Expressions of Culture and Identity

in collaboration with Lowell National Historical Park

June 10 through July 30, 2023
Reception: Sat, June 10, 2:00 to 4:00 PM

Expressions of Culture and Identity showcases 23 artists from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Those interested in exhibiting were invited to submit up to three images for consideration. Five hundred dollars in prizes will be awarded at the reception.

Theme: Each cultural group has its own collection of symbols, traditions, clothing, food, and activities. Artists were invited to explore their culture or personal identity through the visual arts in this juried exhibition.

Why this theme? Lowell National Historical Park is currently preparing an exhibit in the Mogan Cultural Center about Lowell’s cultural diversity. As another way to explore cultural expression, we want to show how artists express this theme for this juried exhibition at the Brush Art Gallery and Studios.

The Exhibition Jurors:
Rachel Vogel is the Assistant Curator at the Addison Gallery of American Art, where she specializes in modern and contemporary art. Before joining the Addison, Rachel contributed to numerous exhibitions and publications at the Johnson-Kulukundis Gallery at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Contributions included those of Gala Porras-Kim, Tomashi Jackson, and Dario Robleto, as well as curated exhibitions at Art League Houston and Rice University’s Media Center Gallery, among others. Her writing has been published in the Oxford Art Journal, Art Journal, caa.reviews, and is forthcoming in American Art.

Michael Roundy is an artist trained as a painter but continues to explore and work with many mediums including drawing, photography, lithography, woodworking, origami, kinetic sculpture, and many others. He has been teaching studio arts at UMass Lowell since 2002, was the Art Director at a residential summer camp in the Berkshires for 7 years, and is the co-creator and co-director of the Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race. The race is a human-powered, all-terrain art race, racing through the streets, a 50 foot long mud pit, and a plunge into the Merrimack River.

Tessa Hite has been at the Addison Gallery of American Art since 2016 and has curated numerous exhibitions there including Photographers Among Us and ‘What Next?’ Camera Work and 291 Magazine. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture at Boston University, where her research focused on American propaganda and photography in Germany, 1944-1949. She has also taught courses on curating, American art, and the history of photography, and held curatorial positions in institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum.

Lowell National Historical Park is a unique urban national park, founded in 1978, dedicated to preserving and exploring Lowell’s continuing history as the nation’s first large-scale textile manufacturing city. The park works in partnership with community organizations, local residents, and visitors to tell stories of technology, labor, immigration, women’s rights, and the industrial economy in Lowell and beyond. Over 500,000 visitors annually visit Lowell National Historical Park museum sites, participate in interactive canal and trolley tours, view operating mill machinery, participate in hands-on family programs, attend special events, and more.

This program is supported in part by a grant
from the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Image: “In the Beginning: My Cultural Heritage” monoprint and chine colle 30x25” by Jean Winslow

The Brush Art Gallery and Studios
256 Market Street, Lowell, MA 01852
(978) 459-7819

We are located in the building behind the Visitor Center on Market Street.
Parking is available in the HCID parking garage at 350.4 Dutton St, Lowell, MA 01852 (Head for the flagpole near the opening in the large mill building after parking)

HOURS:
April 1 to December 31:
(Tues - Sat) 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
(Sun) 12:00 noon - 4:00 pm

January 1 to March 31:
(Wed - Sat) 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
(Sun) 12:00 noon - 4:00 pm