Exhibitions at The Center
Exhibitions at The Center
THE CENTER FOR ART AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
The Center for Art and Social Engagement is a program 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.
Open by appointment only until further notice. Please email artgallery@rowan.edu to schedule an appointment.
Follow us on Instagram @rowanartcase.
MONUMENTAL SELFIE PROJECT and SISTERS SPEAK
In recognition of the 45 anniversary of The Sister Chapel, CASE presents The Monumental Selfie Project, an interactive, immersive experience with sound, digital image capturing, and photobooth props. Harnessing the iconic backgrounds from The Sister Chapel paintings, visitors may choose which SC monument they wish to emulate as an action in capturing the power of the women hero featured in the painting. Standing in front of a green screen an image is taken with the chosen background embracing the subject.
To elevate this personal experience and transformation, the audio series Sisters Speak, portraying the voices of the iconic women of The Sister Chapel can be heard within The Sister Chapel monument.
MSP is an interactive, multi-discipline collaborative art engagement project at the Center for Art and Social Engagement that humanizes concepts of public monuments, rendering them accessible and aspirational in seeing one’s own potential for personal greatness.
To elevate this personal experience and transformation, the audio series Sisters Speak, portraying the voices of the iconic women of The Sister Chapel can be heard within The Sister Chapel monument.
MSP is an interactive, multi-discipline collaborative art engagement project at the Center for Art and Social Engagement that humanizes concepts of public monuments, rendering them accessible and aspirational in seeing one’s own potential for personal greatness.
Project Credits:
Paxton Allen, Student, Biomedical Art & Visualization Program
Rendered the Sister Chapel paintings to be used as the green screen selfie backgrounds.
Department of Radio, Television and Film
Casey Holcombe, Television Production Coordinator
Sean O’Leary, Film Production Coordinator
Provided initial consultation on technical solutions for the green screen capture.
College of Performing Arts, Department of Theatre and Dance
Dr. Christopher Marlowe Roche, Associate Professor and Musical Theatre Coordinator
Professor Roche directed freshmen theatre students to write and recite the scripts based on the iconic women subjects in The Sister Chapel paintings for Sisters Speak.
Sisters Speak Student Actors:
Angelica Cabral - Voice of Frida Kahlo
Elliot Colahan - Voice of Marianne Moore and Lilith
Emily DeRose - Voice of Betty Friedan and Superwoman
Erica Gerold - Voice of Joan of Arc and Artemisia Gentileschi
Magdelyn Kelly - Voice of God and Woman Hero
Emilia Weiss - Voice of Durga and Bella Abzug
Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center, Campbell Library
Michael Benson, Coordinator
Recorded the student actors performing their SC characters
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.
Select Past Exhibitions at CASE
The Center for Art and Social Engagement is a program 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.
