Juliet Jacobson

Dear Chancellor Cantor,

I am writing to praise Astria Suparak's work at the Warehouse Gallery and to address the termination of her position.

I've just returned home to Brooklyn from the opening of Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze, an exhibition I had the privilege of participating in. If "the guiding principle in the inception of the Gallery was the goal of positioning the arts as an important component of community engagement," as Jeffrey Hoone says in his letter, I can state unequivocally that this goal has been met. The artists, professors, and students that I met in Syracuse were galvanized around Astria's situation. It was the topic for conversation and it was igniting self reflection. People were talking not so much about what would happen at the Warehouse Gallery but about how this decision would reflect on the Syracuse art community. There was a lot of hope in the talk surrounding what the community could become with Astria as a key member.

I know that Astria went to lengths to give an account of my work as a substantive addition to the show. In the time leading up to the exhibition she and I engaged in an email dialog about 3rd Wave Feminism. Because of her earnest and enthusiastic comportment toward the question, I was allowed a radical redress of my own relationship to Feminism. From this engagement I learned how substantive a curator's role can be. The gallery's stated vision concludes saying every exhibition will articulate the voice of the individual artist. Astria's commitment to this goal allowed me new insights into my own work and political platform.

Because Astria has so clearly engaged the community in dialog and because my interactions with her as an artist have been so rich I urge you to reconsider the termination of her position. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Juliet Jacobson