About The Center
About The Center
THE CENTER FOR ART AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
The Center for Art and Social Engagement is a new initiative of Rowan University Art Gallery at Westby Hall. It serves as a venue for investigating social issues through arts-based methods. Anchored by a permanent display of The Sister Chapel, a historic collaborative feminist installation, the Center draws inspiration from the cooperative spirit of the women’s art movement. Programming at the Center encourages interdisciplinary collaborations that explore diverse and timely social issues through multidisciplinary practices, broadly conceived to include a variety of mediums such as photojournalism, film and video, historical ephemera, faculty and student research presentations, info-graphic presentations, STEM/STEAM installations, and public programming.
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CURRENT PROGRAM
THE WEIGHT OF PAPER: ENDLESS JUNKMAIL SCROLLS
Vernita Nemec a.k.a. N’Cognita
Exhibition Dates: October 18 - December 17, 2021
Opening Program: October 28, 5 - 7 pm
The Weight of Paper: Endless Junkmail Scrolls is a response to the complexities surrounding the paper industry and the production of junk mail waste. Junk mail waste continues to be a problem for our landfills and contributes to deforestation. Reducing unwanted mail helps to conserve natural resources and decreases reliance on landfills and incineration.
Vernita Nemec a.k.a N'Cognita began the Endless Junkmail Scrolls project in 2006 as an environmental statement about the oppressive amounts of junk mail produced every year. It has now grown to over 400 ft long. As a feminist and activist artist, recycling has become an important component of her practice. In 1969-70, she co-curated “X12”, an important early feminist group exhibition, and worked with Art Workers' Coalition (AWC), Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), and Artists Meeting for Cultural Change. She began to use the pseudonym N’Cognita, to honor under-recognized artists. She is currently the director of Viridian Artists, an artist-owned contemporary gallery in New York City.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
The themes embodied in The Sister Chapel paintings provide a broad range of topics in which to explore programming. They are diverse and expansive from women’s issues to investigations of mythology, science, world religions, LGBTQ, literature, politics, and more. If you would like to submit a proposal to The Center for Art and Social Engagement, review the guidelines found in the Request for Proposals. Proposals will be accepted on an on-going basis.For more information about this program please contact Mary Salvante at salvante@rowan.edu.
About The Sister Chapel
The Sister Chapel was conceived in 1974 by Ilise Greenstein, who envisioned a monumental “hall of fame” in which women’s achievements would be presented from a female perspective. Greenstein’s participation in several feminist consciousness-raising groups and all-women activist organizations prompted her to question the enduring androcentric view of history. Using a nominal pun on the Sistine Chapel, she proposed a secular, nonhierarchical alternative to the patriarchal system embodied in Michelangelo’s renowned ceiling fresco.
