Special Event

SVA Continuing Education is pleased to present its third annual Art & Activism event at the famed SVA Theatre, moderated by media personality Valerie Smaldone. This year, they celebrate the power of collectives, performance as political activism and artistic activations of public space. Learn more in the video here. RSVP here. 

A panel discussion will present a collaboration between Sing for Hope, an organization connecting artists, music and the city streets, and the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI), which provides social services, community and arts programming to LGBTQ youth. With the support of artist Joan Di Lieto (BFA 1985 Fine Arts) and illustrator and SVA faculty member Grant Shaffer, youths from HMI’s after-school art program designed and painted a piano, which spent the summer in New York City’s Astor Place Plaza as a functional, accessible artwork for the streets and communities of our city.

Artist, curator and director of New York City’s Percent for Art Program, Kendal Henry (BFA 1993 Fine Arts), will discuss the contemporary role of monuments in public spaces, and his work with local communities and She Built, a public-arts campaign, to develop 18 new monuments representing women.

Photographer Stacy Arezou Mehrfar’s emotionally rich portraits of demonstrators at marches across New York City after the 2016 election will be displayed in backlit lightboxes throughout the theater lobby. An excerpt of her large-scale video installation, A Collective Performance will be screened at the start of the evening.

The evening will conclude with a reception featuring performances and KiKi Lounge (a safe and inclusive peer-led space where youths and young adults can express their identities, build community while showcasing their talents through the art of vogue) with youths from HMI. Guests will have the opportunity to work with MOVE, a design collective founded by SVA MFA Products of Design alumni Alexia Cohen, Will Crum and Lassor Feasly to make quick, fun and customized protest gear in time for the primary season. Read more about MOVE here.

Join SVACE community this fall for one of their many courses designed to enliven and engage your activist spirit as we work together to combat injustice.