Fordham Westchester Hosts Holocaust Memorial Art Exhibit

The Fordham Westchester campus will host an art exhibit on Holocaust memorial art beginning May 13 until May 27 in the Lobby at the Westchester campus, with the artist’s reception on Thursday, May 19 at 5 p.m.


The Holocaust Memorial Art Exhibit will feature paintings by Marilyn Honigman, chair of the Fine Arts Department at Fordham Preparatory School. The exhibit will depict pictorial impressions on the Holocaust.

Honigman’s paintings have been exhibited at the Polish Consulate, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Corcoran Gallery, the Blue Mountain Gallery, and other group exhibitions.
The art exhibit is part of the Fordham Forum Spring Series and is co-sponsored by Campus Ministry.

-Jenny Hirsch

Concerts and Lectures Fete Distinctive Churches

Fordham hosted a pair of spring concerts on April 9 and 10 that focused on the art and architecture of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle and the Fordham University Church.


The Fordham University Women’s Choir conducted by Stephen Fox and the Fordham University Choir conducted by Robert Minotti performed Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Mark Jennings’ O Crux and Gabriel Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Requiem. The Bronx Arts Ensemble provided the music.

Gregory Waldrop, S.J., assistant professor of art history, discussed the mural The Crucifixion on April 9 at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle. The mural, which was painted by William Laurel Harris from 1906 to 1908, hangs above the door of the church.


The story depicted in the artwork is very familiar and has a “classic cast,” as Father Waldrop called it, featuring Jesus surrounded by golden ether, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and St. John.


The crucifix in the mural is in axis with the cross over the altar at the front of the church.

“The conjunction of images of Christ’s saving body defines a space, and gathers up in that space all those present in the church—the flock, who gather to praise God on the cross, who gather to hear the word proclaimed from the pulpit, who gather to receive Eucharist at the altar,” Father Waldrop said.



Father Waldrop discussed details that only can be seen by looking closely at the mural from the balcony. He described the gold shimmer that coats the pink sky and purple city in the artwork. He said that the city scene and sunset are based on the actual Jerusalem, at least in mood and lighting, and show a definite moment in time.

The city painted in the mural above the entrance of church is contrasted with New York, the “very real, very alive, very specific city where hope is made concrete in our living out the love that God has shown us,” he said.



Monsignor Joseph G. Quinn, vice president for University mission and ministry, spoke on April 10 about the Stations of the Cross at the Fordham University Church.

Photos by Michael Dames.

-Jenny Hirsch

Art in Small Spaces

Photos by Gina Vergel

The Fordham College at Lincoln Center community participated in Park(ing) Day NYC on Sept. 17. Park(ing) Day is an international event in which parking spots are reclaimed and turned into people-friendly spaces for one day.

Fordham students from the theater, architecture and urban studies departments collaborated to design a public park and outdoor theater in two parking spaces on the corner of Columbus Avenue and W 60th Street.

The set, made of cardboard, was built by Colin Cathcart's Architecture class. Students from Matthew Maguire's acting class performed a bit of Shakespeare in the park(ing) space.

—Gina Vergel

Fordham Visual Artwork on Display

Fordham University seniors majoring in visual arts will be on center stage this semester.

Biweekly exhibits featuring work for their senior theses are on display shows now through May 16. The exhibits are featured at the Center and Pushpin Galleries in Lowenstein Center on Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus.

“Students are responsible for everything from coming up with an initial thesis idea, making the body of work that explores that thesis, writing the artist statement that explains the thesis, installing the work in the gallery, designing the postcard invitations for the show and having them printed, organizing the reception for the show, and finally documenting and taking down the show,” said Casey Ruble, artist-in-residence and gallery coordinator. “The opportunity to have a solo or two-person show in a gallery space in the heart of New York City, the art capital of the world, is quite rare, especially for undergraduate students.”

The following students will exhibit their work this year:

Jaclyn Perrone (Feb. 14 to Feb. 24, Center Gallery)
Stephanie Butikis (Feb. 26 to March 5, Pushpin Gallery)
Aubrey Stallard and Charlotte Canner (Feb. 27 to March 9, Center Gallery)
Katie Fitzsimmons and Cynthia Chou (March 8 to March 29, Pushpin Gallery)
Olivia Kozlowski and Jeremy Sinsimer (March 13 to March 31, Center Gallery)
Paulie Dibner and Jennifer Melo (April 1 to April 19, Pushpin Gallery)
Matt Marci and Marika Robak (April 3 to April 18, Center Gallery)
John Roman and Martha Frazier (April 21 to May 1, Center Gallery)
Anne Kunsemiller (April 22 to April 29, Pushpin Gallery)
Kate McWatters and Kelly Weiner (May 2 to May 16, Pushpin Gallery)
Ivana Morgan and Elushika Weerakoon (May 4 to May 16, Center Gallery)

—Gina Vergel

Get Oriented

Orienting the Public on New York City Streets
A student exhibition and panel discussion on orientation elements in New York City.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008
5:30 to 8 p.m.
A.I.A. Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Pl. (between W. 3rd and Bleecker Sts.)

Fordham Visual Arts students are taking part in the Compass Decal Design Exploration sponsored by the New York City Department of Transportation. The competition is soliciting design proposals for orientation elements to point pedestrians toward their destinations as they exit from below-grade subway stations or descend to the street from above-ground platforms at 16 locations in The Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. The work of Fordham students (and students from other universities) will be on display from December 9, 2008 to January 24, 2009.

The History Show

Sheila Ross, senior designer in Marketing and Communications at Fordham, has her work on display as part of "A.I.R. The History Show: Work by A.I.R. artists from 1972 to the present," at A.I.R. Gallery in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

The show runs through November 29, 2008, and is curated by Kat Griefen and Carey Lovelace.
A.I.R. Gallery, 111 Front St., Brooklyn, NY 11201

Art Professor "Speaks Out"

Abby Goldstein, associate professor and head of the design concentration at Fordham, is the guest curator of Speak Out: Art, Design & Politics, opening on Saturday, November 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 516 Arts, Albuquerque, N.M.

Speak Out is "a provocative two-floor exhibition featuring artists from across the country and the world who are not afraid to speak out.... This exhibition showcases artists and designers who have taken on the challenge of creating socially and politically charged messages that are responses to and meditations on injustices and atrocities around the globe."

Filmmaker Michel Auder Lectures at Fordham

Senior Seminar Lecture Series

Filmmaker Michel Auder talks about his work and his career of more than 40 years. A member of the 1960s Zanzibar French filmmaker collective, and married to Warhol superstar Viva and later to Cindy Sherman, Auder has spent his career voyeuristically documenting his own life and the downtown New York art scene with both poignancy and irony. Auder's work has been included in numerous prestigious film festivals and collections and has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art, the Anthology Film Archives, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Free and Open to the Public/All Students
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
6 to 7:30 p.m. | Room SL24H, Lowenstein Center, Lower Level

The Art of Direction

We have often come up out of a subway station in an unfamiliar neighborhood and been confused (yes, yes: more confused). Help, it appears, is on the way: Fordham Visual Arts students are taking part in the Compass Decal Design Exploration sponsored by the New York City Department of Transportation.

The competition is soliciting design proposals for orientation elements to point pedestrians toward their destinations as they exit from below-grade subway stations or descend to the street from above-ground platforms at 16 locations in The Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. The proposals will include a full-scale mock up; a site plan illustrating the proposed location; visual documentation (drawings, renderings, photographs or footage of proposal located at site); and research, including a description of site and community and copies of any surveys or interviews.

Between 6 and 10 students from the “Graphic Design II” class will have their proposals ready in November, says Abby Goldstein, associate professor and head of the design concentration at Fordham. The project started in Goldstein’s “Graphic Design III” and Colin Cathcart’s “Design and the City” classes last fall. There will be an exhibition of the proposals, and they will be judged by some of the most prestigious designers in New York, according to Goldstein.

Fordham is the model for the project, Goldstein says, and is one of the few Universities invited to participate. In November 2008 the top proposals will be reviewed, and winners selected, by officials from the Business Improvement Districts in which the 16 subway stations are located. The temporary compasses are scheduled to be installed sometime in spring 2009.