BSCAA

Reflecting Futures and Proud to Be American

The Bank Street College Alumni Association (BSCAA) Social Justice Committee (SJC) invites you to explore Reflecting Futures, a virtual art exhibit featuring the artwork of Joseph Diggs, which will be on display from February 9 – May 15, 2021.

On Thursday, February 11 from 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM, the SJC will host an event titled, “Proud to Be American: History, (My) Story, Isolation, and Community,” an interactive conversation with Joseph Diggs and Bank Street’s Cathleen Wiggins, GSE ’92, Museum Education, Bank Street College of Education. The event will be moderated by Nancy Cardwell, GSE ’88, Doctoral Lecturer, The City College of New York, and Founder and Chair, BSCAA Social Justice Committee.

This event, which focuses on this work and the larger concept of visual art as an image-based language, is part of a larger effort conducted by the SJC to examine the language of art to promote social justice and educational equity in varied learning contexts, which was inspired by Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project essay.

You can view the virtual art show and/or register for the event by following the buttons below.

View Reflecting Futures Virtual Art Exhibit Register for “Proud to Be American” Event

About Joseph Diggs

Joseph DiggsJoseph Diggs is a contemporary artist whose work has been described by Mara Williams, Chief Curator at the Brattleboro Museum of Art and Culture, as having, “swooping brushstrokes, glancing lines, and dripping swaths of paint. Hovering between action painting, graffiti, and realism, they are complicated compositions in which faces, text, or symbols provide clues to Diggs’s family’s place in the history of the U.S.A.” Joe was born to a military family in Croix Chapeau, France and grew up on Cape Cod where he now lives and paints. Joe earned his BFA at Southeastern Massachusetts University and, following years of travel and work experience, Joe earned an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Program at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. He is currently represented by the Berta Walker Galleries of Provincetown and Wellfleet, MA.

In January 2018, Joe was selected to receive a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. During this month-long residency, Joe developed a rich body of work that was displayed in a solo show at The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in February 2019. Following this successful show, Joe traveled to Cuba as a participant in an art and cultural exchange, which inspired the work for his most recent solo show, A Tribute to Joe’s Twin Villa, in July 2019 at The Cotuit Center of the Arts. Although Joe is based on Cape Cod, his work is housed in a number of collections including, the Walker Gilmore Collection of Philadelphia, PA; the Dukes Collection of Larchmont, NY; Jonathan and LaShonda Chirunga Collection of Lexington, MA; the Heuser Collection of Louisville, KY; and the Lovekin Collection of Toronto, Ontario.

About the Social Justice Committee

The Social Justice Committee was formed by Bank Street alumni to share interactive, practice-based lessons learned from the field with the Bank Street community. We engage in collective advocacy work in the world beyond Bank Street to promote educational equity and justice for every child/learner to establish a “community of we” in a shared pursuit of equity and justice.