2010 Future Curators

Thirteen exemplary students participated in the 2010 Future Curators program: Chris Borschel (Alden), Nhan Bui (Cheektowaga), Marisa Chilberg (Lewiston-Porter), Alexandra Korchynski (Nardin), Daniel Kunkel (Tapestry), Mondéa Moss (Mt. St. Mary's), Evan Murphy (East Aurora), Kaoru Otani (City Honors), Joseph Polino (Canisius), Neil Savoy (St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute), Danielle Shatkin (Williamsville South), Sarah Stoklosa (Buffalo Seminary), and Patrick White (St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute).

Their exhibition Spectrum: Daydreams of Reality was on view at the Gallery from May 21 to July 3, 2010. Read the Curatorial Statement

The Future Curators also planned a series of events to coincide with the exhibition opening on May 21, 2010. The events took place as part of the Gusto at the Gallery series. Read about the Exhibition Opening

The 2010 Future Curators (from left): Danielle Shatkin, Evan Murphy, Nhan Bui, Program Coordinator Anna Jablonski, Vanessa Nguyen, Dan Kunkel, Kaoru Otani, Chris Borschel, Sarah Stoklosa, Neil Savoy, Patrick White, Joseph Polino, Mondéa Moss, and Marisa Chilberg. Not Pictured: Alex Korchynski. In the background is Jackson Pollock's Convergence, 1952 (Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1956; © 2010 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York). Photograph by Tom Loonan.

 
CURATORIAL STATEMENT

 
Spectrum: Daydreams of Reality

 
A spectrum displays an assortment of colors, expressive of ideas, imaginations, and emotions. Within a spectrum, every contrast and combination can be seen. Our Spectrum personifies the mass array of ideas that linger within the individual. Our minds, like those of the artists included in this exhibition, work as prisms; they capture reality and reflect it as something beautiful and new. Each individual work stands alone, as colors do every day. They may differ in media or subject matter—depicting reality in great detail or surreal abstractions—but when they come together as a whole, they create one collective body of work, one spectrum.

And what of daydreams of reality? Daydreams might be considered the opposite of reality, but, in truth, daydreams and reality exist uniquely in harmony. Our daydreams reflect the reality of our lives; they take mundane situations like work and turn them into fantastical scenarios. Thoughts and ideas become real: An author can take images of a nonexistent world and create heroic tales. A composer must first imagine what a song sounds like before it can be played. An artist envisions an image in his or her mind before the click of a camera or the stroke of a paintbrush. Spectrum is the result of those daydreams turning into reality.

– Neil Savoy and Marisa Chilberg

Opening of the 2010 Future Curators exhibition Spectrum: Daydreams of Reality. Photograph by Tom Loonan.

 
EXHIBITION OPENING

 
Friday, May 21, 2010

 
See what the curators of tomorrow have done with the work of today’s teen artists as the Future Curators Teen Program unveils its exhibition of local student artwork in the Clifton Hall Link.

5–7 pm
Art Activity: Scratching into Reality
Use colorful scratchboards to illustrate your dreams and release them into reality!
Education Classroom 1

6–7 pm
One Step Beyond Tour: "Mother May I?"
Members of the Future Curators Teen Program will lead this week’s tour based on a quirky adaptation of the traditional children’s game, “Mother May I,” in the newly opened exhibition Spectrum: Daydreams of Reality. A special hands-on activity in the Education Classrooms will follow.
Meet at the Information Desk

6–10 pm
Open Mic: A Vocal Spectrum
Calling all poets, musicians, singers, and dancers—seize this opportunity to express yourself!
Sculpture Garden

7 pm
Film: Donnie Darko (Directed by Richard Kelly, 133 minutes)
When a teenager’s worlds of reality and imagination collide, he must find a balance between them in time to save his family and friends.
Auditorium 

The Future Curators program is part of AK Teens, which is presented by First Niagara.