Staten Island Borough Hall, September 23 - Octber 7, 1998
The Art Lab at Snug Harbor, October 10 - November 1, 1998
Artist's Gallery Talk, Snug Harbor, October 24, 1:30 p.m.
Sponsored by "Taking Art To Heart"
PROJECT HOSPITALITY
100 Park Avenue, Staten Island NY 10302
An interfaith effort sheltering the homeless, feeding
the hungry, and caring for people with HIV/AIDS.
*
About the Exhibition:
The subjects of these portraits are Staten
Islanders who have been homeless and at the same
time have had to contend with the multiple
disabilities of addiction, mental illness, and
HIV / AIDS. Any one of these disabilities might
overwhelm a person, but he individuals who faces
you see here are managing to lead lives of dignity
and hope because of the community resources to
which they can turn in time of need. By their
participation in programs offered by Project
Hospitality, they have learned to manage "living
in 3D" with this triple diagnosis and are now all
residing in permanent or transitional housing.
Project Hospitality offers a full "continuum of
care" with substance abuse recovery programs,
mental health services, HIV / AIDS care,
nutrition programs, and emergency, transitional,
and permanenet housing.
We give special thanks to the Honorable Guy V.
Molinari, Borough President, for making Borough
Hall available for the first phase of the exhibit,
and to the Art Lab for providing space to continue
the exhibit.
This exhibit has been made possible, in part, with
funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant
program of the New York State Council on the Arts
administered by the Council on the Arts and
Humanities for Staten Island.
About the artist:
Melanie Hickerson has exhibited frequently
including in shows at the Ceres Gallery, the Artsphere
Gallery, and the Gallery Stendhal in Manhattan, and on Staten
Island at the Art Lab Gallery, the Garden in the Forest
Gallery, the College of Staten Island, and at the Staten
Island CTV Gallery. She has also had works shown in Austin
and Rome. Her work was named the best of show at the 1989
Staten Island Artsit Federation Annual Awards Exhibition.
Ms. Hickerson was supervising artist for the mural project
"Celebrating the Children, New Brighton USA" on Jersey
Street, and has been responsible for other nurals on Staten
Ilsand and in Manhattan, Rome, and Austin.
Ms. Hickerson received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master
of Fine Arts degrees in the field of stuido art at the
University of Texas at Austin. Since 1994 she has worked as
an art therapist at St. Elizabeth Ann's Nursing Home. She
has also been an art isntructor at Project Hospitality's
Hospitality House Family Shelter and at the Art Lab.
More information about Melanie Hickerson is available
in the artists's
"Curriculum Vitæ"
"Artist's Statement"
and
"Current Projects"
pages;
click on these links to get to them.
"
I want to paint the soul, spirit, of the individuals that sit
before me. This project, for me as an artist, expanded my
horizons in the challenge of capturing, fresh, the fleeting
images of the person plus the eternity in the spirit of each
person. I try to move beyond the portrait as professional
flattery to a visual statement about the beuaty of humans,
especially these particular humans who have experienced more
challanges than most people have to face."
