With the new academic year comes a reminder of the tremendous arts resources available to the Syracuse University community here on campus through the Coalition of Museum and Arts Centers (CMAC).
Kate Holohan, curator of education and academic outreach at the Syracuse University Art Museum, provides a tour during an open house.
Established in 2005, the mission of CMAC is to support the legacy network of cornerstone art organizations at Syracuse University by celebrating and exploring the arts and humanities culture through robust programming, exhibitions, publications, education, scholarship and public engagement.
CMAC consists of eight University and affiliated organizations: Syracuse University Art Museum, the Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery, the Community Folk Art Center, Light Work (which includes the Urban Video Project), Point of Contact, La Casita, the Special Collections Research Center, and the Photography and Literacy Project.
Get to know CMAC and its coalition members, and be sure to visit their respective websites for a full listing of upcoming programs and exhibitions. You can also stay up-to-date on CMAC events by visiting the Syracuse University events calendar.
Located in the Shaffer Art Building, the Syracuse University Art Museum acquires and preserves important works of art, serving as a museum-laboratory for exploration, experimentation and discussion. The teaching museum fosters diverse and inclusive perspectives by uniting students across campus with each other and the local and global community, engaging with artwork to bring us together and examining the forces that keep us apart.
Tanisha Jackson, Ph.D., executive director of the Community Folk Art Center, poses with art from Shaniqua Gay’s “Carry the Wait” exhibition.
The Community Folk Art Center, Inc. (CFAC) was founded in 1972 by the late Herbert T. Williams, a professor of African American studies, in collaboration with University faculty, students, local artists and Syracuse city residents. CFAC promotes and cultivates artists from the African diaspora, celebrating cultural and artistic pluralism by collecting, exhibiting, teaching and interpreting the visual and expressive arts. CFAC is a proud unit of the Department of African American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, serving as a beacon of artistry, creativity and cultural expression.
Housed in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center, Light Work was founded as an artist-run, nonprofit organization in 1973. Its mission is to provide direct support through residencies, publications, exhibitions, a community-access digital lab facility and other related projects to emerging and underrepresented artists working in the media of photography and digital imaging.
Urban Video Project (UVP) is a Light Work program in partnership with the Everson Museum of Art and Onondaga County. UVP is an outdoor architectural projection venue dedicated to the public presentation of film, video and moving image arts, enhancing Central New York’s reputation as one of the birthplaces of video art.
Punto de Contacto/Point of Contact, Inc. fosters a collaborative model to explore contemporary visual and verbal arts, working across disciplines and cultures. Founded in 1975, Point of Contact is an organization in residence at Syracuse University, with offices in the Nancy Cantor Warehouse in downtown Syracuse and is an open forum for diverse identities to engage in open dialogue, working expansively across intellectual, social and geographic boundaries.
La Casita is a program of Syracuse University established to advance an educational and cultural agenda of civic engagement through research, cultural heritage preservation, media and the arts—bridging the Hispanic communities of the University and Central New York. La Casita Cultural Center is located in the historic Lincoln Building in the city of Syracuse’s Near Westside neighborhood.
Located on the sixth floor of Bird Library, the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) advances scholarship and learning by collecting, preserving and providing access to rare books, manuscripts and other primary source materials. SCRC’s collections document the history of the University and our global society through printed materials, photographs, artworks, audio and moving image recordings, University records and more.
The Photography and Literacy Project (PAL) brings University students into Syracuse City Schools to develop projects involving photography, video, audio recording and writing. The objective is to improve student’s writing and reading skills by linking these studies with photography, video and poetry. PAL Project also connects graduate and undergraduate student mentors and educators-in-training to community youth in an experiential learning environment.
CMAC is an initiative that falls under strategic initiatives in academic affairs at Syracuse University. To learn more, contact Miranda Traudt G’11, assistant provost for arts and community programming.
