in the gallery itself gives the community a truly unique opportunity to witness the lost art of letterpress printing and participate in its creation.  I sincerely hope that many people take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.”

In addition to the workshop and reception, CFAC will screen the documentary “Proceed and Be Bold!” by Laura Zinger on Wednesday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m. in cooperation with Syracuse University Library. The film is a titillating retelling of Kennedy’s story that examines the pretensions and provisions of the art world. A self-proclaimed “humble Negro printer,” Kennedy raises emotionally charged questions and reveals remarkable depth beneath the boldness of his prints.

“Amos Kennedy Prints!” will be on view in concert with the exhibition “Infinite Mirror: Images of American Identity” at the Syracuse University Art Galleries in the Shaffer Art Building on the SU campus. American artists of African, Arab, European, Asian, Latino and Native American descent explore their heritage in this vivid and diverse exhibition through a wide variety of media. “Infinite Mirror” is open from Jan. 25 through March 20. For more information, visit suart.syr.edu.

For questions about the exhibition, programming or any other events at CFAC, contact (315) 442-2230 or cfac@syr.edu.  Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.  Visit CFAC online at www.communityfolkartcenter.org.

"Power and Pride: An Elizabeth Catlett Retrospective"

Elizabeth Catlett

Run: September 12 - December 12, 2009
Artist Reception: September 18, 2009

Time: 6:00pm-8:00pm
Location: Gallery 805 and Herbert T. Williams Galleries
Venue: Community Folk Art Center
Address: 805 East Genesee Street, Syracuse, New York 13210
Phone: 315-442-2230

Power and Pride: An Elizabeth Catlett Retrospective features fifty years of prints, drawings, collages and sculptures by Catlett, who is an icon of American art. The exhibition was organized with the assistance of Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana. Born in Washington, D.C., Elizabeth Catlett graduated from Howard University with a degree in painting and was the first student to receive an M.F.A. degree in sculpture from the University of Iowa in 1940. She later studied ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago, and lithography at the Art Students League in New York. In 1943, she studied with sculptor Ossip Zadkine in New York. Catlett was awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1946, under which she travelled to Mexico to study sculpture, mural painting and printmaking. In Mexico, she worked at the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura and at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Popular Graphic Arts Workshop), a group of artists who created art that expressed desire for social change. In 1947, she married Mexican artist Francisco Mora, and became a naturalized Mexican citizen in 1962. A lifelong artist, activist and educator, Catlett is known for her depiction of social and political issues, in particular those relating to African American and women's themes.

Elizabeth Catlett has taught at Dillard University, Hampton University, the George Washington Carver School, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, where she became the first female professor and first female department chair at the School of Fine Arts.

She retired in 1976 and makes her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she continues to work in her studio. Her work is featured in many public and private collections around the world, and she has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Catlett has been the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees.

There will be a special screening of the film Betty y Pancho with filmmaker Juan Mora Catlett on Saturday, September 19th at 3:00 p.m. in the Black Box Theater of the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company, also at 805 East Genesee Street. The film chronicles the story of Elizabeth Catlett and her husband Francisco Mora. A discussion with the filmmaker will follow.

Admission to the exhibition, reception and film screening is free. For more information about the exhibition and events, please call Community Folk Art Center at 442-2230 or e-mail cfac@syr.edu. Additional special events will be posted on the Center's website at http://www.communityfolkartcenter.org. Community Folk Art Center is a unit of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University.

COMMUNITY FOLK ART CENTER PRESENTS VIDEO INSTALLATIONS BY CARRIE MAE WEEMS: "Afro Chic" and "Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark The Moment"

Carrie Mae Weems

Run: September 12 - October 21, 2009
Location: Outside CFAC and in the Video Alcove
Venue: Community Folk Art Center
Address: 805 East Genesee Street, Syracuse, New York 13210
Phone: 315-442-2230

Community Folk Art Center, 805 East Genesee Street in Syracuse, in collaboration with Light Work Gallery and Urban Video Project, will screen two videos by international artist Carrie Mae Weems: "Afro Chic" and "Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment." The screenings are
a part of Light Work's citywide Barry Anderson collaborative exhibition screenings. The videos will be on view from September 12th through October 21st, 2009. Afro Chic will be screened in the windows of Community Folk Art Center Tuesday through Saturday evenings from dusk to 10:00 p.m.
Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment will be screening in the Community Folk Art Center video alcove during gallery hours, which are Tuesday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Saturday from 11:00 am to 5:00 p.m. There is a gallery reception on Friday, September 18th from
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Weems remarks, "During the past 25 years, I have worked toward developing a complex body of art that has at various times employed photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation, and, most recently, video. My work has led me to investigate family relationships, gender roles, the histories of racism, sexism, class, and various political systems.

Storytelling is a fundamental aspect of my artwork, a way to best express the human condition that has been a focus from my earliest documentary photographs. This characteristic continued through increasingly complex and layered works during the 1980s, as I endeavored to intertwine themes as I
have found them in life-racial, sexual, and cultural identity and history.

During the 1990s a trio of museum commissions resulted in large-scale fabric installations, leading to my most recent investigation, The Louisiana Project, commissioned by Tulane University. This project teases out the hidden histories of Louisiana, condensing a web of relationships between black and white, rich and poor, elites and the masses. The installation includes digital photographs, text,
video stills, and video. This first addition of the moving image in my work allows me finally to negotiate the space between museum culture and popular culture, while digital technology has enabled me to make current shifts in my artistic production.

Coming Up for Air was my first video endeavor, first screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In it I wove together a series of vignettes, separate yet linked, comprised of narrative sequence of photographs, moving footage, and live action. On the surface it may appear that I am moving away from question of race and gender. However, as a socially engaged artist, I continue to explore these subjects, while turning a poetic eye to the subtle and ephemeral qualities of love: its power to embrace and to destroy."


Laurie Ann Farrell writes, "Constructing History is Weems' homage to the spirit, fight, victories, and defeats of humanity from 1968 to the present day. After revisiting a historical image of the Birmingham, Alabama uprising published in her 1998 exhibition catalog Ritual and Revolution - and
desiring to pay homage to the impact of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and death on current world events - Weems decided to construct historical moments that resonate with her as a means of processing, understanding, reflecting, and laying to rest those memories. Weems said, 'Through the act of performance, with our own bodies, we are allowed to experience and to
connect the historical past to the present-to the now, to the moment. By inhabiting the moment, we live the experience, we stand in the shoes of others and come to know firsthand what is often only imagined, lost, forgotten.' "

Selections from The Dar-ul-Islam Historical Photographic Collection

Khalil AbdulKhabir

Syracuse, NY - Community Folk Art Center, 805 East Genesee Street in Syracuse, has opened a new exhibition in its Corridor Gallery. Selections From the Dar-ul-Islam Historical Photographic Collection by Khalil Abdulkhabir features photographs documenting the Dar-ul-Islam movement in Brooklyn in the 1970's and early 1980's. The exhibition will be on view now through March 7th, 2009. Regular Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Khalil Abdulkhabir will give a gallery talk on Saturday, February 21st at 2:00 p.m. at CFAC.

The Dar-ul-Islam movement (1962-1983) was a grassroots movement that began in Brooklyn, New York and eventually grew to over forty branches in the United States, Canada and Trinidad. Its purpose was to empower indigenous American Muslims. The goal of the Dar was to establish a fully functioning community complete with schools, places of worship and a governing body.

Syracuse photographer Khalil Abdulkhabir was born in Brooklyn, New York. He credits photographers from the Kamoinge workshop, created by Roy DeCarava, as being particularly important in his artistic development. Recently, Abdulkhabir has begun archiving images of the Dar that he took between 1970 and 1983 as well as those taken by other photographers during the same time period. For the initial phase of this project,

Abdulkhabir has chosen to exhibit his own works. Of the project, Abdulkhabir says, "My work is a collection of photos that depict a facet of my life as a Muslim in the 1970's in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. It presents the viewer an inside-out view of the people, activities, and experiences of the Dar-ul-Islam Movement. This allows the viewer who is not familiar with the Islamic experience to expand his knowledge of this group and Muslims, and for the Muslim too, who hopefully, will positively identify with the subject matter."

Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) is a branch of the African American Studies Department in the College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University.

CFAC is sponsored, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Cultural Resources Council, The Coalition of Museums & Art Centers at Syracuse University and The Office of the Chancellor at Syracuse University.

Our Media sponsors are WAER 88.3 and Urban CNY. The Genesee Grande and Park View Hotels are the official accommodations for guests of the Community Folk Art Center.

For more information about the exhibition and gallery talk, please call Community Folk Art Center at 442-2230 or e-mail cfac@syr.edu.

CONTEMPORARY CRAFT MASTERS

Espi Frazier, Hermon Futrell, David MacDonald

Exhibition: January 17- March 7, 2009
Panel & Reception: Saturday, February 7, 2009
Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue: Community Folk Art Center
Address: 805 East Genesee Street
Contact: 315-442-2230
Admission: FREE

Syracuse, NY - From January 17 to March 7, 2009, Community Folk Art Center (CFAC) will exhibit the work of three artists whose works were featured on HGTV'sModern Masters: African American Artisans Program in 2003. Featured artists include, Espi Frazier, Hermon Futrell and David MacDonald. These artists are at the forefront of contemporary crafts and reflect the diverse and innovative palette of today's artists. Community Folk Art Center invites the public to a reception and panel discussion with the artists Saturday, February 7, 2009 from 2-4pm.The opening is free and we encourage the public to join the discussion about the artists' work and issues relevant to contemporary art.

Espi Frazier
It is never a mere scratch, with each deliberate stroke Espi Frazier releases from her wooden canvas graceful female forms. Her mahogany figures reside amongst deftly carved undulating vines, flowers or roots. Each panel invites the viewer into a discourse about femininity, beauty and nature. Frazier reflecting on her work stated, "Every piece of art that I create expresses me wholly as an African-American woman. I wish to convey Black womanhood and family in its greater beauty, spirituality and raw essence.
Frazier holds an MFA from the Maryland College of Art and a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited her work widely in the east coast and Midwest, including exhibitions at the Washington Project for the Arts in Washington, DC and at the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum in Washington, DC.

Frazier currently teaches art at the Friends Middle School in Baltimore Maryland.

Hermon Futrell coaxes spare willow limbs into organic furniture pieces that reveal a hint of the artist's early architectural training. Each Adirondack rustic throne announces its presence in the space with brightly painted surfaces of green, red or yellow. Those left bare without the added veneer draw the viewer in to observe the craftsmanship. All of the furniture joints are resolved to their purpose and scoff at the need for screw, nail or hammer. Though skillfully and masterfully crafted, the pieces are offered without pomp, any chair could comfortably return to the artist's Upstate woodland muse without issue. It is the natural, simple and functional that are most earnestly celebrated in these works.
Futrell immersed himself in architectural, and industrial design studies in his formative years, studying at City College in New York, New York and Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit, Michigan. His painting, sculptures and art furniture are represented in private and corporate collections throughout the United States.

Professor David MacDonald is one of this country's most highly regarded African American ceramic artists. MacDonald creates a wide variety of work including vessels for daily use and one-of-a-kind pieces for exhibition. His earth-tone vessels bear rhythmic valleys, which pay homage to the surface decorations that are found in the many cultural groups of sub-Saharan Africa.

MacDonald received his MFA from the University of Michigan and his BS from Virginia's Hampton Institute. MacDonald was recently named professor emeritus after teaching studio arts for nearly four decades in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. He is a founder and board member of the Community Folk Art Center. His work is represented in many private and public collections throughout the United States.

Community Folk Art Center is a unit of the African American Studies Department in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University. CFAC is a vibrant cultural and artistic hub committed to the promotion and development of artists of the African Diaspora. The mission of the center is to exalt cultural and artistic pluralism by collecting, exhibiting, teaching and interpreting the visual & expressive arts.

Community Folk Art Center is sponsored, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Cultural Resources Council, The Coalition of Museums & Art Centers at Syracuse University and The Office of the Chancellor at Syracuse University. Our media sponsors are CNY Latino, Urban CNY and WAER 88.3. The Genesee Grande and Park View Hotels are the official accommodations for guests of the Community Folk Art Center.

March On!

London Ladd

Exhibition: September 13 - December 13, 2008
Opening Reception: September 27, 2008
Time: 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Book Signing: September 27, 2008
Time: 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: CFAC Corridor
Admission: FREE

Click Here to see video.

Community Folk Art Center is proud to have on exhibition works by local resident and Syracuse University alum, London Ladd. Works featured in this exhibition are the original paintings from the illustrated children's book, March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed The World written by Christine King Farris. March On! Commemorates the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historical "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28 1963. The book is filled with beautiful, vivid illustrations chronicling the 24 hours leading up to Dr. King delivering the speech that changed the world through the eyes of his older sister, Christine King Farris.

London Ladd, a lifelong resident of Syracuse, started drawing in his late teens and has developed a painting style that is reminiscent of traditional artist. Influenced by great artists such as N.C. and Andrew Wyeth, John Singer Sargeant, Burt Silverman, and Frank Schoonover. With a diversified subject matter due to his multi-racial background, London's painterly style seeps through each piece. Most of Ladd's work is created with acrylic paint in his studio.

His work has been displayed at the Everson Museum and the Syracuse Jazz Fest. London has also worked with various recording artists illustrating CD covers. He has completed a mural for the Cultural Resource Council depicting the Rev. Jermain Loguen, an abolitionist who helped escaped slave to freedom in the Underground Railroad.

Most recently London was hired by Marshall Cavendish Publications to illustrate a book by award-winning author Carole Boston Weatherford.

FOUNDING VISIONARIES

Herb Williams and Jack White

Exhibitions: September 13th - December 13th, 2008
Opening Reception: September 27th, 2008 Time: 2:00 p.m.- 5:00p.m.
Phone: 315-442-2230
Address:
805 East Genesee Street,
Syracuse, NY 13210
Admission: FREE

The Community Folk Art Center is proud to exhibit this unique collection of sculptures, drawings and prints by two CFAC founders, Herb Williams and Jack White. Celebrating Herb Williams: His Life, His Work, and His Art will be on exhibition in the Herbert T. Williams Gallery and Jack White: An Ancestral Image will be on display in the Main Gallery. Both exhibits are free, open to the public and will be on view September 13th - December 13th, 2008.

Celebrating Herb Williams: His Life, His Work, and His Art - As Community Folk Art Center's founding Director, Herb Williams (1938-1999) devoted his life to promoting the work of diverse artists and ensuring that a large audience could experience their work. His dedication to the collective vision of the founding members kept Williams busy and while he avidly supported and promoted other artist he rarely took time exhibit his own work. This will be the first large-scale exhibition of Williams' work in Upstate New York.

Though he identified himself primarily as a sculptor, Williams worked across various artistic mediums; manipulating wood, plaster and bronze into figurative and abstract forms. His lithographs and etchings not only indicate the measure of his artistic skill and creativity but also serve as a chronicle of his literal, figurative journey as an artist.

During his lifetime, Williams received numerous awards, including the Syracuse University Friends of the Arts Award for Service to the Arts, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of African Museums, an award for Outstanding Contributions to the Black Community from the Ghana Society of Central New York and the Service to the Arts Award from the Cultural Resources Council of Syracuse and Onondaga County. Williams served on the boards of directors of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and WCNY Public Broadcasting, acted as the chair of the Community Task Force, and served on the Syracuse Mayor's Urban Arts Commission as well as the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Jack White: An Ancestral Image

The Community Folk Art Center is honored to exhibit Jack White: An Ancestral Image, a collection of the works by CFAC co-founder and artist Jack White. Since the late 1960's, Jack White's mixed media abstract work, defined as "abstract impressionism", has been inspired by African art forms and symbolism. The works included in the Ancestral Image exhibition are outside the boundaries of traditional painting or sculpture. They contain elements of the spiritual, the artistic, and the utilitarian that define African art.

Reflecting on his work, White states, "Like most human beings I am curious about my ancestors; as a black American, I can know only that they came from Africa. Art gives me the power to explore the lives of those ancestors and expose audiences, minority and mainstream, to my discoveries."

While serving in the Air Force, White was both stimulated and inspired by the cultures he was exposed to during his world travels. White's global experience manifests in much of his art, with paintings, that are a mixture of various media that construct abstracted visual landscapes.

White began his more than forty-year career in art as an art and education major at Morgan State University in Baltimore and later continued with graduate studies in Museum Arts at Syracuse University in Upstate New York.

He has been featured in various solo and group exhibitions, with work represented in many prominent public and private collections: Schomberg Cultural Center, Syracuse University Collections, Arkansas Arts Center, Tampa Museum of Art, The Donald T. Byrd Collection, and Passaic County Community College Art Collections, among others. He recently moved from Auburn, New York to Austin, Texas, where he continues working as an artist, teacher, and curator.

CFAC: A Look Back
Community Folk Art Center, then known as The Community Folk Art Gallery, was founded in 1972 by a group that included Herb Williams, Jack White, Shirley Harrison, David MacDonald, Bashir Alim, George Campbell Jr. and Mary Schmidt Campbell. The gallery first occupied the site of the former Elk Bakery at the corner of South Salina and Elk Street. In the 1980's, the gallery was moved to the site of the former Jewish Community Center at 2223 East Genesee Street. The Community Folk Art Center moved to its current location at 805 East Genesee Street in February 2006.

The Whipping Post

Brantley Carroll

Exhibition: July 7-August 16, 2008
Artist Reception: Saturday, June 14, 2008
Time: 2:00p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Click Here for YouTube Video.

The Community Folk Art Center announces opening of new gallery exhibition, The Whipping Post by photographer Brantley Carroll. Blending historical images and engravings or text, Carroll's exhibition explores the legacy of The Middle Passage and the American Plantation System of Slavery in the United States.

The opening reception with the artist will be held on June 14th at 2:00p.m. The exhibition will be on view at The Community Folk Art Center June 7th through August 16th, 2008. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Select pieces from the exhibition will also be on display at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore located on Erie Boulevard, June 1st through June 30th.

Carroll's exhibition The Whipping Post engages the viewer in a visual tête-à-tête with colonial slavery and starkly captures the instrumentation of abuses that slaves endured. Each photograph draws you in to witness and read the digitally interwoven images and text taken from antebellum slave auctions, warrants, historical maps and documents.

In a piece entitled Thomas Jefferson's Slave Sally Hemmings, a young woman looks out beyond the words and signatures pearled together to constitute the foundation of a country. This piece holds a special significance to the artist, amongst commonly recognized filigree marks - Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, and Benjamin Franklin - is a Charles Carroll - the artist's great, great, great grandfather. "My father, Walter Carroll was reportedly very ashamed when as a young man he learned that he was the descendant of Charles Carroll. Carroll was a founding father and signer of the Declaration of Independence. An Irish Catholic immigrant, Carroll became a wealthy landowner in Maryland who founded the first industrial Iron Works in Baltimore and owned a large tobacco plantation. He owned one thousand slaves."

Artist Brantley Carroll contends, "that a nation like an individual must face its sins and make amends if it is to move toward greatness and enlightenment. It is the goal of my work to more fully understand and educate people about what the sins and realities of slavery and more importantly how its legacy pervades today."

The Community Folk Art Center will also host several guest speakers and film screenings in conjunction with the exhibition throughout the month of June. Please contact the CFAC offices at 315-442-2230 or visit us at www.communityfolkartcenter.org for a full schedule of events.

The Whipping Post Exhibition is made possible in part by a grant from the Central New York Community Foundation.

The Community Folk Art Center is a part of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University.

The Community Folk Art Center and The Links, Inc. present "36th. Annual Teenage Competitive Art Exhibition

The Best of Show

Award Recipient: Krithika Sathyamurthy
Painting Title: Lady In Window
Venue: Community Folk Art Center
Address: 805 East Genesee Street
Opening Reception: April 26, 2008
Time: 2:00pm- 4:00pm
Exhibition Dates: April 26 - May 24, 2008

The Community Folk Art Center, along with the Syracuse chapter of The Links, Inc., will present the "36th Annual Teen Competitive Art Exhibition." The Annual Teen Competitive Art Exhibition is the longest running collaborative exhibition in the Greater Syracuse area that features the work of underrepresented teen artists. Prizes are awarded to winners in two-dimensional and three-dimensional categories. A panel of professional local artists serves as judges for the exhibition. Participating students attend Syracuse City High Schools as well as suburban Onondaga County High Schools.

The exhibition, which will be on view from April 26th through May 24th, 2008. There will be an artist reception and awards presentation on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Regular Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

For more information about the exhibitions, please call the Community Folk Art Center at 442-2230 or contact us via email at cfac@syr.edu. The Community Folk Art Center is a program of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University.

Napoleon Jones-Henderson, 4 Little Girls: 16th Street Baptist Church, Enamel and Mixed Media, 2003-2005, 72" x 36" x 19"

AfriCOBRA: Liberated Image

Run: February 2nd - April 5, 2008
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Artist Panel Discussion: February 2, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
CFAC Annual Gala with Artist Reception:
February 2, 7:00-10:00 p.m.

Admission to exhibition and panel discussion is free; there is an admission fee for the CFAC Annual Gala; metered parking on adjacent streets, paid parking in nearby lots; convenient to Centro, Connective Corridor and SU campus bus routes.

"Forty Years of AfriCOBRA Collective"

A new exhibition celebrating forty years of the AfriCOBRA Artist Collective is opening. "AfriCOBRA: Liberated Images" will feature works by ten members of the collective. The exhibition will be on view from February 2nd through April 5th, 2008. Regular Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

AfriCOBRA ("African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists") began in Chicago in 1968 as a group of visual, performing, and literary artists who sought to capture the vibrancy and spirit of African American urban life through elements found in traditional African art. Through the years, the group has continued to add new members.

Exhibiting artists in AfriCOBRA: Liberated Images include: Akili Ron Anderson, Kevin Cole, Adger Cowans, Murry DePillars, Jeff Donaldson (1932-2004), Michael D. Harris, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, James Phillips, Frank Smith and Nelson Stevens. Jones-Henderson, who is a founding member of the group, serves as exhibition administrator for AfriCOBRA. The exhibition features recent works in a variety of two-and-three-dimensional media.

There will be a panel discussion with the AfriCOBRA artists on February 2nd from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. at CFAC. The panel discussion is free and open to the public.

The official opening reception for the exhibition will be during the Community Folk Art Center's Third Annual Gala Celebration, entitled AfriCOBRA Experience, on February 2nd from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at CFAC. Several of the AfriCOBRA artists will be in attendance. Entertainment will be provided by reggae group Selah Vibe, with an opening performance by dancers from CFAC's Kuumba project. Caribbean cuisine will be featured, with food by Jerk Hut and beverages by Valarie Escoffrey. Admission is $50.00 per person, with tickets available at CFAC.

For more information about the exhibition, panel discussion and Gala Celebration, please call the Community Folk Art Center at 442-2230 or e-mail cfac@syr.edu. The Community Folk Art Center is a program of the Department of African American Studies in the

Gullah Lifestyles: "A Culture Under Attack" and "Confederate Currency: The Color of Money"

Paintings by John W. Jones and Leroy Campbell

Run: November 3 - December 15, 2007
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Gullah Artist Reception and Panel Discussion: November 3, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Cinema Thursday: November 8, 7:30 p.m., film: The Gullah Connection

Admission to exhibitions and lectures is free; There is an admission fee for Cinema Thursday; metered parking on adjacent streets, paid parking in nearby lots; convenient to Centro, Connective Corridor and SU campus bus routes.

The artwork in Gullah Lifestyles: A Culture Under Attack focuses on the culture of the Gullah people of the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. Gullahs are descendants of enslaved West Africans who were brought to America beginning in the late 1600's. In part due to the remoteness of their communities, Gullah people today still maintain a unique culture rooted in African traditions. However, various factors threaten Gullah communities, including developers seeking land to build sprawling housing tracts along with younger generations leaving ancestral Gullah lands for college and not returning.

The paintings in "Confederate Currency: The Color of Money" are based on images of slavery that once were depicted on Confederate currency. Jones transforms the propaganda portrayed in the original black and white bank note engravings into vibrantly colored scenes that confront the realities of an unjust institution and bring the subjects to life. He presents the subjects as they appear on the original currency, not changing the original compositions, which often depicted slaves smiling or with indifferent expressions as they worked.

There will be an artist reception and panel discussion on Gullah Life and Culture on Saturday, November 3 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at CFAC. Panelists will include artists John W. Jones, Leroy Campbell, Guest Curator Chuma Nwokike and Gullah educator and storyteller Brenda Bines Jones.

CFAC will host Cinema Thursday on November 8 at 7:00 p.m. The Gullah Connection, a film by St. Clair Bourne, will be screened. The film documents the impact of tourism on the Gullah culture of the South Carolina Sea Islands. Admission to the film is $5.00 for adults, $3.00 for students and free for children under age 12.

For more information about the exhibitions, panel discussion and film, please call the Community Folk Art Center at 442-2230. The Community Folk Art Center is a program of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University. The Gullah Lifestyles: A Culture Under Attack and Confederate Currency: The Color of Money exhibitions and the Gullah panel discussion are funded in part by a grant from the Gifford Foundation.

World AIDS Day Exhibition

"The Art of George Mayocole"

Run: November 3 - December 15, 2007
Reception: November 17, 2007 Time: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Reception and Illustrated Lecture by Lynne Mayocole: November 17, 2:00-4:00 p.m.

Admission to exhibition and lecture is free; metered parking on adjacent streets, paid parking in nearby lots; convenient to Centro, Connective Corridor and SU campus bus routes.

The Art of George Mayocole will feature abstract mixed media on paper works by the late Mayocole, who was a New York City based artist. Mayocole was a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. He exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions and was the Director and Owner of Art Works Gallery in New York City from 1977 to 1979. He was the recipient of a C.A.P.S. (Creative Artists Public Services) Grant for Sculpture in 1975.

There will be a reception for the exhibition on November 17th from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Lynne Mayocole will give an illustrated lecture on the work of her husband, which will also include images of some of the artist's sculptures.

The Genius of Faith Ringgold: From the George Washington Bridge to Tar Beach

Run: August 25-October 20 , 2007
Gallery Hours: Tuesdays - Fridays
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturdays 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Featured Exhibitions:
"A Faith Ringgold Retrospective"
"Dinner At Aunt Connie's House: Illustrations By Faith Ringgold" Public Lecture by Faith Ringgold:
September 8, 3:00 p.m.,
Watson Theater, SU campus

Suggested admission to exhibitions is $5.00; admission to public lecture is $15.00; metered parking on adjacent streets, paid parking in nearby lots; convenient to Centro, Connective Corridor and SU campus bus routes

An icon of American art and activism, Ringgold was born in Harlem, New York. From a young age, she was encouraged in her creative endeavors by her mother, Willi Posey Jones, who was a fashion designer and seamstress. Ringgold received her Bachelor's degree in Fine Art and Education and her Master's degree in Art at City College of New York. From 1955-1973, she taught art in the New York City public schools. In the mid-to late 1960's, Ringgold began portraying political and Civil Rights themes in her paintings. She abandoned traditional painting in the early 1970's, and began creating large unstretched paintings with elaborate fabric borders, similar to Tibetan tankas. She also began making fabric dolls, masks and soft sculptures, some of which were used in performance pieces. In the early 1980's, she began creating large story quilts, featuring painted images along with handwritten text. She adapted her story quilt Tar Beach into a children's book in 1990, and has since written and illustrated several children's books, and has also published her memoirs.

From 1984 to 2002, Ringgold was a Professor of Art at University of California San Diego. She has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions since the 1960's. She has received many honors and awards for her achievements, including the National Endowment for the Arts awards in sculpture and painting, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and more than fifteen honorary doctorates.

Bag-It: Works by Lori Crawford

Run: June 16 - July 31, 2007 Artists Reception and Gallery Talks: June 16, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

"Bag-It: Works By Lori Crawford" is based on the "Brown Paper Bag Test," which dealt with the complexion of one's skin and whether it was lighter or darker than a brown paper bag. The works in the exhibition speak of the biases faced by each of the artist's subjects. The works offer a strong commentary on issues of prejudice faced every day in our modern society. The artist writes, "By creating images directly onto actual paper bags I attempt to bring the viewer face to face with the ignorance of judging others by his/her hue or race, weight, age, religion, sexuality, etc." Lori Crawford is an Associate Professor of Art at Delaware State University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehead State University in Eastern Kentucky and a Master of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.

Illuminate the Arts

Portraits by Brantley Carroll

Run: June 16 - July 31, 2007
Artists Reception and Gallery Talks: June 16, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

"Illuminate the Arts: Portraits By Brantley Carroll" contains photographs taken during the Illuminate the Arts Winter Break Camp at the Community Folk Art Center in February 2007. The portraits are of participants in the camp. Brantley Carroll is a self-taught photographer. He has taught courses in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University as well as at Community Darkrooms. He has received grants from Light Work and the New York Foundation For the Arts. He has been a commercial photographer in the Syracuse area for fifteen years.

The Father's Project

Run: June 2nd through June 29th, 2007
Artist reception and gallery talk: Saturday, June 2nd, 2007
Time: 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m

The exhibition features the works of Ellen Blalock. The exhibition is a portrait of teen fathers and their children, told through photographs, audio and video presentations.

Dodji Koudakpo: An African Experiences

March 24 - May 12
Dodji Koudakpo: An African Experiences

The exhibition features recent paintings by Koudakpo, a graduating senior at Syracuse University.

Artist Reception:
March 24, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.