By Staff Writer Kira Bruce
This past week the Torch met with Viera Levitt, the schools Gallery Director. She is a very busy woman as she curates the galleries for both CVPA and the star store in New Bedford.
When the Torch sat down with Levitt she was at the star store setting up for a very cool exhibition that opened Sep 20, this is the InsideOut collection by Raquel Paiewonsky.
In this collection of art Paiewonsky uses every different type of media you can imagine. She uses sculpture, video, painting, photography, and textiles to express issues of gender politics.
The collection focuses on femininity, relationships, and how men and women coexist. I was lucky to get to view a portion of one of the videos a few days before the grand opening. It was extremely strange but definitely made me feel things.
I feel like Paiewonsky is one of those artists who creates for other people to feel. I believe everyone could have a completely different experience while viewing her art.
She will be holding an artist talk on October 10 at 6:30pm at the star store in downtown New Bedford.
Also, while the Torch was at the star store, Levitt showed me Gallery 244 Glimpse Exhibition, which is run by students who are going for their MFAs. The art in here was beautiful, it was so professional looking I was surprised when she told me it was student run.
Other galleries to look forward to include Through Our Eyes. Through Our Eyes is a photography collaboration of more than 30 English language learners who all reside in Fall River.
The photographs will be images of celebrations, food, details of daily life, etc. as well as narratives written by the photographers about what it’s like to make a new home in the US.
This project is sponsored by MassHumanities who gave a grant to Professor Andrea Klimt. The collection of photographs will be showcased in CVPA with a gallery talk on October 3 at 6pm.
The Bubbler Gallery is an ongoing video exhibition located above the bubblers at the star store. I thought it was a funny idea and worth mentioning. Also since it is ongoing you can pop in anytime and see it!
One exhibition that seems particularly exciting is Local Ecologies. This is a research driven arts and culture exhibit. These are PhDs who have traveled to New Bedford and Boston region to gather inspiration from the local natural, social, and industrial ecologies of our area. They worked with UMass Boston, Lowell, and Dartmouth while working on this project!
Also, it’s important to mention that there are other ongoing talks at the star store all the time! It’s always free and is a great resource for students regardless of major. Its open between the hours of 9am-6pm, except on AHA! Night which is the second Thursday of the month and they stay open until 9pm.