Point of Contact Marks 40th Anniversary with Fall Events
Celebrations include exhibition of POC's permanent contemporary art collection
Punto de Contacto-Point of Contact (POC), a program of Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, is marking its 40th anniversary with a series of fall events and activities.
Founded by Pedro Cuperman in 1975, POC provides a cross-disciplinary space for creative scholarship and contemporary art. The program includes an art gallery, as well as the Point of Contact book series and the annual Corresponding Voices poetry collection.
Celebrations include the following:
• Continuum, an exhibition of POC’s permanent contemporary art collection, from Tuesday, Sept. 22, to Saturday, Dec. 12. The gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, from noon to 5 p.m.
• A Seventies-themed 40th birthday party on Friday, Sept. 25, at 6 p.m. Admission is $10 for the public and $5 for students with ID.
• “The Signs of Cross Culture,” an informal discussion about POC’s artistic vision, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m.
• A patron’s gala on Friday, Nov. 13, at 6 p.m., featuring the release of a limited edition art book about POC’s permanent collection.
All events are open to the public, and take place at POC (350 West Fayette St., Syracuse). For more information, contact Miranda Traudt G’11, POC’s managing director, at 315-443-2169 or pointofcontactgallery@gmail.com.
Cuperman, a professor of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, founded POC to examine contemporary verbal and visual art in Central New York. His vision expanded in 2005 to include an art gallery.
For four decades, his brainchild has formed inspired communities; innovated through artistic concepts, which resonate locally and globally; and worked expansively, where intellectual and geographic boundaries are concerned.
"As for the concepts that have guided our work, even if, from the first day, we have assumed a social and spiritual connection with the Hispanic world—more specifically, with Latino and Latin American art, we would have never hesitated to include all artistic and social experiments, no matter where they came from nor what language or ethnicity they represented," says Cuperman, adding that, for the past five years, POC has been featured at the internationally renowned NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 in Queens, N.Y.
He and Traudt are excited about Continuum, which features a rich array of contemporary art, most of which has been created specifically for POC. The exhibition includes works by installation artist Judy Pfaff, video arts pioneer Nam June Paik, photographer and printmaker Lilianna Porter, photographer and video artist William Wegman, and photographer Gregory Crewdson.
Traudt says Continuum provides a narrative on the evolution and organization of contemporary art trends.
“This collection tends to blur visual and verbal, as well as geographic and cross-cultural boundaries, advancing an essential discussion about contemporary art,” she says. “For the first time, the collection shows excerpts from Point of Contact publications with essays about the artists next to the art on the gallery walls, thus echoing the connection between the verbal and visual arts. By revisiting our past, we anticipate our future—refining our vision and turning each new encounter into an experimentation with unlimited insights.”
Education and service underscores much of what POC does, as evidenced by the more than 60 faculty and students involved with the organization this past academic year. Participants came from nearly a dozen units across the Syracuse campus, including the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing, the Janklow Arts Leadership Program, and the Latino-American Studies Program, all in A&S; the Public Relations Program in the Newhouse School; and various programs within the School of Art and the School of Design, both in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
POC is a member of the Coalition of Museums and Arts Centers at the University.
Media Contact
Rob Enslin