We’ve heard again from Rockland Center for the Arts, the Hudson Valley organization profiled in our May 2017 issue.
The West Nyack-based institution has shared news of its 2019 exhibition season of “Art and Healing,” dedicated to exploring the power of art to transform and salve the spirit.
Here’s how the RoCA advance materials describe the season:
“Art has long supported individual and societal well-being. Despite the severe challenges faced by early civilizations, they still made time to engage in music, poetry and the visual arts. This shows that the arts are ‘delivering an essential quality to our psyche,’ according to Edward Hirsch, president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In curating ‘Art and Healing,’ RoCA invited artists whose work reflects a deep interest in the power of art to expand our consciousness, reduce suffering and provide a healing force in today’s world.
“How can art be used as a healing tool? Is it in the stillness in a piece of artwork that we find a spiritual awakening that heals our soul or gives us a clearer vision of why we are here? Is it the whisper of the divine we hear or feel as an artist meditatively creates his work that we are immediately and inexplicable moved by? Can art be the vehicle through which we find purpose and meaning in tumultuous or cataclysmic events? Can those with sight gain insight of the soul through the vision of an unsighted artist? Art knows no racial, economic or gender barriers and has been used in therapy in treating ailments, including trauma, depression and illness.”
The season’s opening exhibitions – “Spirit of Being,” “Searching for Stillness” and “Quantum Connection” – are underway and continue through March 24.
“How Art Heals,” a panel discussion, will be offered at 7 p.m. March 16, while an Arts and Healing Festival is set for June 9.
Of note in other programming, “Music Sessions @ RoCA” will feature Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion at 7:30 p.m. March 9; and open houses for the Camp RoCA summer program will be held March 3, April 7 and May 5.
For more, visit rocklandartcenter.org.
– Mary Shustack
