Rockefeller Foundation grants $25,000 to SUNY New Paltz for Cuban photography and video exhibition

NEW PALTZ — The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz has received a grant for $25,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation to help support the 2003 exhibition “Utopia/Post-Utopia: Conceptual Photography and Video from Cuba.”

The exhibition includes works of 10 of the most advanced artists working in Cuba today and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog with an essay by the curator and one by a Cuban critic. The artists included in Utopia/Post-Utopia explore the relationship between personnel expression and social responsibility through such subjects as the body, race and identity, private and public space, history and memory, and faith and frustration.

“I am very grateful to The Rockefeller Foundation for their support of ‘Utopia/Post-Utopia: Conceptual Photography and Video from Cuba,'” said guest curator Helaine Posner, who is also curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of the Arts in New York City. “Their endorsement of this project has been a great affirmation for all involved, especially the 10 exhibiting artists.”

Neil Trager, director of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (SDMA), said, “International art exhibitions are by definition, complex and costly endeavors. The generous support for this project provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, ensures that the exhibition and the scholarly catalogue that accompanies it will be produced without the compromises that often impact projects of this magnitude. I am extremely pleased and honored to have the work of the SDMA recognized and supported by such a prestigious and important foundation.”

Grant funds will be applied to the costs of mounting the exhibition, publishing the catalog, supporting the artists’ travel and work at New Paltz, and creating educational programs related to the exhibition. The exhibition will be on display at the SDMA from July to September 2003.