Thursday evening artists' reception at Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery

Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery
70 Audubon St., 2nd floor, New Haven, (203) 772-2788
Common Ground: What Matters is the Dream
Through May 13, 2011.
Artists' reception: Thurs., Mar.31, 5-7 p.m.

Press release

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, in collaboration with students of Common Ground High School, presents Common Ground: What Matters is the Dream, an exhibition in the Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery, 70 Audubon St., 2nd floor. The exhibition will be on display during business hours from Fri., Mar. 25 through Fri., May 13, 2011. A public reception is scheduled with the student artists for Thurs., Mar. 31 from 5—7 pm.

Curated by Rachel Gilroy, Common Ground: What Matters is the Dream is an exhibition of multimedia work by student artists in response to the question: “What is sustainability?” This project is a collaborative effort within the Common Ground community to explore how students think and see ecologically. The resulting visual expressions reveal connections within Common Ground and between the school and its surrounding communities, farm and natural ecosystems.

Common Ground is a high school, urban farm, and environmental education center located at the base of New Haven’s West Rock Ridge State Park. The school’s mission is to cultivate habits of healthy living and sustainable environmental practice among a diverse community of children, adults, and families.

Rachel Gilroy is the Environmental Leader and Sustainability Coordinator at Common Ground. She has taken an active role in creating a powerful learning lab for her students in which these connections can emerge and thrive. She explains that “Common Ground is taking a process-oriented approach to developing students’ connection between the words ‘common ground’ and ‘sustainability’. The aim is to give them the visual tools to create a method of compositional thinking and perceiving, to imagine how two-dimensional designs can be shaped in three-dimensional places, and to develop an appreciation of our dreams—for they affect how we cultivate our world into a place that truly sustains us.”

Audio interviews with Common Ground students, produced by Arts Council intern Molly McKenna, are now available at http://www.newhavenarts.org/programs/exhibitions/smallspace.html and at http://artscouncilofgreaternewhaven.bandcamp.com.