Sanctuary

The City of Kingston is proud to announce the last show in the 2019 Exhibition Schedule:

Sanctuary

What does 'sanctuary' mean to Kingston?

Whether it’s a home, a preserve, a walk in the woods, or even the welcome haven of an entire country, human beings seek it, crave it, need it. Even if it’s as modest as cardboard box on a street corner, we all seek sanctuary. The question is are our sanctuaries disappearing?

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Sanctuary is a group exhibition of small works of visual art that explores the concept of sanctuaries, and what they mean to our community. The concept for Sanctuary was developed by Distinguished Artist , Julie Hedrick, as a way to deepen and expand the recent political conversations regarding sanctuaries. Hedrick was personally motivated by her own experiences as an immigrant, and considers this exhibition a part of her work as one of the first Distinguished Artists of Kingston.

Traditionally connected with the sacred & divine, sanctuaries were often religious spaces or buildings that offered a haven for weary travelers, and persecuted peoples. Sanctuaries provide safety, but do not have to be a physical space or structure. A sanctuary can be a breath, a song, or a work of art...  

Sanctuary hopes to create a space for a nuanced interpretation of sanctuaries, and what they mean to Kingston. How are sanctuaries developed? Is our current community a sanctuary? If so, for whom? How can we work to create a inclusive, and welcoming environment? We hope artists are inspired to tackle these challenging conversations in their submissions.

Julie Hedrick- Julie Hedrick’s body of work is an oasis amongst these troubled times. Hedrick responds with her palette, her most recent exhibition of pink hues at The Nohra Haime Gallery in NY references the sacred colors of birth functioning as a personification of feminine energy and power, these works explore and honor the Earth as our mother.

Sanctuary is Julie and her partner and collaborator Peter Wetzler’s newest project. They are creating a series of art works, poetry and musical compositions to be exhibited and performed in 2020. The concept is based on the idea of Sanctuary in all its complexity and feeling.

 Julie Hedrick has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Colombia, and Europe. She is a graduate of the Painting Studio Program at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). Born in 1958 in Toronto, Hedrick is based in Kingston, New York. She is also a poet and has participated to great acclaim in readings, performances, set designs and discussion panels. Hedrick was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2012 and was recently honored with the Kingston Distinguished Artist Award alongside her composer husband. Hedrick has been represented by Nohra Haime Gallery since 1998

Janet Hicks- Janet is Vice President and Director of Licensing, Artists Rights Society, the preeminent copyright organization for visual artists in the United States. Janet serves on the Executive Committee of the visual arts arm of CISAC, known as CIAGP, the International Council of Creators of Graphic, Plastic, and Photographic Arts. She is also a curator and advocate for emerging contemporary and outsider artists and the Director of One Mile Gallery, which will celebrate 10 years in Kingston next year.

Laurie DeChiara- Laurie De Chiara a New York City native, is an independent curator/ former gallerist with an M.A. in Contemporary Arts/ Arts Management. She has been a creative force wearing many different hats in the art world for more than two decades.  In 1997, she opened De Chiara|Stewart Gallery in NY’s Chelsea district with partner Richard Stewart and her curiousity led her into the European market and she opened müllerdechiara galerie in Berlin, Mitte with partner Sonke Magnus Müler in 2001.  Her independent curating projects continued and she was invited to do  exhibitions in varying venues from galleries to Kunstvereins around the USA, Denmark, Mexico City, Bangkok, Berlin, and Italy.

From 2006 onward she continues to expand her practice, often even beyond the traditional art platform doing projects with artists creating opportunities to work in a wider context.  In 2010, De Chiara established ArtPod (www.artpod.org), a socially engaged not-for-profit in Berlin with a focus on creating large scale accessible art experiences and commissioned exhibitions.

In 2015, she returned to the New York this time to the Hudson Valley in Kingston, NY. The new creative ventures for De Chiara Projects began with a small Art Salon Gallery in Stone Ridge and then a public viewing window gallery in Uptown Kingston.