Art Faculty and Alumni Reunite in Shaker Museum Exhibition

A large painting of winged bugs on a white wall in a room with wood paneled walls and a rattan chair.
Carl Ostendarp, Corruption #2 (2018), acrylic on canvas, 35" x 45 5/8", installation view. photo / Amie Cunat (M.F.A. '12)
An embroidered panel depicting six stacked rows of canned food
Piotr Chizinsk, Bev Chizinski, Trudy Kucharski, 2 people for 6 months (2019), embroidery on quilted fabric, 70" x 90", installation view. photo / Amie Cunat (M.F.A. '12)
a freestanding flight of five stairs with decorated treads, risers, and handrail in the middle of a room
Anne Wu, A Light Tread (2019), styrofoam, Sculptamold, plaster, enamel, wire, cement, pigment, and Sumi ink, 49” x 49” x 27”, installation view. photo / Amie Cunat (M.F.A. '12)
Carl Ostendarp, Corruption #2 (2018), acrylic on canvas, 35" x 45 5/8", installation view. photo / Amie Cunat (M.F.A. '12) Piotr Chizinsk, Bev Chizinski, Trudy Kucharski, 2 people for 6 months (2019), embroidery on quilted fabric, 70" x 90", installation view. photo / Amie Cunat (M.F.A. '12) Anne Wu, A Light Tread (2019), styrofoam, Sculptamold, plaster, enamel, wire, cement, pigment, and Sumi ink, 49” x 49” x 27”, installation view. photo / Amie Cunat (M.F.A. '12)
News
June 11, 2019

Associate professor of art Carl Ostendarp is part of a group exhibition at the Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon, May 25–June 22, at the museum's historic site in New Lebanon, New York. Quiet March to a Warring Song is curated by Amie Cunat (M.F.A. '12), artist-in-residence at the museum. The show also includes work by art alumni Piotr Chizinski (M.F.A. '12) and Anne Wu (B.F.A. '13).

The exhibition is part of the Shaker Museum's multipart collaboration with Cunat to foster relationships between Shaker cultural legacy, contemporary art, and the town of New Lebanon and surrounding communities. Cunat's artist's residency, exhibitions, and arts programming this summer at the museum are supported by a $47,000 grant from the Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) Initiatives of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

"Since graduating from AAP's M.F.A. program, it has been a priority of mine to invite Cornell alumni and affiliated artists to participate in projects such as my residency at the museum," said Cunat. "Professor Ostendarp is not only an influential educator and mentor to many, but his paintings also offer humor and criticality to the exhibition."

The show addresses early American ideals through the work of nine contemporary artists. The other artists in the exhibition are Paolo Arao, Chloë Bass, Mark Thomas Gibson, Doug Johnston, Mary Lum, and Casey Ruble.

Another art alum, Christina Yuna Ko (B.F.A. '13), is also involved: she will lead a youth-oriented workshop during the museum's summer programming, also funded by NYSCA.

In 1787, Mount Lebanon was the first official community organized by the Shakers, a Christian sect founded in England in the mid-18th century and organized in the U.S. in the 1780s. The settlement was the model for Shaker villages elsewhere in the U.S. through the mid-20th century and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1965. In 1986, NYSCA named the museum a primary organization with the mission of supporting arts education, individual artists, economic development through the arts, and programs reaching underserved populations.

By Patti Witten

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