Sep 05, 2024
“Hunger starts somewhere. It is not a choice.”
These words, spoken by Tia, a widowed mother of three young children living in Jackson, Mississippi, are among 50 audio stories and portraits in a new exhibition at St. 山ǿ’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts that reveals the courage and fragility of individuals who have experienced hunger.
Titled “Hunger and Resilience: A Traveling Exhibition by Photographer Michael Nye,” the immersive exhibition will run Sept. 20 through Nov. 20 in the first-floor Dresser Foundation Gallery of the Quick Center.
Visitors will have use of high-quality headphones as they explore the portraits and stories of people from all walks of life who have endured hunger. From a middle-class couple who never imagined it could happen to them, to a cowboy whose riding injury left him unable to work, to Tia, the widowed young mother of three, the diverse narratives bring the faces and complexities of hunger into the light.
"These stories are about all of us as we live with our uncertainties and the realization that we, too, could experience hunger,” Nye said.
He believes his subjects are teachers and we are their students.
Nye, who lives in downtown San Antonio, Texas, practiced law for 10 years before pursuing photography full time. He is the recipient of a Mid-America National Endowment for the Arts grant in photography, a Warren Skaaren Charitable Trust Grant and two Kronkosky Charitable Foundation grants. He is editor and host of a weekly podcast of narrative histories. His documentaries, photography and audio exhibitions have traveled to more than 150 cities across the country.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the university is celebrating the , the university’s student-run soup kitchen in Olean. This outreach ministry allows student volunteers to learn about food insecurity while offering nourishment and fellowship to those in need.
A second exhibition, “Art of Storytelling,” highlights visual communication through the ages and showcases selected works from the 14th through 20th centuries, all of which are part of the university’s extraordinary art collection. The exhibition opens Sept. 20 in the Quick Center’s Paul W. Beltz Gallery on the second floor and will be ongoing.
It is the largest installation of the university’s art collection in several years and includes paintings, sculptures and works on paper.
Evelyn Penman, assistant director and senior curator of the Quick Center, hopes that the exhibition will increase exposure of the university’s collection and maximize its potential as a teaching resource.
“By exhibiting larger portions of the collection, we are looking to draw upon this exhibition for inspiration to support gallery programs for adults and children,” Penman said.
She noted that the university also utilizes each exhibition as a catalyst for curricular innovation, promoting the active use of the museum and its collections by the university community.
The third new exhibition is titled “Outdoor Life: Paintings by Don Wynn.” The Adirondack artist paints the great outdoors in this exhibition featuring fishing and hunting in the wild parts of New York state.
Wynn is a graduate of Pratt Institute (BFA) and Indiana University (MFA). He has been a visiting artist at many universities and institutions, including Yale University and the Art Institute of Chicago, and has received numerous awards. In 1970, his work received international recognition in the Whitney Museum’s landmark “Twenty-Two Realists” exhibition. In 1978, he was the first living artist to be given a solo exhibition at the Adirondack Museum. In 1995, the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired one of his oils for its “Twentieth Century Collection,” making him the first Adirondack resident artist so honored since Rockwell Kent.
This exhibition is guest curated by St. Bonaventure alumnus Gary Keem, ’69. It opens Sept. 20 in the first-floor Front Gallery of the Quick Center and runs through December.
Galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. on weekends. Admission is free and open to the public.
For more information about the Quick Center’s exhibitions and programs, visit
www.sbu.edu/QuickCenter.