tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30050369605529050652024-03-16T03:08:02.617-04:00Syracuse Loses AgainA public forum devoted to providing information on the controversial dismissal of Astria Suparak from The Warehouse Gallery at Syracuse University in September 2007. Here you will find news about the situation, as well as a selection of the hundreds of emails and letters concerning the Warehouse Fiasco that have been sent in protest of her dismissal.Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.comBlogger173125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-26241117243022363712008-05-04T11:29:00.000-04:002008-05-04T11:31:24.714-04:00Artforum<div style="width: 550px;"> <p style="font-weight: bold;" class="content"><span>New Director for Carnegie Mellon's Gallery; New Roving Gallery for Bahrain: MUSEUM NEWS</span></p> <p>02.18.08</p><p class="content"><span class="hl0">Astria</span> Suparak, a curator known for her efforts to highlight emerging and international artists, has been named the new director of <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1209914924_1">Carnegie Mellon University</span>'s Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, effective March 1. Suparak's cutting-edge exhibitions often employ a variety of media, from painting and photography to craft and electronic arts. Suparak, who succeeds interim director Petra Fallaux, comes to <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1209914924_2">Carnegie Mellon</span> from <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1209914924_3">Syracuse University</span>'s Warehouse Gallery, a public, nonprofit art gallery. She has also curated exhibitions independently in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1209914924_4">Montreal</span> and <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1209914924_5">New York</span>. "<span class="hl0">Astria</span> Suparak will bring a great deal of energy and vision to her new position as director of the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery," said Hilary Robinson, dean of the College of Fine Arts. Suparak curated the Warehouse Gallery's show, "COME ON: Desire Under the Female Gaze," in late 2007. She described the exhibition as "unabashed explorations and unapologetic articulations of female libido" and an attempt to break down the notion of dichotomous gender.<br /><br /><br />Source:<br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://artforum.com/archive/id=19510&search=%22astria%22"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1209914924_0">http://artforum.com/archive/id=19510&search=%22astria%22</span></a></p></div>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com270tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-87905413999687735852008-03-01T19:16:00.002-05:002008-03-01T19:24:12.626-05:00Daily Orange<h2 style="font-weight: bold;">Former Warehouse director offered position at Carnegie Mellon</h2><span style="font-size:100%;">Megan Saucke </span><div id="meta"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong style="font-weight: normal;">Issue date:</strong> 2/20/08 <strong style="font-weight: normal;">Section:</strong> News<br /></span><br />After her controversial dismissal from Syracuse University, former Warehouse Gallery director Astria Suparak is set to take a new position.<br /><br />Suparak will become director of the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University on March 1.<br /><br />"I wasn't that actively looking for employment because opportunities were coming to me," Suparak said. She received job offers in the Northeast, on the West Coast and in Canada from universities, festivals and arts organizations.<br /><br />Suparak's unexpected firing sparked an outcry from those in local and international art communities. Jeffrey Hoone, executive director of the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers, took full responsibility for the firing. Both he and Chancellor Nancy Cantor declined to give reason for the decision, citing "confidential personnel issues."<br /><br />Tom Sherman, a professor of video and media theory, said Suparak's firing came down to different visions.<br /><br />"I think [the administration] had a different vision of what art would be here, and that didn't include this dynamic relationship with the community," Sherman said.<br /><br />In November, it seemed Suparak would retain employment by SU as curator-in-residence at the College of Visual Performing Arts. But SU ended negotiations after Suparak talked to The Daily Orange about the possible new position.<br /><br />Suparak's absence is still felt by many at SU. A new Warehouse Gallery director has yet to be hired.<br /><br />"This is a very difficult setback for us, not only in terms of our image as a community and as a university that we let somebody that was doing a great job go," Sherman said. "It really lessens our capability to compete with good schools like CMU.<br /><br />Suparak has a strong vision and knows how to engage a community in contemporary art, he said.<br /><br />"Our loss is their gain," he said.<br /><br />Yvonne Buchanan, an assistant professor of illustration in VPA, said Supark bridged different areas in the school and the community.<br /><br />"She's a very creative, dynamic person, and I feel very badly that SU lost her," Buchanan, a VPA professor, said. "But I'm really happy about the fact that she found a place that really appreciates what she can bring to an academic and creative community."<br /><br />Since her dismissal, Suparak has been busy working on upcoming exhibitions that include her own artwork. She is also writing for publications and serving on panels for art funding.<br /><br />Once Suparak starts as director of the gallery at CMU, she will be responsible for leading the gallery, directing exhibitions and working with departments in the university. She plans to collaborate with different departments within the university, across the city and with international organizations.<br /><br />"They really have the ability to interface what they're teaching with what they're showing in the gallery," Sherman said. "Astria was beginning to put that in place at the Warehouse Gallery, but when she was dismissed we really lost that link between what we were doing in our curriculum and was being shown."<br /><br />"She was extremely thoughtful, she was very thorough, she had a lot of energy and we liked the ideas that she had for exhibitions," said Hilary Robinson, the dean of CMU's College of Fine Arts. "She seems to have a huge body of support from curators and artists out there, and I'm looking forward to working with her in the coming years."<br /><br />The city of Pittsburgh also drew Suparak to CMU. She said it is "diverse on multiple levels" and has a "thriving underground art scene."<br /><br />Pittsburgh was recently named "Best Arts Destination in the Country" among midsized cities by American Style Magazine. It is the home of the Warhol Museum, the Mattress Factory and the Carnegie Museum of Art, all contemporary visual arts venues.<br /><br />"It's a wonderful place for artists to live," Robinson said.<br /><br />And Suparak is thrilled about her new position. "There is such a strong history and reputation at CMU for encouraging experimentation and fostering innovation," she said. "I think the gallery is really well-positioned to assume a leadership role amongst universities."<br /></div>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com309tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-86492638388097909712008-02-16T10:55:00.008-05:002008-02-18T23:20:06.248-05:00Carnegie Mellon University Press Release<p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Astria Suparak Named New Director of Regina Gouger Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon</span></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">PITTSBURGH — Astria Suparak, a curator known for her efforts to highlight emerging and international artists, has been named the new director of Carnegie Mellon University's <a href="http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu/" title="RGM">Regina Gouger Miller Gallery</a>, effective March 1. Suparak's cutting-edge exhibitions often employ a variety of media, from painting and photography, to craft and electronic arts.</span></p> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="floatright"><img alt="suparak" src="http://www.cmu.edu/news/images/ASuparak_8Feb2008.jpg" title="suparak" /></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Suparak, who succeeds interim director Petra Fallaux, comes to Carnegie Mellon from Syracuse University's Warehouse Gallery, a public, non-profit art gallery. She has also curated exhibits independently in Montreal and New York.</span></p> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"Astria Suparak will bring a great deal of energy and vision to her new position as director of the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery," said Hilary Robinson, dean of the <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/cfa/" title="CFA">College of Fine Arts</a>. "While wanting to reach out nationally and internationally, she also has a keen sense of what the role of the gallery can be here in Pittsburgh. I look forward to working with her in the years to come." </span></p> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Suparak curated the Warehouse Gallery's incisive "COME ON: Desire Under the Female Gaze" in late 2007. She described the exhibition as "unabashed explorations and unapologetic articulations of female libido" and an attempt to break down the notion of dichotomous gender. Thousands of people visited this exhibition, which received international press attention.</span></p> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"I look forward to leading the Miller Gallery into its next phase, as a vital component of Pittsburgh's flourishing cultural life," Suparak said. "Future programming will highlight critical and inspirational contemporary artists through provocative and illuminating exhibitions, projects, events and publications. I envision dynamic collaborations with other local, national and international organizations, bridging diverse communities across the campus, the city and the art world at large."</span></p> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Suparak has curated national exhibitions, screenings and events at the Yale University School of Architecture, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Kitchen, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the FotoFest Biennial, Eyebeam, the Anthology Film Archives and P.S.1. She has also worked in England, Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Belgium and France. From 1997 to 2000, she was director of the media series at Pratt Institute, and she is currently serving on the advisory panel for the Aurora Picture Show in Houston and the Public Art Commission for the city of Syracuse.</span></p> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">As an artist, Suparak's work has been published in the feminist journal "LTTR," the British art magazine "Black Diamond" and the book "Graffiti Women: Street Art from Five Continents." She has written for NY Arts, Heeb, The Independent Film and Video Monthly and has an essay in the forthcoming volume of "Live Cinema: A Contemporary Reader."</span></p> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Suparak received a bachelor's degree in studio art and art history from Pratt Institute in 2000, and later pursued museum studies at Syracuse University.</span></p> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Named for avid art collector, principal donor and Carnegie Mellon alumna Regina Gouger Miller, the Miller Gallery has sought to support the creation, growth and understanding of contemporary art since January 2000. Located in the Purnell Center for the Arts on Carnegie Mellon's campus, the three-story, 9,000 square-foot space functions not just as a showcase for art, but also for experimentation, examination, discovery and discussion. The gallery is free and open to the public. For more information visit <a href="http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu/" title="RGM">http://millergallery.cfa.cmu.edu</a>.</span></p>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-84091501797375962082008-01-05T11:55:00.000-05:002008-01-05T12:00:38.125-05:00Curating.Info<span class="serendipity_entryIcon"> </span> <div class="serendipity_entry_body"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.curating.info/archives/111-Censorship-Dismissal.html"><span style="font-size:130%;">Censorship & Dismissal</span></a><br /><br />Friday, January 4, 2008</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/" title="Astria Suparak">Astria Suparak</a>, a US-based curator, noted in a recent public letter that her role as a "citizen and as a curator is to enrich the communities in which I live and work, through engaging, exciting, and relevant creative work." I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly, and I'd also add that taking these actions involves an intimate knowledge of the context that one occupies and a willingness to take calculated risks. It should also be further noted that very often, curators do not work independently, and therefore institutions that employ curators are bound to support these creative risks if they truly desire to engage in a dynamic discourse around contemporary art.<br /><br />Suparak was the Director of the Warehouse Gallery at Syracuse University, until she was dismissed from her post on September 30, 2007. Her supervisor, Jeffrey Hoone, Executive Director of the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers (CMAC), said the reason for her dismissal was that the gallery was being "restructured".<br /><br />According to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/arts/21arts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin" title="NY Times">New York Times</a>:<br /><blockquote>Carole Brzozowski, the dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, said the content of gallery shows organized by Ms. Suparak had nothing to do with her dismissal. But people in the arts at Syracuse, including university art teachers, asserted that the ouster was related to risk-taking or innovative exhibitions she organized since becoming the director last year.<br /><br />Ms. Suparak said of Mr. Hoone: “My aesthetic is very different from his. I’m interested in street art, riot grrl and D.I.Y. aesthetics.” A sign at the entrance to the gallery’s current show, “Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze,” reads, “This exhibition contains work generally intended for mature audiences.” Ms. Suparak said it was posted at Mr. Hoone’s behest.</blockquote><br /><br />The case of Ms. Suparak's dismissal posits very serious questions vis à vis some basic aspirations and assumptions about creative curatorial practice. As an example, in a recent <a href="http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009560.php" title="wmmna">interview with curator Sarah Cook</a>, the interviewer asks (and I'm paraphrasing quite a bit) about what conditions would be considered nurturing for a curator. (The interviewer, Régine Debatty, asks specifically: "What are the conditions required to achieve "upstart media bliss"?") Ms. Cook responds: "Challenging the system – be it the art system, the museum, or the format of the exhibition – and not being afraid to take a risk (generally being an upstart). At the same time, remembering to take care of the artist and the work, take care of other people and your ethics. Creating situations for contemplation and reflection (bliss doesn't have to be monumental, it might only last a minute, but a minute worth remembering)."<br /><br />I think that this quotation from Ms. Cook says it best - what better way to achieve bliss than to challenge the system, take risks, and yet simultaneously remain steadfast to your standards. In an institution where the curator has to answer to management, it is imperative that management support the sort of calculated, intelligent risks a professional curator would make. If Ms. Suparak's case is as it seems based on the available evidence, it appears that there was a failure in this relationship - this commitment to producing catalytic moments and entry points for dialogue in contemporary art, by making moves that are not always "safe". These failures are worrying, as they don't bode well for the continued enrichment of cultural experience - which means everyone, not just the curators involved, loses out.<br /><br /> </div>Posted by: <a href="http://www.curating.info/authors/1-Michelle-Kasprzak">Michelle Kasprzak<br /><br /></a>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-11115207859413429572007-12-23T21:03:00.000-05:002007-12-23T21:16:35.884-05:00Syracuse Post-Standard: Blog<span style="font-size:85%;">Original post here:<br /><a href="http://blog.syracuse.com/kirst/2007/12/winter_we_oughta.html">http://blog.syracuse.com/kirst/2007/12/winter_we_oughta.html</a></span><br /><br /><br />Hey Sean,<br /><br />All this ranting about winter, these columns, comments and blogs, sounds like we're "Embracing Winter"...hey wait, wasn't that a show mounted at the Warehouse Gallery by Astria Suparak in the winter of 2007? A show with an entire wall dedicated to snowfall amounts...much like your proposed "high profile downtown chart that keeps track of snowfall inches"? Suparak also mounted shovels (to borrow) and pillars of salt, and played the soothing (and hopeful?) sounds of ice melting. Perhaps it was no accident that Suparak, a Californian, had moved to Syracuse from Montreal.<br /><br />I have lived in the cities mentioned by Environment Canada's weather stats guru (including St. John's Nfld) but I have never seen snow like Syracuse. This is the only place where it pours snow and is the only place I know that gives a snowfall rate. I moved here just in time for the Blizzard of '93...I think snow fell at around 7 inches/hr!<br /><br />Whatever the Canadian weather guy says, Syracuse has those Canadian cities beat by miles. And by feet, inches, centimeters and any other measure.<br /><br />I definitely agree that in Syracuse we should celebrate our superlatives. But I also think we should start thinking "neighborhood" instead of always thinking about big events and revitalizing "downtown". Every neighborhood has snow and cold. Syracuse also has wonderful hills, and almost every neighborhood has a hill or hills. Many people have told me they used to ski near Drumlins and on South Campus. (Did you know that there is a bobsled run behind Ed Smith, built I think, in the 1930's and abandoned following an accident?)<br /><br />Almost every Canadian city I lived in had outdoor neighborhood rinks, some small and rough, most with lights, often flooded by firemen and shovelled by city workers (or parents). Almost every neighborhood also had an area, a park or other area, with some kind of hill for sledding.<br /><br />Hills, snow, cold, ice, neighborhood parks...the ingredients necessary for embracing and celebrating winter and we have these ingredients in abundance in Syracuse. It's all here. Maybe we just have to rediscover it.<br /><br />This is a great topic for discussion! Thank you.<br /><br />Jan PottieWhats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-33943138348877710382007-12-21T15:32:00.000-05:002007-12-21T15:43:11.583-05:00Chicana Feliz<span style="font-size:85%;">[ Reposted from <a href="http://chicanafeliz.com/vlog/?p=349">here</a> ]</span><br /><br /><h2><a href="http://chicanafeliz.com/vlog/?p=349" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Curator of the Year: Astria Suparak">Curator of the Year: Astria Suparak</a></h2> <p class="flickr-frame"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zulma/491457778/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/198/491457778_12e34059a6.jpg" alt="ASTRIA SUPARAK" align="left" border="0" hspace="5" vspace="5" width="200" /></a></p> <p><span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zulma/491457778/">Astria Suparak</a>, taken in Troy, New York May 2007. Astria was a visiting Art Critter for the MFA Class of 2007 at RPI’s prestigious Art Department. I had dinner right across from her and I took this blurry bad angled snapshot of Astria because I was such a fan of hers. She shared with me that she was a Curator just down the road in Syracuse. I was sadly sharing with her that I had just left my beloved Troy, NY art community to live in Washington D.C. She suggested I speak to her friend at the <a href="http://www.nmwa.org/">National Museum of Women in the Arts</a>. This September 2007, this conversation led to my work being shown at NMWA. I have since become a member of NMWA and I shared the same space as Maria Martinez does now, and Frida Kahlo did then and the <a href="http://www.wackatnmwa.org/">WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution </a>Exhibit does now. </span></p> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> Well kids & cats, I have some really weird and sad news.</p> <p>All I’ve heard about Syracuse University is that their art world suddenly exploded into the 22nd Century by hiring my really amazing curator friend <a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/">Astria Suparak</a>.</p> <p><strong>If it wasn’t for Astria I would have never had the opportunity to show my work at the National Women in the Arts Museum.</strong></p> <p>I definitely consider this post a feminist and artist as activist post.</p> <p>Please keep reading why.</p> <p>Basically, I was at the closing party of the National Women in the Arts museum here in Washington D.C. when I heard of an injustice! Astria was fired. Apparently the University didn’t want its Freshmen to see real contemporary art that was feminist, progressive and critical to capitalism and social issues pertinent to today’s real world experiences.</p> <p>I was advised by a friend that my dear sweet, loving, kind, SUPER PROFESSIONAL favorite YOUNG but geniously talented Astria Suparak was “let go” only after a few months at the Warehouse Gallery of <a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/thewarehousegallery/">Contemporary Arts Museum at Syracuse University</a></p> <p>Bloggers, please REBLOG anything you can if you want to help Astria get her job back @ The Warehouse Gallery!</p> <p>The Warehouse Gallery<br />350 West Fayette Street<br />Syracuse, New York 13202<br />www.thewarehousegallery.org</p> <p>don’t read my horrible writing on this issue, I’m pissed, I’m not about to start working on my grammar. As anyone who read this blog knows that when I’m pissed off, i refuse to capitalize words or try to make any perfect sense.</p> <p>The facists at SU don’t deserve to be written about in good grammar.</p> <p>in any case, read Journalist SAYEJ’s New York Times article on the now highly controversial issue.</p> <p>source: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/arts/21arts.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/arts/21arts.html</a></p> <blockquote><p><strong><em>Gallery Director’s Dismissal Ignites Syracuse Protest</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>The ouster of the founding director of an art gallery overseen by Syracuse University has drawn protest from academics and art professionals there. The director, Astria Suparak, below, of the Warehouse Gallery, said that Jeffrey Hoone, who oversees the university’s art centers, had told her on Sept. 7 that she would be dismissed effective Sept. 30. She said he did not give a reason beyond saying that the gallery was being restructured. (In a telephone interview, Mr. Hoone said he could not discuss Ms. Suparak but that he was revamping the gallery’s leadership.) Carole Brzozowski, the dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, said the content of gallery shows organized by Ms. Suparak had nothing to do with her dismissal. But people in the arts at Syracuse, including university art teachers, asserted that the ouster was related to risk-taking or innovative exhibitions she organized since becoming the director last year. (Many have posted protests of her dismissal at <a href="http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/">syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com</a>.)</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>Ms. Suparak said of Mr. Hoone: “My aesthetic is very different from his. I’m interested in street art, riot grrl and D.I.Y. aesthetics.” A sign at the entrance to the gallery’s current show, “Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze,” reads, “This exhibition contains work generally intended for mature audiences.” Ms. Suparak said it was posted at Mr. Hoone’s behest. NADJA SAYEJ</em></strong></p></blockquote>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-75807921374221846662007-12-06T23:47:00.002-05:002007-12-11T12:04:27.438-05:00Astria Suparak6 December 2007<br /><br />Dear All,<br /><br />To everyone who has expressed support for my curatorial and community work, I offer my heartfelt gratitude. During the past three months I've received an abundance of emails and phone calls, which I deeply appreciate, from artists, organizers, business owners, and educators who I have worked with over the last decade and across many cities. It's an honor to receive such strong advocacy and encouragement from fellow curators and institutions that I admire, and I'm delighted that my exhibitions, events, and screenings have been memorable for so many. I never expected this wellspring of support.<br /><br />I recognize that my situation has touched upon critical issues of creative and academic freedom, institutional transparency, effective civic engagement, and the support for emerging visions and artists. Below you'll find an update on the situation. Through this ordeal, I've thankfully gotten to know the brave residents of Syracuse who are committed to open discourse and social justice. Your collective passion, acuity, and clear articulation are phenomenal. You have given me hope and inspiration during an incredibly difficult time.<br /><br />In addition to the over one hundred letters that have been posted at <a href="http://www.syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/">www.syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com</a>, I would like to acknowledge the thousands of others who have privately endorsed my reinstatement at The Warehouse Gallery and/or my hire in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, and who have voiced disappointment over my dismissal. I appreciate the rallies and receptions organized on my behalf, as well as my appointment to the first Public Art Commission of the City of Syracuse, based on my involvement with Tomorrow's Neighborhoods Today, Th3 Citywide Art Night, Syracuse Experimental Film & Media Workshop, and the 40 Below Public Arts Task Force.<br /><br />My chief goal as a citizen and as a curator is to enrich the communities in which I live and work, through engaging, exciting, and relevant creative work. I believe that the thousands of Warehouse Gallery visitors, the consistently positive exhibition reviews and attendant <a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/thewarehousegallery/press.html">press</a>, the invitations to tour exhibitions, and the ample enthusiastic <a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/thewarehousegallery/comments.html">viewer comments</a> demonstrate my ability to fulfill that goal.<br /><br />I'm unsure what the future holds for me, but I look forward to bringing new exhibitions and events to other spaces and locations, both here and elsewhere. Thanks to initiatives like the Syracuse Public Art Commission, Th3, Lipe Art Park, the Public Arts Task Force, and the Gear Factory; emergent small businesses like Roji Tea Lounge, Sugar Pearl, Second Story Books, and Funk'n Waffles; and collaborative, interdisciplinary arts organizations like Spark Contemporary Art Space, the Community Folk Art Center, Delavan Center, and The Redhouse, Syracuse is beginning to fulfill its promise as a rising cultural center. Regardless of whether the Connective Corridor delivers on its rhetoric about building bridges between University Hill and downtown, I am optimistic that the inspirited residents and students of Syracuse will take up the cause to make this city a better place to live – actually, they're already doing it!<br /><br />Very truly yours,<br /><br />Astria Suparak<br /><br /><br />- My work at the gallery and information on all of the artists that I exhibited were removed from the official Warehouse Gallery website, so I have archived them at <a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/thewarehousegallery/">www.astriasuparak.com/thewarehousegallery</a><br /><br /><br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />My situation with Syracuse University has been convoluted and confusing over the past few months. Contradictory reasons were given by Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Vice Chancellor Eric Spina, Dean Carole Brzozowski, Associate Dean Ann Clarke, and Jeffrey Hoone for my dismissal from The Warehouse Gallery as well as the withdrawal of an offer of a new position in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Here I've attempted to address the questions that people frequently ask.<br /><br /><br />KEY POINTS:<br /><br />• My personnel file contains no reason for layoff, no performance review, no complaints, and no warning.<br />• Syracuse University offered and then withdrew, within the same day, a consulting agreement for my Curator-in-Residence services in VPA (which would have been funded by the Chancellor's Initiatives).<br />• During my employment at SU, I had only one meeting with a Human Resources representative and Hoone, which seemed to indicate, along with the assignment of a new direct supervisor, a commitment to my work at the gallery for the next programming year.<br />• Hoone gave me 7 weeks to program one year's worth of exhibitions. When he laid me off, he effectively cancelled two years of programming plans.<br />• Hoone backtracked on his decision to cancel my Yes Men exhibition and attempted to continue the show without my involvement. The Yes Men, whose work focuses on corporate malpractice and social injustice, refused Hoone's turncoat overture to exhibit without me.<br />• Hoone stated that my programming was a reason for my dismissal (after weeks of claiming I was laid off for "organizational restructuring," and then for "confidential personnel issue"), although it is this same programming that was a major factor in my hire.<br />• Hoone asked for changes to nearly every exhibition I organized. For example, I was asked twice by Hoone to remove the word "feminist" from an exhibition title.Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-48557194983839775902007-12-06T23:47:00.001-05:002007-12-11T11:59:48.181-05:00REGARDING CENSORSHIP (Suparak)REGARDING CENSORSHIP:<br /><br />Censorship is an issue many observers have instinctively seized upon, primarily due to the subject matter of some of my exhibitions and the timing and way in which I was dismissed. Mr. Jeffrey Hoone, Executive Director of the umbrella organization that oversees The Warehouse Gallery, asked for changes to nearly every exhibition, including exhibition premises, titles, presentation, and publicity materials. I prefer if people draw their own conclusions about whether there was censorship, based on some of the <a href="http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/2007/09/tom-sherman-jeff-hoone-astria-suparak.html">evidence</a> that has already been made public.Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-80361504652580897542007-12-06T23:46:00.001-05:002007-12-11T11:58:37.762-05:00REGARDING THE EXHIBITIONS AT THE WAREHOUSE GALLERY (Suparak)During the hiring process for the position of Director of Arts Programming in May 2006, I submitted several pages of curated, group exhibition proposals that detailed the ideas, issues, and artists that I wished to work with. These exhibition proposals, along with my <a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/">curatorial history</a>, resume, and website, were reviewed and discussed during the hiring process. The overall response from the hiring committee to my exhibition proposals was that they were integral to the eight-person committee's unanimous decision to hire me. All of the exhibitions I curated for the gallery were drawn from this original list. I clearly expressed the direction I wanted to take this new organization, which I named The Warehouse Gallery, and the exhibitions that I would organize there. I fulfilled what I set out to do. Mr. Hoone recently stated to a journalist that my programming was a reason for my dismissal (this after weeks of claiming I was laid off for "organizational restructuring", and then for "confidential personnel issue"), although it is this same programming that was a major factor in my hiring.<br /><br />After I included artist duo and Syracuse University Transmedia faculty members Duke and Battersby in the Faux Naturel group exhibition (which was reviewed in a major international art magazine and toured to a Canadian university), Mr. Hoone mandated that The Warehouse Gallery would no longer include Syracuse University faculty or student work.<br /><br />Mr. Hoone also stated a desire for solo exhibitions. I explained that I wanted to spend the inaugural year developing and refining the new organization's operation and exhibition procedures, hiring staff, and building the gallery's reputation before approaching accomplished and emerging artists for solo shows. Also, many established artists are booked years in advance. Over the course of my first year, I began correspondence with several prominent artists about solo exhibitions. On July 1, 2007, six out of eight exhibitions that I proposed for the next two years were solo shows, featuring Paul Chan, Natalie Jeremijenko, Nina Katchadourian, Walid Raad and the Yes Men, among others. These exhibitions would have fulfilled the gallery's mission by "illuminating the critical issues of our life and times," including social justice, corporate inhumanity, cultural identity, environmental contamination, militarization, and systems of language and organization. Mr. Hoone expressed personal disinterest in many of the artists I proposed, and described these proposals as "too dense" and too similar, implying they were overly complex and academic. This response contradicted his earlier criticism that the previous exhibitions were "more style than substance." According to <a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/thewarehousegallery/comments.html">visitor testimonials</a> and <a href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/thewarehousegallery/press.html">press reviews</a>, most would disagree with his opinion.<br /><br />When asked for a written statement clarifying the reasons for my layoff and the cancellation of the first-ever solo exhibition by internationally-acclaimed, anti-corporate artists <a href="http://www.theyesmen.org/">the Yes Men</a>, Mr. Hoone responded by saying he "determined that there was not enough continuity to effectively proceed with the Yes Men exhibition at this time." Within hours, Mr. Hoone asked for all of my correspondence and exhibition plans with the Yes Men. That is, in the face of mounting faculty pressure in support of my curatorial practice and the Yes Men exhibition, Mr. Hoone backtracked on his decision to cancel my Yes Men exhibition and attempted to continue the show without my involvement. The Yes Men, whose work focuses on social injustice and corporate malpractice, refused Hoone's turncoat overture to exhibit without my participation. They stated that they didn't trust Mr. Hoone or his organization. Furthermore, Mr. Hoone mislead people about the exhibition's cancellation, by blaming me, and then the artists, for what was his initial decision.<br /><br />When Mr. Hoone laid me off, I had to personally contact all of the artists with whom I had been making exhibition plans for the next two years to tell them that the shows were cancelled, which was extremely distressing. This not only compromised my integrity as a curator, but also the integrity and reputations of the gallery, CMAC, and Syracuse University.Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-80798744040574901482007-12-06T23:44:00.000-05:002007-12-11T11:53:27.925-05:00REGARDING THE HUMAN RESOURCES PROCESS AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY (Suparak)I was never given a formal, first, or final warning indicating that my job at The Warehouse Gallery was in jeopardy.<br /><br />In March 2007, Mr. Hoone asked me to resign, weeks prior to the University-wide performance review process. Within days of this request, Mr. Hoone left on an unexplained, (in his words) "sudden" Leave of Absence, with instructions that he was not to be contacted. Ms. Patricia Tassini, Assistant Director of Employment Practices and Equal Employment Opportunities at the Human Resources Department of Syracuse University, expressed surprise over Mr. Hoone's request for my resignation, as there was nothing in my personnel file indicating a problem. She implied to me that the proper H.R. procedure had not been followed. Ms. Tassini advised me via phone to continue working as if the conversation with Mr. Hoone never occurred. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Tom Walsh, Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement in the Chancellor's Cabinet, contacted me via phone to ensure that I would continue working on the next exhibition I programmed at the gallery, which he understood to be important for the University. This exhibition was Networked Nature, organized by Rhizome at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City.<br /><br />Following this unexpected turn of events, I contacted the members of my hiring committee. One by one, each expressed shock over Mr. Hoone's decision to dismiss me. They all felt my work at the gallery was successful and in lockstep with what I proposed during the hiring process. It appears that Mr. Hoone did not discuss my performance or his decision with Mr. Frank Olive, my Assistant Director, a person I hired and worked closely with, or the eight members of the hiring committee that moved me from Montreal to Syracuse for the inaugural position of Director.<br /><br />After Mr. Hoone returned from a month-long Leave of Absence in April, I had one meeting with him and Ms. Tassini from Human Resources, during which his request for my resignation was never acknowledged, discussed, or explained. Based on conversations with Ms. Tassini, I was under the impression that at this meeting we would discuss my performance in accordance to Human Resource's review process and a set of goals would be created together. I was led to believe that Mr. Hoone's request for resignation was off the record and without due process. One of the goals given to me by Mr. Hoone was to program the next year of exhibitions, with budgets, within seven weeks. Two weeks after this meeting, I was assigned a new direct supervisor: Mr. Domenic Iacono, Director of SUArt Galleries. In light of my meeting with Mr. Hoone and Ms. Tassini, the list of goals for the 2007-2008 programming year, and the assignment of a new supervisor, I felt secure in my position for the upcoming exhibition year.<br /><br />Since I was never given a performance review (although I turned in the documents to begin the process), I was left to assess my own performance according to the success of my work's public reception; invitations for the exhibitions to tour internationally; increased attendance for each exhibition (reaching over 4,000 for Come On); and the growing press attention, including consistently positive reviews in the local media and in international contemporary art publications. Attributing to my confidence that I was on the right performance track were the requests that I received to serve on juries for a state arts council and a local art competition; as a recommender for two major national arts grants; as a panelist for final MFA reviews at a highly-respected institution; as an advisory board member for a National Museum's film festival; and as a thesis committee member for a MFA student at Syracuse University; as well as the growing partnerships I had built with various departments at Syracuse University and community businesses and organizations.<br /><br />With less than a day's notice, Mr. Hoone scheduled a meeting with me for September 7, 2007. At this impromptu meeting, Mr. Hoone stated that he was laying me off. He did not give a clear reason for this, nor was my direct supervisor present. Mr. Hoone expressed concern about the gallery's direction. When I asked what direction he wanted for the gallery, he answered: the same direction it was always going in. This answer was confusing to me. Then I asked what was going to happen with the next exhibition with the Yes Men, scheduled to open two months later. Mr. Hoone told me this exhibition wasn't going to happen. I was responsible for notifying the artists and the many professors in various departments who invested financially and pedagogically in this exhibition, included it in their curricula, and scheduled class visits.<br /><br />In October I visited the Office of Human Resources at Syracuse University to review my personnel file. The file contained only six documents: four were standard new employee documents (regarding health benefits, etc.), one was a letter from Human Resources confirming my layoff, dated September 25, 2007, and one was an undated and unsigned list of goals for 2007-2008. At that time, Ms. Curlene Autrey, Director of Diversity and Resolution Processes at Human Resources, informed me that if an employee is let go because of a performance or personnel issue, the employee should first receive a performance review indicating the problem, or a letter clearly stating that if s/he fails to meet a set of criteria the result would be termination. I never received any such documents. My personnel file indicated no reason for my layoff, and contained no performance review, no complaints, and no warning. This indicates a lack of performance and personnel-related issues, and an avoidance of proper Human Resources procedures, highly contrasting the explanation widely distributed by S.U. administration including Chancellor Nancy Cantor, that my dismissal was based on "confidential personnel issues."Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-1359894115653340232007-12-06T20:26:00.000-05:002007-12-11T11:52:15.085-05:00REGARDING THE COLLEGE OF VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS (Suparak)In late September 2007, Ms. Ann Clarke, Associate Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, informed me that she was working to create a position for me in VPA at the request of its faculty. This position, created specifically for me with my input, was to be funded by the Chancellor's Initiatives and administered by VPA. Ms. Clarke wrote, "The faculty call for your being brought into VPA , is in significant part due to wanting an even more engaged forum of connection between your work and curriculum." I understood this outreach on the part of VPA as an opportunity to build on the positive relationships I forged with various faculty members, many of whom brought classes to my exhibitions and events, and sponsored lectures, class visits, and critiques by the artists involved in my exhibitions. The VPA professors staged a <a href="http://keepastria.com/?p=22">unanimous boycott</a> of the annual faculty exhibition to protest my dismissal and the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers' lack of dialogue with its constituents.<br /><br />At VPA's request, I proposed a Curator-in-Residence position informed by research into other residency models and with the advice and input of diverse city residents and professors. After submitting my proposal for this position to Ms. Clarke, there was little follow-up or discussion about how my proposal related to the needs of VPA as perceived by its leadership, or how my proposal was being considered or modified by the administration of VPA.<br /><br />In the only meeting I had with Ms. Clarke and Ms. Eleanor Ware, Senior Vice President for Human Services and Government Relations, which I was told to arrive alone to, Ms. Ware began with accusatory innuendo about my dismissal and personnel file. She did not allow for questions or a discussion to clarify these issues, because she said she wanted to focus on the future and not the past. Ms. Ware and Ms. Clarke seemed to want to confirm my interest in a position in VPA , but said the terminology used in my Curator-in-Residence proposal, such as "proposal," "position," and "program," could not be used in the new "mutually acceptable arrangement going forward." I was asked to arrive at a second meeting with Ms. Ware and Ms. Clarke to review a draft legal agreement to settle my last position at The Warehouse Gallery and to outline the new contracting services with VPA. I expressed discomfort about attending another meeting alone, to which Ms. Ware replied that the university's lawyer would be present at the next meeting. Thus, I was required to hire an attorney in order to continue negotiations with Syracuse University.<br /><br />On October 29, I met with Ms. Clarke and Ms. Carole Brzozowski, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, along with two professors, Ms. Joanna Spitzner, School of Art and Design, and Mr. Tom Sherman, Department of Transmedia. In this meeting, Ms. Brzozowski and Ms. Clarke were explicitly reassured by Ms. Spitzner and Mr. Sherman that the position I proposed had the support of VPA faculty. Everyone present seemed to agree that I would positively contribute to the College.<br /><br />Syracuse University's lawyer provided my attorney with the contracting agreement on November 2, 2007. Less than a day later, Syracuse University withdrew the offer. The reason for this turnabout, provided by Ms. Clarke, was that I spoke to the student paper, The Daily Orange, a day prior. Yet within the same article, titled "Suparak may return as VPA curator, liaison for arts," Vice Chancellor Eric Spina was also quoted. In this article I was quoted about the possibility of working with VPA in positive and general terms: "I feel like we've broken through a bit in finding out more information. I'm really glad that they're receptive to it and that they're looking at it." University administration, including Ms. Clarke, never told me that speaking to the press would compromise this new position.<br /><br />Ms. Clarke later stated that VPA leadership was focused on creating a position to meet the specific needs of VPA. However, in previous discussions between VPA faculty and administration, it was the faculty and student support of my curatorial work and their desire to retain me in Syracuse that led to the possibility of the Curator-in-Residence position. In yet another strange twist, Ms. Clarke and Ms. Brzozowski announced on November 12 their intent to pursue the Curator-in-Residence position (without me), because the faculty had clearly shown support for it. This occurred after they officially withdrew the proposal we had been working on together. When asked during this meeting why negotiations with Ms. Suparak had ended, Ms. Clarke stated that VPA administration couldn't get past the "nuts and bolts" issues (such as office space), and since "there seemed to be no progress," they decided to "cut their loses" and withdraw the offer. Contrary to what Ms. Clarke told me privately and the media publicly, she did not invoke the Daily Orange article as a reason for cutting off negotiations in this meeting. What Ms. Clarke and Ms. Brzozowski failed to acknowledge was that the Curator-in-Residence position is something I created, drafted, and proposed, in dialogue with university faculty and members of the Syracuse community, in response to VPA's vocal support of my work and their request that I remain at Syracuse University.Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-58592207660009315402007-11-25T01:27:00.000-05:002007-11-25T01:33:25.747-05:00Post-Standard -- Katherine Rushworth<span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Up Close and Personal</span></span><br /><div class="byln"><br />Sunday, November 25, 2007<div> <div><br />KATHERINE RUSHWORTH </div> </div> CONTRIBUTING WRITER<b><b> </b></b> </div> <p><br />I know I'm not alone in wondering what direction The Warehouse Gallery will take in a post-Astria Suparak era. Suparak, the gallery's recently terminated director, had built a solid reputation for mounting smart, edgy-to-the-point-of-controversial group exhibitions. She featured national and international contemporary artists who engaged a wide variety of media. Under her leadership, The Warehouse Gallery was providing the Syracuse visual arts community with a quality and range of shows that no other venue in the area was offering - a breath of fresh air. </p> <p> So, when I heard The Yes Men - a widely acclaimed, sometimes maligned, band of cultural interventionists - had pulled out of their scheduled "show" at The Warehouse Gallery, I was wondering what would, or could, take their place. The answer is - drum roll, please - a photography show. </p> <p> This was most likely a quick fill to solve the gap created by the cancellation of The Yes Men, so I think it's only fair to the gallery's interim curator, Jeffrey Hoone, that we wait to see what kinds of shows will be charting the future for this important visual arts venue. Hoone, at the eye of the storm surrounding Suparak's termination, deserves a chance to show us the direction he will take the gallery. He knows he's under a microscope and that community expectations are high. <span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span></span></p>[ Read more <a href="http://www.syracuse.com/articles/cny/index.ssf?/base/living-4/119563917122400.xml&coll=1">here</a> ]<br /><br /><p><br /></p>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-27417725479693454472007-11-23T11:36:00.000-05:002007-11-23T11:41:20.654-05:00MENKILLER BLOG<span style="font-size:100%;">[ Reposted from <a href="http://menkiller.blogspot.com/2007/10/im-not-totally-sure-whats-going-on-here.html">here</a> ]</span><a rel="nofollow" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" href="http://menkiller.blogspot.com/2007/10/im-not-totally-sure-whats-going-on-here.html"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195835868_0"></span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />Wednesday, October 24, 2007</span><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div style="font-family:sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><a rel="nofollow" name="4709837172744456627"></a></span> <div class="post-body entry-content"> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">Apparently my old friend Astria Suparak is caught in the middle of some sort of academic ego battle at the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195835868_1">Syracuse</span> art space that she founded a little while back. I don't really know the whole story, but I guess she's been forced out and has had to cancel some shows, which I can attest is a really lame position to be in.<br /><br />Astria has been super helpful to me over the years, hooking me up with artists Seth Price and Miranda July for different articles and generally schooling me on art film. I was lucky enough to screen one of Astria's short films in a program at <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195835868_2">Anthology Film Archives</span> years ago, and I can testify that she's a true believer in the DIY community aesthetic. It's been ages since I saw her - upstate is pretty far away sometimes - but I sincerely hope this gets sorted out and she can get back to doing what she does best... This whole situation seems pretty weird and unnecessary.<br /><br />Check the links:<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.keepastria.com/"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195835868_3">www.keepastria.com</span></a><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195835868_4">www.astriasuparak.com</span></a></span><br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVz-YZI4DXkHeQkLnkmypL0GKgcAmJ6RsjSHyMutaD20uZt9jMuZ9AOXM2GGXetQvCpvHPjiwcrVo_97DHuApXRE0mY6JdC5oA30W6aoNtAGqpe0L6l_yTJsi3VLoDc5ez3Eki68cMKsT5/s1600-h/printastria1.jpg"> <img style="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVz-YZI4DXkHeQkLnkmypL0GKgcAmJ6RsjSHyMutaD20uZt9jMuZ9AOXM2GGXetQvCpvHPjiwcrVo_97DHuApXRE0mY6JdC5oA30W6aoNtAGqpe0L6l_yTJsi3VLoDc5ez3Eki68cMKsT5/s400/printastria1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5125817719868219282" border="0" /></a></p> </div> <span class="post-author vcard"><br /></span><span class="post-timestamp"><a rel="nofollow" class="timestamp-link" target="_blank" href="http://menkiller.blogspot.com/2007/10/im-not-totally-sure-whats-going-on-here.html" title="permanent link"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195835868_5"></span></a> </span></div></div></div>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-89296575596271385682007-11-16T11:38:00.000-05:002007-11-16T11:42:51.847-05:00Fanzine: "Desire in Syracuse: the 'Come On' Controversy"<div id="yiv4432444"><div class="articletext"> <span class="title">Desire in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_0">Syracuse</span>: the 'Come On' Controversy</span><span class="funcs"></span><br /><span class="writer">Yvonne Olivas<br />11.07.07</span><span class="funcs"></span><br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://thefanzine.com/print.php?s=&id=189&a=articles"><img src="http://thefanzine.com/img/articles/4/189/01_comeondesire" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Desire in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_1">Syracuse</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span><br />It was the flyer for "Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze" that initially caught my attention with its cropped image of <span style="font-style: italic;"> I'll Be Your Mirror</span> by Juliet Jacobson and matching seductive title in its glam-metal, fleshy-pink font. In Jacobson's drawing, one half of the graphite image mirrors the other—making it appear that a nude boy with eyes closed reclines and melds into the body of his perfect twin. A giant heart-shape hangs like a moon above the languid pair while skulls and peacock feathers make do as a bed beneath. The name of the exhibition is printed below the image and alludes to Jo-Anne Balcaen's <span style="font-style: italic;">Aw, C'mon</span> while the '80s-rock font suggests Rachel Rampleman's <span style="font-style: italic;">Poison: My Sister Fucked Bret </span> video. My interest piqued, I tracked down the show's curator, Astria Suparak, and the show's three artists for interviews.<br /><br />The exhibition opened late-August in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_2">Syracuse, New York</span> at the Warehouse Gallery. Affiliated with <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_3">Syracuse University</span> as one of a consortium of school galleries (Coalition of Museums and Art Centers—CMAC), the space maintains relative independence with its off-campus, downtown location. This location allowed The Warehouse to better fulfill its purported aim to act as a bridge between the university and the population of <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_4">Syracuse</span> while presenting international contemporary engaged art, but more specifically by stimulating dialog about art's role in society and expanding notions of art with exposure to current art practice.<br /><br />Of course, "Come On" did just that with three young women artists taking on desire and sexuality and brought together by a curator who openly describes herself as a "young, queer woman of color." And whether at first by choice and later by dint of circumstance, the ongoing theme of the exhibition was the personal laid bare and exposed. Alternately sexy and uncomfortable the show was always HOT. And not just because of the artwork. Browsing online I found that the exhibition had already been extensively covered by the press; curiously, the curator was fired just after the show opened. It was not too long until speculations about censorship over the content of the exhibition were circulating online. Hot indeed! And presumably no accident either.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://thefanzine.com/print.php?s=&id=189&a=articles"><img src="http://thefanzine.com/img/articles/4/189/02_comeondesire.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />An eight-person hiring committee at the university had actively pursued Ms. Suparak for the position of inaugural director of their new contemporary art gallery which she would eventually name The Warehouse. They believed that she possessed the ability to make it a vital space for art. This committee was wowed by her active connection to the contemporary art world. As an independent curator, she had already organized shows for P.S. 1, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_5">Yerba Buena Center for the Arts</span>, Participant Inc., Yale University, Eyebeam, New York Underground Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, apexart, etc. According to Suparak, the committee unanimously voted to hire her—and this after she had presented them with many, many fully formed exhibition proposals with titles and lists of artists. Suparak said, "all the exhibitions I organize[d] for the gallery were drawn from that set of ideas." In other words, it appears that the administration knew exactly what they were getting when they hired Suparak—a very active and independent curator. Ostensibly that is what they wanted. Successful, that is precisely what they got; just not as they must have anticipated. It seems that Suparak's vision mightily exceeded that of her superiors' stunted imaginations, and yet not that of The Warehouse's larger audience—"Come On" alone received 4,000 visitors—impressive, especially in a small city like <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_6">Syracuse</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">II</span><br />For anyone familiar with contemporary art, or even the history of art, the frank sexual content of some of the work in "Come On" would not prove surprising or shocking. Context is another matter as it often compels the judgement of the measure of transgression. Single works of art are routinely removed from exhibitions for their particular content. During our interview, both Rachel Rampleman and Juliet Jacobson mentioned the very recent censoring of a <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_7">Nan Goldin</span> photograph in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_8">Gateshead, England</span> at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The snapshot titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Klare</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Edda Belly-Dancing</span> shows two young girls playing—one dances above the other who is nude on the floor with legs open. It is part of a 149-piece photo series called <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_9">Thanksgiving</span></span> and owned by <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_10">Elton John</span>. It was seized by authorities who deemed it pornographic. Those who would have this one photograph removed probably imagine that it does not detract from the work of art. Disagreeing with this limited conception of art, <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_11">Elton John</span> had the remainder of <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_12">Thanksgiving</span></span> removed from view in support of the integrity of <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_13">Nan Goldin</span>'s work.<br /><br />This question of content and context is particularly illuminating in light of curator Astria Suparak's dismissal mid-showing of the "Come On" exhibition. In a series of emails, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/2007/09/tom-sherman-jeff-hoone-astria-suparak.html"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_14">published online</span></a> at "syracuse loses again," Jeffrey Hoone, the executive director of CMAC who personally dismissed Suparak, asks her to defend the work in the "Come On" exhibition, which he continually characterized as "weak and seriously flawed." Hoone stated that they would "have to do quite a bit of work to provide a context and rationalization for exhibiting these pieces." He singled out Juliet Jacobson's drawings, the content of which he claimed would be "clearly offensive to a good number of people" and would "be a challenge for sophisticated art lovers…and certainly seen as controversial by many."<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://thefanzine.com/print.php?s=&id=189&a=articles"><img src="http://thefanzine.com/img/articles/4/189/03_comeon_rampleman.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />III</span><br />Juliet Jacobson is a Brooklyn-based artist. She had four works in the show—huge graphite drawings (some as large as 48 by 114 inches) of nude males taken from the pages of '70s and '80s "European, men's-interest magazines." Men pose languorously in these drawings. They penetrate each other as in <span style="font-style: italic;">You Said You Hated Your Body, That It's Just a Piece of Meat, But I Think You're Wrong. I Think You're Beautiful</span>; they kiss in <span style="font-style: italic;"> No Weak Heart Shall Prosper</span>; or they hold their erect penises as in <span style="font-style: italic;">Narcissus</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">I'll Be Your Mirror</span>; and sometimes when they are coupled, one boy is white and one boy is black. All of the images are symmetrically composed where the figures are mirrored or bifurcate from the center. Included are images of snakes, skulls, feathers, flowers and the moon. For Jacobson, the flowers and skulls figure symbolically as a "wish to dismantle limits in love and sex and the demarcation of death as a singular horizon for being." The drawings distort and fracture the body in space and collapse their center. This collapse is presumably the effect of love—something that Jacobson speaks of in reference to her work—human meaning created by the mutuality of self and other rather than the hierarchical arrangement of self and other.<br /><br />Rachel Rampleman, who also lives in Brooklyn and whose work includes video, photography and sculpture, provided a contrast to Jacobson's work. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.cynthiabroan.com/frameset_Rampleman.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Poison: My Sister Fucked Bret</span> (2006)</a> is a 30-minute video account of Rampleman's little sister Sarah's night with '80s glam-rock band Poison's lead singer Bret Michaels. It is the memory of being a suburban, <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_15">Ohio</span> teen in the throes of total rock-idol worship to the excitement and disappointment of actually getting to meet him. Flashback images of a younger Sarah are interspersed with Poison video clips, Bret posters and an older Sarah, who now has a different body, narrating her encounter with her teenage-dream idol. She speaks from the backdrop of her home—in her bedroom on her bed, in her bathroom seated in front of a large mirror, in front of a television against which her body is only a black silhouette—sometimes a toddler walks in and out of the frame, or can be heard repeating "la la la la la la." From the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e6b9d7BzOU"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_16">clip that's on youtube</span></a>, you get the sense that her experience with Bret was a mixture of awe and deflated expectation, but matter-of-factly so and not without a dose of humor. At the end of the encounter Bret asks Sarah if he could do anything different for her, in her mind she says, "get an enlargement…take some Viagra."<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://thefanzine.com/print.php?s=&id=189&a=articles"><img src="http://thefanzine.com/img/articles/4/189/04_comeon_jacobson.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Neither Rampleman nor her sister expected many people to see this trailer. But they did. On youtube her story was dismissed by comments, the "basic gist," of which, Rampleman said, "was, 'Does Bret bang the fat fans? We think not.' A lot of people were like, 'There's no way.'" Even though these comments were not part of the "Come On" exhibition, they are telling. They acutely register that when it comes to women, bodies are judged first, words second; comments went so far as to suggest that if they found her undesirable, then her story was not even plausible.<br /><br />Montreal-based artist Jo-Anne-Balcaen felt that her work <span style="font-style: italic;">Blow</span> had much in common with Rampleman's <span style="font-style: italic;"> Poison</span>. It was a sculpture made of long skinny black balloons with all their tied openings bound together on a wall. This created a neat rosette of black tubes, which incidentally, resembled condoms with their nippled, receptacle ends pointing out. Since the work was comprised of blown up balloons, it wilted and deflated over the course of the show—mirroring the fate of expectation or memory of celebration turned to disappointment or a return to the mundane. <span style="font-style: italic;">Blow</span> might also intimate that physical female sexual desire does not want to be let down.<br /><br />Balcaen's other four works in the show were text-based. They included the taunting and reassuring phrase <span style="font-style: italic;">Aw, C'mon</span> written in a heavy-metal font cut from a silvery Plexiglas that made the words reflect like a mirror. <span style="font-style: italic;">Dictionary Definitions: Prince of Darkness </span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Yearning Year Round</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Blurt Blush</span> juxtaposed words and their definitions, alluding to the flux of connotation and meaning inherent in words. Deceptive in their straight forwardness, these works were reminders that words are just like balloons, or other mundane objects, in that they arouse expectation and suggest associations. Hinted at is a cultural inheritance that informs the expectation that words are gendered—as if one word could obviously be feminine, while another, obviously masculine.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://thefanzine.com/print.php?s=&id=189&a=articles"><img src="http://thefanzine.com/img/articles/4/189/05_comeonramplleman2.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />IV</span><br />Returning to the idea of content and context, it may be tempting to accuse Jeffrey Hoone of censorship in light of his email correspondence with Astria Suparak, the director and curator of the Warehouse Gallery, whom he dismissed. The problem with this accusation is that it narrows and occludes the perception of a constellation of relevant issues at play. In these emails, Hoone demands an account of the work in the show to which Suparak supplies a lengthy defense citing its timeliness with regard to the recent "WACK: Art and the Feminist Revolution" at LA MOCA and "Global Feminisms" at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; and then further contextualizes the work in regard to third-wave feminism, but especially foregrounds the subject of female sexuality and desire juxtaposed and complicated with the imagery of sexualized, homosexual males. She closes by confirming the exhibition's relevance to a list of several classes at the university.<br /><br />Hoone lights upon Suparak's mentioning of recent art exhibitions that deal with feminism and contends that she could have borrowed some of these artists like "Catherine Opie, Kara Walker, Sam Taylor-Wood and others" to "introduce the Central <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_17">New York</span> audience to important artists dealing with issues of gender, sexuality and representation." This statement admits much, particularly that he misunderstand Jacobson's or Rampleman's or Balcaen's work; or what feminism might mean to a generation of artists with roots and familiarity with DIY, Riot Grrrl, third-wave feminism and queer theory; and how it is that this versatility and fluency with theoretical positions and mediums might inform their practice. He betrays fixed thinking in recommending certain artists, subtly suggesting that feminism—or worse, women artists as a general category—comes prepackaged with ready discourse attached. In doing so he does a great disservice to these established artists by implying that there is a text-book approach to dealing with women and art.<br /><br />Standing in sharp contrast to this text-book approach was Suparak whose exhibition's resisted narrow thinking and neat categorization—"Come On" was exemplary in this regard. For Hoone though, it must have had the character of something he could not understand nor contain—it was too messy, too sexy, too complicated—overall, too hot. But it was the same HOT thing that <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_18">Syracuse</span> embraced; and while probably challenging, a threat it was not. The fact is that Suparak did curate contextually strong exhibitions. This is why she had a following. This is why the Warehouse was widely hailed as a success. And this is why no one but Hoone balked at "Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze." Suparak was exceedingly capable of creating a context for challenging and new work. So Hoone could not really censor her, subtracting one work from her well-conceived exhibition would not sufficiently stop her as a phenomenon. There was only one possible solution to removing Suparak as a threat. He unilaterally decided to terminate her position.<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://thefanzine.com/print.php?s=&id=189&a=articles"><img src="http://thefanzine.com/img/articles/4/189/06_comeon_noweak.jpg" border="0" /> </a><br />Promptly after he did so, in a swift chronology of events, he cancelled the next show Suparak had scheduled, "Keep it Slick: Infiltrating Capitalism with the Yes Men," furthering an attempt to stamp out her sphere of influence. There was an outcry from the faculty who had given funds for the exhibition and Hoone decided not to cancel it. In support of Suparak and protest at her dismissal, the Yes Men declined to show if they could not work with her. Hundreds of people, even beyond the city limits of <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_19">Syracuse</span>, have protested her firing and written letters and lobbied for her reinstatement. A protest was even staged at the front doors of the gallery itself. These include statements of support from Lauren Cornell, executive director of Rhizome; artist Carolee Schneemann; artist Stephen Vitiello; the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_20">Bard College</span> Faculty of the Department of Film and Electronic Arts; and the Chairs of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_21">Syracuse University</span>. She was even appointed by a vote of 7-0 by the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_22">Syracuse</span> Common Council to the city's new Public Arts Commission in recognition of the fact that her influence did indeed extend beyond that of the university. Still, a unilateral decision made by one man is somehow being allowed to stand, depriving a university and a city of something they want and no doubt leaving in its wake a new culture of fear and distrust.<br /><br />Yvonne C. Olivas<br />Thank you Sady for all your help.<br /><br />cover image is from Jo-Anne Balcaen's, <span style="font-style: italic;">Blow</span>, 2001, balloons, approximately 8 by 11 by 3 feet and (right) <span style="font-style: italic;">Aw, C'mon</span>, 2005, Plexiglas, 14 by 40 by 3/4 inches.<br /><br /><br />Please check out:<br /><br />Jo-Anne Balcaen:<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.joannebalcaen.ca/"> <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_23">http://www.joannebalcaen.ca/</span> </a><br />Juliet Jacobson: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.sevenseven.com/jacobson/"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_24">http://www.sevenseven.com/jacobson/</span></a><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.sevenseven.com/Jacobson/"> </a><br />Rachel Rampleman: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.cynthiabroan.com/frameset_Rampleman.html"> <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_25">http://www.cynthiabroan.com/frameset_Rampleman.html</span></a><br /><br />And for more information about Astria Suparak and recent events:<br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.astriasuparak.com/"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_26">http://www.astriasuparak.com/</span></a><br /><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/"> <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_27">http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/</span></a><br /><br /><span class="foot">Copyright 2006 Fanzine Media (<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.thefanzine.com/"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1195230979_28">www.thefanzine.com</span></a>) - All Rights Reserved.</span> </div> </div>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-82702095104823769822007-11-12T10:34:00.000-05:002007-11-12T10:47:42.517-05:00Tom Sherman<div id="yiv1828546442"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" > An open letter asking for answers</span> <div id="idOWAReplyText56848" dir="ltr"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">November 11, 2007</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The corporate takeover of art at <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_0">Syracuse University</span> <span style=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""></span>On September 28, 2007, Astria Suparak was dismissed as Director and Curator of <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_1">Syracuse</span> University’s Warehouse Gallery. Suparak was given no reason for the termination of her contract—Chancellor Nancy Cantor told the press and a broad constituency supporting Suparak that this dismissal was a personnel issue, not a decision to censor Suparak based on the content of her shows. Hundreds of SU faculty, students and a national and international art scene continue to believe otherwise and the story has traveled far and wide (New York Times, Artforum, Flash Art, Art Info, Buffalo News, <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_2">Syracuse Post-Standard</span>, etc.). This unexplained dismissal of a well-known and respected curator, in tune with her community and on the ascent, is a huge embarrassment for Chancellor Cantor, Syracuse University and the city of Syracuse.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""></span>Although all evidence pointed toward censorship (Suparak’s last exhibition was “Come On: desire under the female gaze,” a show Chancellor Cantor and members of her cabinet tried to hide from incoming freshmen), Jeffrey Hoone, the Executive Director of the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_3">Syracuse University</span> (CMAC) stated publicly that he dismissed Suparak because he was ‘restructuring’ the Warehouse Gallery. Between SU’s administration hiding behind a shield of “confidential personnel issues” and Hoone’s vague restructuring explanation, the story exploded nationally and internationally, severely damaging the reputation of the arts at <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_4">Syracuse University</span> and the city of Syracuse.<span style=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""></span>Throughout the month of October 2007, Chancellor Cantor and Vice-Chancellor Eric Spina continued to support Hoone’s decision to dismiss Suparak, while behind the scenes this same administration encouraged the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) to work out a deal to hire Suparak as a Curator-in-Residence. Ann Clarke, Associate Dean of VPA, asked Suparak to submit a proposal for such a position and Clarke began meeting with the faculties of the Department of Transmedia and the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_5">School of Art</span> and Design to involve the University community in the formation of this Curator-in-Residence position. The Administration (Cantor and Spina), asked Eleanor Ware, SU’s Senior Vice-President for Human Services and Government Relations to work with VPA’s Ann Clark and Astria Suparak to strike a deal. The idea was that the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor would put up the money, the College of Visual and Performing Arts would be the administrative home of this new position, and this new initiative would allow Suparak to continue her innovative curatorial work minus a permanent space (SU’s Administration refused to reverse their decision that the Warehouse Gallery would be transformed into an extension of CMAC’s SU Art Gallery with Jeff Hoone as Interim Curator). </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">On Friday morning, November 2, 2007, lawyers representing <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_6">Syracuse University</span> and Astria Suparak exchanged a draft contract for this Curator-in-Residence position in VPA. VPA Dean Carole Brzozowski and Ann Clarke had met earlier, on Monday of that week, with Suparak and SU faculty members, Tom Sherman and Joanna Spitzner. All agreed this was a chance to invent something exciting, a new kind of position that could put a charge into a stagnant, somewhat dusty visual arts component of the College. Many were hopeful a deal was about to be struck a little over a month after Suparak’s last day at the Warehouse Gallery. But on November 2nd, late in the afternoon on that same Friday, Astria Suparak received word from her lawyer that SU’s lawyer had called to say the University had withdrawn the offer. Ann Clarke later sent an e-mail to Suparak confirming that the University’s offer for the Curator-in-Residence position had been withdrawn by VPA’s administration, Carole Brzozowski and Ann Clarke. Clarke said the offer was withdrawn because of a lack of trust (their decision was apparently based on their perception of a lack of ‘chemistry’ between them and Suparak), and because VPA is in too poor a shape to take the University’s money for the Curator-in-Residence position!!??.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> </span><span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""></span>Since the money for this new position was coming exclusively from the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor’s offices, did Brzozowski and Clarke consult with Cantor and Spina before pulling the plug? To date Brzozowski and Clarke have made no attempt to communicate with the public on the reasons for their withdrawal of this offer. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Let’s reflect on the events of this autumn and where we might go from here. Jeffrey Hoone dismissed Suparak, during the ascent of her growing success at the Warehouse Gallery, without giving cause. The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor stood by this decision, supporting Hoone, stating that SU’s Human Resources policies had been followed and implying that there was cause, while hundreds of letters and thousands of e-mails from <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_7">University, city</span>, national and international artists, curators, educators, business leaders, city officials and concerned individuals were demanding Suparak’s reinstatement at the Warehouse Gallery. Everyone wanted to know why Suparak was fired and how this could be supported by the University. Toward the end of October, Suparak was permitted to check her file at SU’s Office of Human Resources. There was no statement of cause for dismissal in this file. There was no evidence of a performance review. No review ever occurred. No complaint or citation about her performance was ever filed. In fact, her file was completely clean.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""></span>Meanwhile, CMAC remains intact with Hoone as its Executive Director, and a chill has been cast over CMAC’s once independent galleries and spaces. The faculties of the Department of Transmedia and the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_8">School of Art</span> and Design have boycotted and effectively cancelled SU’s 2007 Faculty Show. These faculties were not only protesting Suparak’s dismissal but the total disconnect between the creative academic mission of these Departments and the University-imposed CMAC ‘coalition.’ VPA’s visual and media arts faculty and students find themselves literally without exhibition space for their own work. The Warehouse Gallery that they were investing in financially and pedagogically (the Yes Men show and Suparak’s other unrealized exhibitions) has been snatched away to serve Cantor, Spina and Hoone’s vision of the arts at SU. What expertise do they employ when making their decisions? Has the College of Visual and Performing Arts ever been weaker?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Trust between the administration and faculty, students and alumni has been shattered. The University and city have been hurt badly. Young people were actually moving to and staying in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_9">Syracuse</span> because the scene was showing signs of life. If the arts are indeed part of <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_10">Syracuse</span> ’s rebirth, then we have all suffered quite a setback. The reputations of many of the key players have been tarnished. We should all be deeply embarrassed. The global arts scene is wired and communicative and has a long memory. From <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_11">Syracuse</span> to Brooklyn to <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_12">San Francisco</span> to <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_13">Paris</span> to <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_14">Beijing</span> —if you are in the arts you would have to be under a rock to have missed this story. Our first international arts story since a <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_15">Yoko Ono</span> retrospective brought Ono and <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_16">John Lennon</span> to the Everson Museum in 1971, and it is this stinker! This CMAC/Warehouse Gallery fiasco will cost the city in the long run and will hurt the University in its efforts to recruit and retain good faculty, staff and students.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> </span><span style=""><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""></span>This whole mess could have been avoided, had it not been for the excesses of an uptight corporate university culture and a group of decision-makers sharing a basic disrespect for artists and creative, open-minded people in general. Silencing a respected curator profoundly in-tune with her community and on the ascent is a blatant act of censorship. Spin it anyway you like—the direction, timing and nature of the hostility toward Suparak and the community that supported her speaks for itself. Take a look around this city and University. You will see a demoralized, disenfranchised, angry creative sector. You will see an art scene wounded by a corporate University fearful of and hell-bent on oppressing the energy, inventiveness and joyful noise of its creative community.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""></span>Where do we go from here? The first thing we ask is for an explanation of why the University’s offer of the Curator-in-Residence position was withdrawn. Astria Suparak was negotiating in good faith with the University, and many people within the community had worked very hard to make something positive happen in the aftermath of the CMAC/Warehouse Gallery debacle. While the best solution would have been to simply reinstate Suparak at the Warehouse Gallery, the Curator-in-Residence alternative made a lot of sense. Why was the University’s offer to fund and facilitate this new position withdrawn and who withdrew it?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The other question is what is the University going to do to address the critical need for space for faculty and students in the Departments of the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194881613_17">School of Art</span> and Design and Transmedia to exhibit their work and interact with the public? Drama and music have dedicated theatre and concert spaces; engineering, biology and chemistry have their labs. Exhibition spaces for the visual and media arts are the equivalent of laboratories in other disciplines. After years of being criticized for low visibility, now in this climate of scholarship in action we find the University’s art galleries and spaces serving other interests. Why does the University choose to ignore the pedagogical and social needs of the faculties and students of its degree programs in visual and media arts?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style=""> </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">This community deserves answers to these questions. Awaiting public statements on these issues from the University administration and the College of Visual and Performing Arts,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I remain,<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />Sincerely,<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Tom Sherman</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p></div></div>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-53496112889114134632007-11-12T10:30:00.000-05:002007-11-12T10:53:51.707-05:00Daily Orange -- Matthew Nojiri<p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">[Reposted from <a href="http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2007/11/12/News/WouldBe.Curator.Loses.Offer.To.Return.To.Su-3093747.shtml">here</a>]<b><br /></b></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Would-be curator loses offer to return to SU</b></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><br />By: Matthew Nojiri</b></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Posted: 11/12/07</b></span></span></p><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Astria Suparak's status as an employee of <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194882112_1">Syracuse University</span> has flipped once again.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The negotiations to bring Suparak back to SU as curator in residence for the College of Visual and Performing Arts ended almost two weeks ago after she spoke with a media outlet, said Ann Clarke, VPA associate dean.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The university decided to end its negotiations with Suparak, who had been controversially fired as director of The Warehouse Gallery in September, after a front-page article appeared in the Nov. 2 issue of The Daily Orange, Clarke said. In the article, Suparak discussed the plans for her return to the university.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Suparak showed "a lack of faith in the process" by speaking with the media, Clarke said.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"The fact that Astria was speaking to the press was disappointing," Clarke said. "It's the fact that the article took place when we thought we were getting somewhere."</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The article misrepresented the complexity of the negotiations, Clarke said, adding that creating the new position was a fragile process.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">VPA professor Joanna Spitzner, who is a leader in the Committee to Keep Astria campaign, said she is frustrated by the secrecy surrounding the decision. Most of the VPA professors do not know that the negotiations have ended, she said.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"I know about it and some other faculty do, but they haven't even made the announcement to the faculty." Spitzner said. "They haven't been willing to talk about it. Ann Clarke and the dean need to be the ones to tell the faculty."</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Suparak's return was initiated with the VPA faculty, who proposed the idea to Clarke and VPA Dean Carole Brzozowski. The deans approached Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Vice Chancellor Eric Spina about developing a new position for Suparak and contract negotiations began soon after, Clarke said.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"We had deep concerns about our ability to pull this off," Clarke said. "It was a really sensitive proposal. When you add to that challenge that it's going to take place in an environment of controversy, that makes it even more difficult."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The university and Suparak were working to define the responsibilities of the position as curator in residence, Clarke said.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"The issue was whether or not we could bridge the gap between what VPA needed and what Astria had proposed," Clarke said. "That was at the heart of the contract negotiation."</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Initially, Suparak proposed to work as a liaison between the college and outside artists - as she had done at The Warehouse. The university was waiting for Suparak to create a new proposal based on their discussions, Clarke said.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"Her desires were not matching up with our needs," Clarke said.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The decision comes after a month of protests, newspaper editorials and letters of disapproval from the Syracuse community to Cantor and Jeffrey Hoone, director of SU's Coalition of Museums and Art Centers.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Hoone fired Suparak from her director post at The Warehouse Gallery in September.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The VPA faculty - who organized a successful boycott of an exhibit at the Schaffer Art Building in October - were excited about the prospects of Suparak's return, said Spitzner, the VPA professor.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"This decision took away a person we really liked working with," Spitzner said. "It was made without really consulting anyone or giving a good reason."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Suparak's firing is part of a growing disconnect between VPA professors and the university, Spitzner said. The faculty wants to be consulted about the decisions made by the administration, she said.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"The faculty really wanted this to happen," Spitzner said. "I can't understand why they're making this decision. They are continuing to make decisions without talking to people."</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; min-height: 19px;font-family:Times;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">© Copyright 2007 The Daily Orange<br /><br /></span></span></div>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-46201717947781305942007-11-02T12:00:00.000-04:002007-11-02T12:06:40.704-04:00Daily Orange -- Eddie Jacovino<p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:85%;">[Reposted from <a href="http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2007/11/02/News/Suparak.May.Return.As.Vpa.Curator.Liaison.For.Arts-3074606.shtml">here</a>]</span><b><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Suparak may return as VPA curator, liaison for arts</span><br /><br /></b></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 18px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>By: Eddie Jacovino</b></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Posted: 11/2/07</b></span></span></p><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">After a controversial firing in late September, <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194019167_1">Syracuse University</span> is entertaining the idea of rehiring Astria Suparak.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The news comes after a month of public outcry since Suparak's dismissal as director of The Warehouse Gallery.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Suparak said she has been in negotiations with the university on what SU is calling a "consulting arrangement," and lawyers from the two parties spoke Thursday. Vice Chancellor Eric Spina could not comment on the negotiations, saying they concern a specific personnel matter.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Within a week of leaving SU, Suparak filed a proposal to create the position of curator in residence at the College of Visual and Performing Arts.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">According to the proposal, Suparak would still act as a liaison between the school and outside artists and agencies, though she would likely not have a gallery to manage.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"I feel like we've broken though a bit in finding out more information," she said. "I'm really glad that they're receptive to it and that they're looking at it."</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The breakthrough follows a successful boycott by VPA professors last week, which resulted in the cancellation of an exhibit at the Schaffer Art Building.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">A letter was also sent Tuesday to members of SU's Board of Trustees, which is scheduled to meet today.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"It is imperative that we recruit and retain talented individuals who can contribute to the creative environment of the university and the city to which it is connected," the letter read. "Syracuse University can show itself an innovator in the arts by making every effort to keep Suparak in this community."</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">The letter, authored by the Committee to Keep Astria, had 23 signatures, said VPA professor Joanna Spitzner, a leader in the group. Most of the signatures came from members of the arts community outside of SU.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Spitzner said the letter and the boycott are examples of Astria's supporters keeping the issue relevant after flooding the inboxes of Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Jeffrey Hoone, executive director of SU's Coalition of Museum and Art Centers (CMAC), in the days following Suparak's dismissal.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"They're being responsive. It's just a slow process," Spitzner said. "We're trying to be patient, but still keep the pressure on."</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Word of Suparak's dismissal broke in the weeks before her last day on Sept. 30. She had been director of The Warehouse Gallery since 2006.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Hoone took full responsibility for the firing, which he called a "personnel change." He was supported by Cantor, who said the proper avenues were taken.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">But Suparak said her file at human resources doesn't contain a performance review or any document referring to personnel issues.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Instead, her dismissal is considered a layoff.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">"We stand by CMAC as the right vehicle to enable the active and engaged interaction with the arts that we want, and Jeff Hoone as the right leader of that organization," Spina said in an e-mail Thursday.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">He added that he has been speaking with Hoone and VPA leaders about the future of the coalition, and they expect to have productive meetings with members of the Syracuse community.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">If SU accepts Suparak's proposal as it is written, she would report directly to Ann Clarke, associate dean of VPA, and not to Hoone. Clarke did not return efforts to contact her.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">In a second statement, written Oct. 18, Suparak said the VPA curator's position would be an opportunity for her to take advantage of her position on the city's Public Arts Commission.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">She was voted unanimously to the commission by the <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194019167_2">Syracuse</span> Common Council days after the university said she would be losing her job at SU.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Suparak said she is serving on the volunteer commission while collecting unemployment and doing freelance work for art magazines. Last week, she was in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1194019167_3">Pittsburgh</span>, working for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;font-family:arial;font-size:16px;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">© Copyright 2007 The Daily Orange<br /><br /></span></span></div>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-16202336462925776642007-10-24T21:30:00.000-04:002007-10-24T21:38:00.691-04:00Joe Masterleo - Comment on Post-Standard Article<p>[Reposted from <a href="http://blog.syracuse.com/kirst/2007/10/the_astria_suparak_firing_up_o.html">here</a>]<br /></p><p><br />Mr. Kirst:</p> <p>Seems like the local and university communities are getting a belly full of what they asked for in Nancy Cantor and Daryl Gross, big-city slickers who came in extolling the small town virtues of "community", yet who have a bent for approaching sensitive matters with autocratic hatchets behind their backs while implementing a peculiar form of mathematics - adding by subtracting. To wit, the AD's recent against-the-grain decision to nix the SU swimming program in favor of women's collegiate hockey, and the chancellor's latest axing, the dismissal of Astria Suparak. These out-of-town administrators are proving to be "sharp" all right - guillotine sharp when it comes to assaying and embodying community consensus in their administrative decision making.</p> <p>If the AD and chancellor are keeping their collective fingers on the pulse of "community", it's with "thumbs down", and on parts of our local anatomy that have yet to be identified.</p> <p>Joe Masterleo,<br />Jamesville, NY</p>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-48142049187067692372007-10-24T11:02:00.000-04:002007-10-24T11:11:11.518-04:00Post-Standard Article -- Sean Kirst<div class="byln"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dismissal of Gallery Curator Sparks Boycott</span></span><br /><br />Wednesday, October 24, 2007<div style="font-weight: bold;"><br />SEAN KIRST </div> <b> POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST </b> </div> <p><br />A few years ago, not long after Nancy Cantor became chancellor of Syracuse University, she offered a wish about the future of the city. </p> <p> At the time, the hottest question involving SU and the greater community was whether to retain Paul Pasqualoni as football coach. Cantor, who would eventually support athletic director Daryl Gross in his decision to fire Pasqualoni, dreamed of a day when the intensity of civic interest about the future of downtown might match the civic interest in the future of a coach. </p> <p> The real issue, Cantor said, came down to identity: People see a piece of themselves in their football team, which is the same way she hoped they would someday feel about their central city.</p><p> Three years later, the Pasqualoni debate has been replaced with a football furor over the status of Greg Robinson, the new coach. But Cantor is also dealing with a faculty rebellion triggered by last month's announcement of the dismissal of Astria Suparak as curator and director of the Warehouse Gallery on West Fayette Street. </p> <p> In a sense, that dispute is intertwined with Cantor's wish. </p> <p> The latest expression of faculty anger is a boycott of an exhibition at the Shaffer Arts Building that traditionally showcases the artwork of SU professors and instructors. That show was canceled because the boycott is "100 percent effective," according to a statement written by Joanna Spitzner, an SU instructor and a leader in efforts to retain Suparak. </p> <p> In her statement, Spitzner described how the canceled show will be replaced this week by an alternative exhibit. Holly Greenberg - an associate professor of printmaking - will be among several dozen faculty artists displaying their work in a show that begins Thursday at the Spark Contemporary Art Space on East Fayette Street. </p> <p> Tuesday, Greenberg said she decided to join the boycott because of what happened to Suparak. But she said the deeper issue involves simmering faculty discontent going back to the creation of SU's Coalition of Museums and Art Centers. Under the direction of Jeffrey Hoone, CMAC oversees university gallery space. </p> <p> "When it was formed, nobody from the Department of Art or the College of Visual and Performing Arts was consulted about the best way of uniting our art organizations here," Greenberg said. "Teaching art is our life. Being artists is our life. I think a lot of faculty were put off," she said, by the way CMAC was created. </p> <p> The Suparak dismissal intensified that feeling, Greenberg said. "Until CMAC is dissolved," she said, "I would hope the faculty would continue to boycott (university) events."<br /></p><p> The firing of Suparak has captured the attention of city officials, community artists and the operators of several downtown galleries. Considering the history of the arts downtown, what is most interesting - and most hopeful - is that anyone beyond campus even cares. </p> <p> The Warehouse Gallery is the public face of Cantor's ambitious efforts to link the campus and the city. The chancellor was the driving force behind the rehabilitation of the old Dunk & Bright furniture warehouse at West Fayette and West streets. The building was converted into classroom space, mainly for SU's school of architecture. </p> <p> Suparak was in charge of the gallery, until her firing infuriated many at SU.<br /></p><p> "The dismissal of Suparak, a well-respected curator who has worked with many SU faculty members, is a great loss to this community," Spitzner wrote in her statement. "This action reflects the lack of dialogue the administration of CMAC has with faculty, students and the arts community - the constituents CMAC serves." </p> <p> Spitzner and many others maintain the firing smacked of censorship, since a recent Suparak show included images of homosexuality and genitalia. Hoone and other university officials adamantly deny those charges, and say it was linked to personnel matters they cannot discuss. </p> <p> As for the continuing existence of CMAC, Kevin Quinn, an SU vice president for public affairs, said the university will continue to "support CMAC and (we) believe it is the right idea, but we have had conversations in the past and will continue to have conversations to ensure that CMAC is well-aligned and fully engages our faculty, campus and community." </p> <p> For those of us without the expertise to offer even peanut gallery opinions about Suparak and her job performance, the most intriguing piece of the debate involves what's quietly happened around the Warehouse. If you include The Redhouse arts center, the Delavan Art Gallery and the Lipe Art Park, an authentic arts district is quietly growing within that old industrial neighborhood. </p> <p> That evolving personality stands to be strengthened even more if WCNY, a public television station, moves into a proposed $17.5 million headquarters on West Fayette. </p> <p> The noisy public conflict over Suparak and her future is, in a sense, a manifestation of Cantor's wish: Many around Syracuse are bringing the same passion to a debate about downtown and the arts that we more often see around this town about touchdowns and head coaches. </p> <p> You just hope, at a moment of such opportunity, that feuding players on both teams can find their way back to the game.<br /><br /><br /></p>Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-28525864827698249322007-10-21T19:35:00.000-04:002007-10-21T20:05:28.831-04:00Renee MulcareTo lose Astria Suparak as the curator of the Warehouse Gallery is devastating. She has been such a strong presence in the art community, and I feel, along with many others, that she has been wrongfully dismissed. This is unfortunate to say the least, for Astria's contributions here have been phenomenal, bringing about a stronger community for the arts as well as connecting the university to the city through her tenure at the Warehouse.<br /><br />It is frustrating to know that SU and the city of Syracuse are losing a vital asset to building a strong art community and working towards Nancy Cantor's vision towards Scholarship in Action. The way that I have always understood Cantor's idea of Scholarship in Action, was that being "in action" one would be exploring differences, learning new things, and experiencing a wide variety of opportunities to expand our knowledge. This allowance of Astria to be dismissed, however severely diminishes the strong idea of Scholarship in Action. It seems to be a selective Scholarship in Action, almost as though Astria wasn't bringing the right kind of diversity to Syracuse, which doesn't seem to make any sense.<br /><br />The bigger problem that I see with the whole situation is the lack in reasoning and explanation for Astria's dismissal. Jeff Hoone has provided nothing to the community as to why he felt that he should release Suparak from her position. His lack in an argument to back up his decision has yet to surface, and the fact that he has declined to shed light on the situation makes me question his status and position in the Syracuse art community. Frankly, I don't want him to be here. I've begun to lose trust already in his decisions and what he will do in the future. Why is it so hard to provide a legitimate reason? This lack of one makes me think that perhaps there isn't one. That should be a red flag warning. There would be greater issues at hand if this were the case. I do not know his reason, but I am still very much in doubt about him in general. To make such a drastic change as this deserves an explanation. Without an adequate explanation, Hoone is doing more than removing Astria. He has put himself in a situation in which he is losing credibility in his judgments. As someone that is in his position, I would think that putting yourself in a place where people are questioning your ability to do your job is not a place where you want to be.<br /><br />This severe lack in information and explanation from the school and Hoone's position is disturbing. It makes me think that there is something bigger going on that is being left out, and it's extraordinarily frustrating. That is a horrible place to be in when you are that high up in the chain. It's a stupid move. There is no other way to say it. It's poorly thought, without reason, without anything to give credibility to the decision made regarding Astria. It's sad. It's really sad that this is what is happening and that it is like a horrible essay written in which they are trying to prove a point with nothing to back themselves up. I don't trust that, I won't trust that until something is explained.<br /><br />Renee Mulcare<br />Film, College of Visual and Performing Arts<br />Syracuse University 2010Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-9060188568635504022007-10-21T19:30:00.000-04:002007-10-27T13:47:42.194-04:00UpdatesJeff Hoone has replaced the Yes Men exhibition with <a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=124462666&blogID=318383779">Gary Schneider’s <i>Genetic Self-Portrait</i></a>, which opens on Nov. 15. Calls for a boycott of the exhibition, and Hoone's "new direction" for The Warehouse Gallery have already begun.<br /><i><br />Genetic Self-Portrait</i> was completely funded from its inception in 1996 by Howard Stein’s <a href="http://www.jgsinc.org/"> Joy of Giving Something</a> (JGS), Inc. Light Work, another arts organization Hoone controls, published the <a href="http://designarchives.aiga.org/entry.cfm/eid_1649">catalogue</a> for this exhibition in 1999 (financed by Howard Stein). The entire exhibition - <a href="http://jgsinc.org/deatilpopup.php?a=676">all 61 photographic prints</a> - are owned by Stein.<br /><br />In other words, this decade-old photography exhibition is replacing an original and much anticipated show by internationally-acclaimed anti-corporate activists, <a href="http://www.theyesmen.org/">The Yes Men</a>.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the faculty of the School of Art and Design (Departments of Foundation, Art, and Design) and The Department of Transmedia at Syracuse University have <a href="http://www.syracuse.com/articles/kirst/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1193216464180400.xml&coll=1">boycotted</a> the annual faculty exhibition at SUArt Galleries to protest the Suparak's dismissal.<br /><br />A press release states: "The decision to remove Suparak from her position was made by the Executive Director of Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at Syracuse University. SUArt Galleries and The Warehouse Gallery are both members of CMAC. The dismissal of Suparak, a well-respected curator who has worked with many SU faculty members, is a great loss to this community. This action reflects the lack of dialog the administration of CMAC has with faculty, students, and the arts community - the constituents CMAC serves. While faculty respect the work of the individual spaces in this coalition, we do not support the current direction of CMAC."<br /><br />Working together, the faculty and staff of these departments and the directors of Spark Contemporary Art Space have organized their own exhibition. It is hoped that this will bring together the many people involved in the local and university art communities. The one-night only <a href="http://keepastria.com/?p=22">"Ice Out: Art, Design, & Transmedia Faculty Exhibition, 2007"</a> opens on THURSDAY, OCT. 25th, 7-9pm at Spark Contemporary Art Space, 1005 E. Fayette St., Syracuse, NY. Free admission + refreshments. Open to all.<br /><br />Syracuse University is considering a new position for Suparak: Curator-in-Residence in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. The details are still being worked out. If you support this idea, let the University know.Whats this?http://www.blogger.com/profile/05945637836886470547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-13125638571472834772007-10-14T18:08:00.000-04:002007-10-15T12:15:27.180-04:00Jan Pottie<div id="yiv275154872"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Let's Review<br /> <br /></span><span>Last spring a faculty member revealed that Jeff Hoone was "giving Astria Suparak a hard time." This was noted but not addressed because Astria remained so positive about the Warehouse Gallery. The shows looked great, were very well attended and were receiving excellent press.<br /> <br />Astria Suparak's curatorial reputation was solidly established before coming to Syracuse. Her appointment as Director of the Warehouse Gallery made many people in contemporary art circles aware of Syracuse University for the first time.<br /> <br />To her credit Astria did not share Jeff Hoone's dissatisfaction. In retrospect it is clear that Hoone's campaign to have her dismissed had begun.<br /> <br />Let's review the harassment of Astria Suparak by Jeffrey Hoone. His blustering, erratic, contradictory and often ranting emails posted on this site (</span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/2007/09/tom-sherman-jeff-hoone-astria-suparak.html"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1192382873_2" style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><span style="color:#003399;">Sherman: Hoone & Suparak</span></span></a><span>) provide stark evidence of his bullying tactics.<br /> <br />Hoone's harassment of Suparak was oddly accepted by Human Resources as the groundwork necessary for a dismissal for "personnel issues", a designation meant to protect the reputations of both the complainants (Hoone, Cantor, Spina, Walsh, Wells, Quinn, Ware et al) as well as the dismissed employee, in this case the diminutive but vibrant Asian American curator, Astria Suparak.<br /> <br />Seem a little lopsided? <br /> <br />Astria forged on, valiantly putting in long hours to meet Hoone's increasingly contradictory demands and impossible deadlines.<br /> <br />We in the University and broader Syracuse community were unaware of the obvious (and sanctioned?) harassment.<br /> <br />Suparak's openings were thoughtful, flawless and also just plain fun.<br /> <br />When Come On opened Syracuse audiences had had a year to adjust to the Suparak curatorial style and were looking forward to another year of Suparak's compelling art installation approach: her own hand visible, her unwavering insistence that curation is art.<br /> <br />The 2007-2008 exhibition schedule looked great! Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze was a huge and welcome success for the Warehouse Gallery, a success that would have grown exponentially with the scheduled show, The Yes Men.<br /> <br />For unfathomable reasons, Astria Suparak was suddenly dismissed in the middle of her successful show Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze.<br /> <br />The show's success must have come as a surprise (and disappointment?) to Jeffrey Hoone and the Chancellor's cabinet. Furthermore the show was successful in spite of attempts of several grown men (with Cantor's approval) to censor it.<br /> <br />Several people have insisted that there has been no censorship, as does this letter from Chancellor Cantor's new spokesperson, Ann Clarke:<br /> <br />"I can also assure you that they both [Cantor and Spina], as individuals and representatives of the University, maintain impeccable standards, that in no way include condoning censorship of any kind, subtle or overt." (Oct. 7,2007)<br /> <br />This posturing has become tiresome.<br /> <br />Let's review the ways in which Astria Suparak was censored by Jeff Hoone, the Chancellor and the Chancellors Cabinet, including Eric Spina, as evident by an email exchange publicly released by Jeffrey Hoone (to implicate the Chancellor and members of her cabinet as protest mounted over Suparak's firing?)<br /> <br />1. Jeffrey Hoone's insistence that the words "feminist" and/or "feminism" could not appear in the title or materials.<br /> <br />2. The addition of a disclaimer to limit audience: "Tom Walsh, Eric Spina, Barry Wells, and Kevin Quinn have been discussing the issue at the Chancellor's request. The exhibit is to continue as planned, with the addition of a sign outside the gallery space indicating that the content is for mature audiences” </span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/2007/09/lisa-jong-soon-goodlin_26.html"><span style="color:#003399;">Lisa Jong-Soon Goodlin -- Jeffrey Hoone -- Matthew Snyder</span></a><br /><span> <br />3. The elimination of promotional materials for Come On from freshmen packets: "The marketing materials for the exhibit that were to be placed in the ReadySet (new student welcome materials) will not be included after all" </span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/2007/09/lisa-jong-soon-goodlin_26.html"><span style="color:#003399;">Lisa Jong-Soon Goodlin -- Jeffrey Hoone -- Matthew Snyder</span></a><br /><span> <br />4. Some members of the chancellor's cabinet actually went to the gallery to "review" the material (oh to be a fly on the wall as these men perused art made by young women about sexual desire and did not find themselves!)<br /> <br />5. Finally and most obvious is that they resorted to the ultimate act of censorship when they removed Astria Suparak from her position as Director and Curator of the Warehouse Gallery in the middle of Come On, and canceled all her scheduled exhibitions.<br /> <br />It is beyond naive for Hoone, Chancellor Cantor, the members of her cabinet and her new spokeswoman, Ann Clarke, to continue to insist there has been no censorship. Dismissal is the ultimate censorship.<br /> <br />Please stop!<br /> <br />This was a poorly informed decision made by people clearly out of touch with faculty and students, and the educational mission of the University.<br /> <br />Had anyone at any time consulted with a single member of the Department of Art, Department of Foundation or Department of Transmedia at Syracuse University they would have learned that members of these faculties had invested in the Warehouse Gallery 2007-2008 exhibitions, and particularly in the Yes Men show. Faculty had both written The Yes Men show into curricula and supported it financially.<br /> <br />Students at Syracuse University would rightly fail for handing in conclusions based on such shoddy research.<br /> <br />Let's review the capacity of this administration to insulate themselves from the educational mission of the University:<br /> <br />On or around September 13th, at a Senate meeting, Professor Tom Sherman approached Chancellor Cantor about the cancellation of the Yes Men Show. Sherman assumed that Hoone had acted alone and that the Chancellor was unaware of Suparak's firing and the exhibition cancellation.<br /> <br />To Professor Sherman's dismay and surprise Chancellor Cantor's response was to reassure him that all the proper steps were being taken through Human Resources to secure the dismissal Astria Suparak !<br /> <br />How do you spell out of touch? C-A-N-T-O-R?<br /> <br />Professor Sherman informed the Chancellor of faculty involvement and financial investment in the Yes Men Show. This was clearly news to her. Unfortunately she seemed unable to digest the implications of this "new" information.<br /> <br />Nancy Cantor remained unable and unwilling to digest the implications throughout the next several weeks, responding to the many intelligent, considered and sincere emails with an automatic email response:<br /> <br />"I have asked Jeffrey Hoone, executive director of the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers, to more fully respond to your concerns as I trust his leadership and this is a departmental personnel issue."<br /> <br />Nancy Cantor<br /> <br />Chancellor Cantor has little idea of how this automatic response has diminished her in the eyes of her many admirers in the arts community both within the University and the city.<br /> <br />This poor administrative decision has alerted faculties, professors, students, and alumni of the extent to which the administration has insulated itself from members of its own constituency and the educational mission of the University.<br /> <br />A poor administrative decision compounded by the failure to address it.<br /> <br />For example, University Scholars, and dedicated alumni, Ken White and Rebekah Scotland have written a thoughtful letter outlining their concerns and reiterating their love for Syracuse University. Chancellor Cantor has yet to respond. </span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/2007/10/rebekah-scotland-and-kenneth-white.html"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1192382873_6"><span style="color:#003399;">Rebekah Scotland and Kenneth White</span></span></a><span>.<br /> <br />Instead the Chancellor and Provost persist with the same kind of insular strategy and have simply replaced Jeff Hoone with new spokesperson, Ann Clarke.<br /> <br />Through emails Ann Clarke has insisted that in order to move forward, discussion must be removed from a public forum, indicating the University is prepared to offer Suparak some kind of contract.<br /><br />This was welcome news for Suparak's many many supporters. The letters stopped as supporters waited for this wrong to be righted, for the harm to be undone.<br /> <br />Unfortunately in private forums the administration, through Ann Clarke, has continued to impugn the reputation of Astria Suparak.<br /> <br />For example, Clarke states that although she hasn't personally read the file, Eric Spina has assured her there was cause for Suparak's dismissal.<br /> <br />Perhaps the cause for dismissal was based on all those sleepless nights while Astria altered course yet again to appease Jeffrey Hoone's newest impossible demand and ASAP deadline.<br /> <br />The only thing that is really well documented is the well documented harassment of Astria Suparak by Jeffrey Hoone in his many 'ASAP' emails.<br /> <br />This under-handed, gossipy approach taken by the administration through their new spokesperson, Ann Clarke, is simply an extension of the on-going harassment of Astria Suparak begun by Jeffrey Hoone.<br /> <br />It makes everybody feel bad and it makes the University look bad.<br /> <br />Many people have worked very hard to keep Astria Suparak, a highly regarded, well-known curator in Syracuse because she makes the University and the city better.<br /> <br />So finally let's review why discussions regarding Astria Suparak will remain in a public forum:<br /> <br />The culture of censorship and secrecy at Syracuse University has to end.<br /> <br />There has been enough back-room dealing by Jeff Hoone, the Chancellor's cabinet and Human Resources regarding Astria Suparak.<br /> <br />Members of the administration and/or their spokesperson are unable to resist attempts to further impugn, through insinuation and gossip, the reputation of this dynamic Asian American woman. <br /><br /> It will remain in a public forum because many of us are intellectually invested in our alma mater and are concerned about an administration that operates in secret, slyly working behind scenes, twisting and misusing the legitimate policies of Human Resources, policies that are meant to protect reputations and not harm them.<br /><br />It will remain in a public forum because the reputation of the University has been harmed as a direct result of the harm it has caused Astria Suparak, through her firing and on-going attempts to smear her reputation.<br /><br />Let's not let this be misunderstood. Astria Suparak stands alone negotiating her future in the face of this very lop-sided committee that includes Cantor, Hoone, Spina, Wells, Walsh, Quinn, Eleanor Ware and Ann Clarke.<br /><br />The recent paradoxical offer of a supposed comparable position (curator at large without a space or any budget) is an obvious bad faith attempt to silence supporters.<br /><br />Astria Suparak should be encouraged and funded to proceed with the exhibitions she had planned for the 2007-2008 season, beginning with The Yes Men Show. This show exceeded all criteria of her mandate at the Warehouse Gallery, promising to broaden and invigorate the knowledge of faculty and students through direct exposure to contemporary art practice.<br /><br />Astria Suparak was providing opportunities for direct exposure to contemporary art that have not been available outside major cities. This is why faculty had written her exhibitions into curricula and provided financial support.<br /><br />Please have the courage to undo this wrong and allow Astria Suparak to proceed with her exhibition schedule.<br /><br /><br />Jan Pottie,<br />Alumna, Syracuse University<br />Phi Kappa Phi</span><br /></div>CNXYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15815047252973696267noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-55215959008334167582007-10-09T19:14:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:15:39.091-04:00Bard College -- Faculty of the Department of Film and Electronic Arts<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:Geneva CE;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-size: 12px;"> To Jeffrey Hoone, Nancy Cantor, Eric Spina and Carole Brzozowski,<br /><br />We write this letter in protest of the perplexing dismissal of Astria Suparak from the Warehouse Gallery.<br /><br />Most of us have known and worked with Astria for many years. She is quite simply one of the most important and influential programmers of experimental film and video of her generation. Her numerous projects as an independent curator brought new audiences to experimental film and video, forged new links between the worlds of film, gallery art, and music, and promoted the work of young artists. Since arriving at Syracuse, she has brought fresh and exciting exhibitions to the Warehouse Gallery, and consequently pushed the profile and reputation of this fledgling institution far beyond the local level.<br /><br />Given that the Warehouse Gallery and the Syracuse arts community as a whole have benefited so greatly from Astria’s work there, her sudden dismissal from her position seems inexplicable. Her firing would be a great loss to New York state film and art, and we strongly urge you to reconsider this shortsighted decision.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />Faculty of the Department of Film and Electronic Arts<br />Bard College<br />Annandale-on-Hudson, New York<br /><br />Peggy Ahwesh<br />Gerard Dapena<br />Jacqueline Goss<br />Ed Halter<br />Peter Hutton<br />Les Leveque<br />John Pruitt<br />Marie Regan<br />Kelly Reichardt<br />Keith Sanborn</span></span>CNXYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15815047252973696267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-33087696828132606392007-10-09T09:58:00.000-04:002007-10-09T09:59:28.958-04:00Caspar StrackeDear Mr Hoone, Ladies / Sirs<br /><br /><br />I am certainly aware of the fact that by now, eight days after Ms. Suparak's last official day in the Warehouse Gallery and endless chain of emails and discussions you certainly will have stopped reading any further email regarding this case.<br /><br />Nonetheless, I feel obligated to send this mail. Here is a distant voice from <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1191938215_0">South Korea</span> where Astria Suparak's curatorial work is known. And I hope this geological distance underlines the dimension which this case has now taken. I appeal to Mr Hoone to re-consider his decision, after realizing what a strong international support stands behind Ms Suparak, an extraordinary curator and important creative force for <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1191938215_1">Syracuse University</span> and the region.<br /><br />Regards,<br /><br />Prof. Caspar Stracke<br />UNIVERSITY OF ULSAN<br />Department of Design, office: B/D 6-302<br />P.O. Box 18, <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1191938215_2">Ulsan, 680-749, Korea</span>CNXYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15815047252973696267noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3005036960552905065.post-18482878411459182302007-10-05T18:00:00.000-04:002007-10-05T18:01:16.805-04:00Jon Rubin<pre style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">To Whom it May Concern:<br /><br />If you don't want a gallery director: with never-ending energy; who<br />has a unique and well informed vision; with a wide grasp of<br />contemporary art; with a large and growing following of artists,<br />critics, museums and curators; with the ability to make your<br />gallery's programming popular within the local community; who is an<br />advocate of artists and viewers alike; who can put your gallery on<br />the international map; who is an articulate and thoughtful writer;<br />who is an intellectual and creative peer; then you've made the right<br />decision in letting Astria Suparak go.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />Jon Rubin<br />Artist / Professor<br /><span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1191621553_0">Carnegie Mellon University</span></span></pre>CNXYhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15815047252973696267noreply@blogger.com6