Parsons Pink Slips: Selected Work by the Department of Fine Arts
Adjunct Faculty
Jun 4 - Jul 2, 2009

During June the George Adams Gallery will present an exhibition of recent work by members of the adjunct faculty of the Fine Arts Department at Parsons. The exhibition is being presented as a show of support for those members of the adjunct faculty who recently received email notices that their positions had been terminated or their hours reduced. One such email read as follows:

“This letter is to notify you that you will not be reappointed to teach in the Fine Arts Department at Parsons the New School for Design for the 2009-2010 academic year. Please note that appointment decisions are based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, curricular changes, student enrollments, an instructor’s performance history, the need for departmental flexibility in hiring, and work load agreements with full-time and senior part-time faculty.”

The exhibition features works by Jackie Brookner, Miggy Buck, Tom Butter, William Carroll, Julianna Dail, Stuart Diamond, Peter Drake, Dale Emmart, Heide Fasnacht, Matt Freedman, Glenn Goldberg, Regina Granne, Susan Hambleton, Laurence Hegarty, Sharon Louden, Lenore Malen, David Mann, Jean-Pierre Roy, David Schafer, Mira Schor, Ward Shelley, Elke Solomon, Brian Tolle, and Susan Weller.

The “Parson Pink Slips” exhibition showcases the work of these members of the Parsons Fine Art Department, all practicing artists who work and exhibit in New York. They work in all media and from a wide range of approaches, from environmental collaborations and installations (Brookner, Buck, Solomon), to video and performance (Louden and Malen). Others address political issues such as the war in Iraq (Drake, Dail, Granne, Tolle), contemporary life (Diamond, Hegarty, Fasnacht, Shafer, Schor), or aspects of science and nature (Butter, Mann, Roy). While several of the artists in the exhibition are at the beginning of their exhibiting careers, others have been showing their work in New York galleries since the 1970s and 1980s, and are represented in the collections of major museums through out the US, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the MCA, Chicago, the MFA, Houston, MoMA the Walker in Minneapolis, and the Whitney. Collectively they have been awarded 8 NYFA grants, 7 NEA grants, 4 Guggenheim fellowships, 4 Pollock-Krasner and 2 Rockefeller grants, among other distinctions.

The George Adams Gallery would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following galleries who represent artists in the exhibition: CRG Gallery, New York; Elizabeth Harris Gallery; Kent Gallery; McKenzie Fine Art; Momenta Art; RARE Gallery, New York; Luise Ross Gallery; Linda Warren; Pierogi Gallery; and ZONE: CONTEMPORARY ART.

Follow news about the Parsons adjunct faculty firings at www.parsonspinkslips.blogspot.com