November 20, 2016, 2pm
Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL)
161-04 Jamaica Avenue
Jamaica, NY 11432
VoCA and the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s CALL (Creating a Living Legacy) program are pleased to announce the next event in our on-going CALL/VoCA Talks series. On Sunday, November 20, CALL artist Emmett Wigglesworth will sit down with VoCA Program Committee Member Christie Mitchell to discuss his life, legacy, and recurring themes of spirituality, African culture, and the importance of community in his work. The event will be held at 2pm at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL), located at 161-04 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11432. Space will be limited, so we ask that you please RSVP in advance to [email protected].
Emmett Wigglesworth is a muralist, painter, sculptor, fabric designer and poet who has lived and worked in Queens, New York, for over twenty years. Born in Philadelphia, Wigglesworth moved to New York City in 1958 after attending the College of Art and Design and serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. As a participant in the Civil Rights movement Wigglesworth taught art at the CORE Freedom School in Selma, Alabama in the early 1960s, and wrote and directed two plays for the CORE Freedom Theater in San Francisco. In addition to theatre, Wigglesworth’s career encompasses painting, drawing, set design, costume design, public art commissions, and book illustration. He draws on his cultural heritage and life experience when painting, and recurring themes of spirituality, African culture, and the importance of community are interwoven throughout his murals and paintings, and often incorporated into evocative titles. Wigglesworth has exhibited in Ghana, and throughout the U.S. His commissions can be seen throughout Brooklyn and Queens, including private homes, PS 181 Elementary School in Brooklyn, NY; the NY Cultural Council, Metropolitan Transit Authority, Kings County Hospital, Abyssinian Development Corporation, and the Brooklyn New York Children’s Center. Wigglesworth is a member of the National Conference of Artists, the Weusi Artists NYC, Association of Caribbean and American Artists, AAA Artists and Cross Sections, and the Fulton Art Fair Artists. Currently, his retrospective It is not enough to see…one must see through to find truth is on view at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.
Over the last two years, VoCA has partnered with the Joan Mitchell Foundation‘s Creating a Living Legacy (CALL) program to put forward a series of Talks that focus on the diverse practices of the featured artists, highlighting the innovative CALL initiative while also underscoring the importance of speaking with artists to document the production, presentation, and preservation of their work. Thus far, VoCA has produced public programs with CALL artists Henrietta Mantooth, Blane De St. Croix, Arlan Huang, Juan Sanchez, Mimi Smith, and the late Jaime Davidovich.
For further information about these and other programs, or to learn more about VoCA’s mission, please subscribe to our newsletter and visit our website.
