Join us on Wednesday, September 11 at 11am-1:30pm at the rear lower-level patio of the Art and Design building to participate in a Rain Barrel Painting of the Chesapeake Bay Food Web with School of Art alumna Nadya (Bella) Steare!

George Mason Facilities donated a rainwater barrel to the School of Art for installation at the Sculpture Yard to raise awareness about stormwater management using public art. Murals at Mason commissioned a design from Nadya Steare that encompasses the estuarine food web of the Chesapeake Bay. 

Each step of the food web is unique and important to the health of the ecosystem and those who depend on it for food, clean water, and recreation. The rain barrel design will raise awareness about the (often toxic) contents of stormwater runoff into the Chesapeake Bay and the animals that are affected. 

Join us for an evening of critical discourse and creative responses to Blues for Mister Charlie and other works on Monday, September 9, 7-9pm at the Center for the Arts Concert Hall.

In Blues for Mister Charlie, James Baldwin turns a murder and its aftermath into an inquest in which even the most well-intentioned whites are implicated—and in which even a killer receives his share of compassion. 

In a small Southern town, a white man murders a black man, then throws his body in the weeds. With this act of violence, James Baldwin launches an unsparing and at times agonizing probe of the wounds of race.

Begun in Instanbul in 1963, you can read about the writing of Blues for Mister Charlie in this 1964 edition of Playbill where the interviewer asks: When and where did you write Blues for Mister Charlie?

Join us for Citizen Joy: A celebration of democracy focused on agency, harmony, and gratitude on Friday, July 26 at 4:30-6pm at Mason Exhibitions Arlington.

This is a family-friendly event that is free and open to the public. During this interactive and experiential event, visitors will be invited to think about what it means to be part of a community that we all have some ability to influence. You’ll share your thoughts and experiences on the democratic process, and explore ways to make an impact and bring your community closer together.

This event is free and open to the public and we encourage guests to RSVP at the following link:

During the event, you will see the current exhibition on view, A Closer Look: Conflicted Art from Ukraine, hear music and poetry, and more! Citizen Joy is a program of Jeff Raz where different sites across the country will have art installations about the joy of participating in the voting process on Saturday, July 27.

Questions should be emailed to Yassmin Salem at ysalem@gmu.edu

This event is organized by Mason Exhibitions in collaboration with George Mason University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, including the School of Art, School of Theater, and Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

Mason Exhibitions Arlington is located across the street from the Virginia Square Metro and 2 blocks west of the Mason Square campus. Paid street parking is available nearby.

Mason students, faculty, and staff are welcome to join us for a free Narcan training offered by Mason’s Employee Health and Well-Being Team on Friday, April 26, 10:30am-12:30pm in Gillespie Gallery of the Art and Design building.

After the training, attendees will be invited to participate in a collaborative artmaking activity and share stories/get to know each other. All materials and supplies will be provided!

RSVP is required to ensure we have enough materials and Narcan kits for everyone!

This is a way we can come together and support each other, while learning practical skills to address a growing social issue.

Please email Marie Guagenti with questions/concerns at mguagent@gmu.edu

Join us on Wednesday, April 24 at 4:30pm in the Sculpture Yard of the Art and Design Building for 'The Caged Bird Screams' for Noise Awareness Day 2024. Noise Awareness 2024 fully combines taught moments with experimental opportunities. It brings together artists to engage in the ways sound art and visual art can transcend space, borders, and carcerality and explore themes of isolation, destruction, and transformation.

Artist Maria Gaspar will share her sonic sculpture, ‘We Lit the Fire and Trusted the Heat (After Angela Davis)’, a series of iron cell bars salvaged from the deconstructed Cook County Jail in Chicago, to be transfigured into an experimental experience through touch and vibrations.

Professor Thomas Stanley’s Sound Art students have developed artworks incorporating the sounds from ‘We Lit the Fire and Trusted the Heat (After Angela Davis)’, which will be mixed into an original performance by Professor Stanley and percussionist Jamal Moore.

Professor Brian Davis and his Advanced Sculpture students will present a collaborative kinetic sculpture in response to the work of Stephanie Mercedes.

All of this emerged from the Faces of Resilience exhibitions in Fairfax during Fall 2023 and Arlington during Spring 2024.

About Noise Awareness:

The Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC) founded International Noise Awareness Day (INAD) in 1996. This yearly event encourages people to minimize bothersome noise where they work, live, and play. In 2010, Professor Thomas Stanley encouraged his Sound Art (AVT 374) students to expand NAD’s focus on safe listening practices to include a deep engagement with listening as a process of self and social inquiry.

Mason's Noise Awareness all-night concert (noise-a-thon) and related activities became an important part of the audio arts calendar in the DC area and an opportunity to interrogate the arbitrary designation of new and experimental music as noise.

From 2010-2017, Stanley and the students of AVT 374 presented a campus-wide observance of Noise Awareness Day that celebrated hearing and encouraged encounters with the socially and sonically unfamiliar.

NOISE AWARENESS 2024/The Caged Bird Screams marks the first on-campus celebration since the pandemic!

Join us for the ‘James Baldwin Abroad’ series, including 3 rare films on Thursday, April 17, 1:30-4:30pm in the Johnson Center Room B.

The Johnson Center is building #30 on the campus map and the nearest paid visitor parking is in the Mason Pond Parking Deck.

Screening at 1:30pm:

James Baldwin: From Another Place
1973, 12 minutes

“Sedat Pakay was a Turkish photographer and filmmaker who specialized in portraits of artists, including Andy Warhol, Gordon Parks, Mark Rothko, and many others. Shot in Istanbul - where Baldwin lived off and on throughout the 1960s - James Baldwin: From Another Place finds the author in a reflective mood, discussing his work, sexuality, and complex feelings about the United States. Preserved by the Yale Film Archive with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.”

Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris
1970, 26 minutes

“Returning to Paris, where he first moved (or escaped to) in 1948, James Baldwin visits the Place de la Bastille in the company of white British filmmaker Terence Dixon to discuss the contradictory manner in which revolutions (French, Colonial, and Black American) are portrayed and considered. Sparring verbally with Dixon - to whom he could issue a knockout intellectual blow at any moment - Baldwin once again proves himself to be the great thinker of modern times. Picture and audio restoration by Mark Rance, Watchmaker Films, London.”

Screening at 3pm:

Baldwin's N*****
1968, 46 minutes

“In this riveting short documentary by pioneering Trinidadian-British filmmaker Horace Ové, James Baldwin and comedian-activist Dick Gregory speak to a group of radical West Indian students in London about everything from the state of the civil rights movement to the perils of false consciousness. The provocative title, drawn from Baldwin’s words, refers to one of the painful realities of Black American identity: that even his name conjures a history of slavery. Restoration courtesy of the British Film Institute.”

Note of thanks and acknowledgement:

These film resources are prepared by: Cindy Badilla-Melendez, GMU’s Music, Films Studies, and Media Librarian.

Initiative support and coordination: Anne Osterman, GMU Dean of Libraries and University Librarian.

This event was organized by the Cheuse International Writers Center and the Baldwin100 Host Committee.

"LOOKING FOR JIMMY" with David Leeming  

A lecture & conversation: 1:30-2:45 pm, Center for the Arts, GMU, Fairfax, VA

Prof. Keith Clark will host David Leeming. David Leeming met James Baldwin in Istanbul in 1961. In 1994, Knopf published Leemings “James Baldwin: A Biography.” Leeming will give a 30-45 minute presentation followed by a conversation with Keith Clark. 

"WHY BALDWIN MATTERS" 

Panel Discussion: 3:00pm-4:30 pm, Center for the Arts, GMU, Fairfax, VA

Why Baldwin Matters - Friendship, Scholarship and Imagination - a panel led by Keith Clark - featuring Nicholas Delbanco, Deborah Tulani Salahu-Din, and Rae Mitchell.

Reception to follow in the same space.

The Center for the Arts is building #7 on the campus map. The nearest paid visitor parking is available in the Mason Pond Parking Deck.

Drop in at the Johnson Center Gold Room (next to Dewberry Hall) anytime between 11am-3pm on Thursday, March 21 for free food and fun activities as you learn more about Patriot Packout (PPO), Mason's annual donation initiative that collects new, like-new, and gently used items during move-out.

Patriot Packout 2024 is scheduled from April 15 – May 10 and there are many ways to participate this semester and over the summer!

Contribute to a mixed media collage entitled “Solidarity Through Sustainability” with everyday/found materials in partnership with Mason Exhibitions. All materials will be provided. Students are encouraged to bring Mason-branded items, knickknacks, and random, small creative items.

The Drop-In Social event will feature the following activities:

1. Explore volunteer opportunities on campus

2. Learn about available resources to meet basic needs

3. Contribute to a mixed media collage - bring your own items OR make things during the event

4. Bring donations for Patriot Pantry (dry goods, toiletries)

5. Enjoy vegan, vegetarian, and Halal food from local community kitchen, Anna Sudha

6. Enjoy Thai Tea and Vietnamese Coffee

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of noted scholar and author James Baldwin

Author and activist James Baldwin would have turned 100 years old in 2024. In numerous essays, novels, plays and public speeches, the eloquent voice of James Baldwin spoke of the pain and struggle of Black Americans and the saving power of brotherhood. Join the Library in reading one of Baldwin's best-known works during the month of February - "The Fire Next Time." The Library will have unlimited eAudiobook copies of this work available, along with a few others of Baldwin's works, from January through March. 

On Thursday, February 29, join the Library for a community discussion of this pivotal work with George Mason University Distinguished Professor Keith Clark. Then, join us for our Arlington Reads spring series for continued discussions, featuring four acclaimed authors, of Baldwin and his continued relevance in today's society.

For more information, contact LibraryPrograms@arlingtonva.us

This event supports the Baldwin100 Initiative and Arlington Library's recognition of Black History Month. 

For the second Cheuse Center's Busboys and Poets Lecture, we present Nikki Giovanni, whose friendship with James Baldwin formed the cornerstone of deeply personal public conversations. In this centennial year of James Baldwin’s birth, Baldwin’s friend, the award-winning writer and pubic intellectual, Nikki Giovanni, will reflect on her friendship with Baldwin, and why Baldwin matters. By touching on James Baldwin’s journey inside and outside America, Giovanni will discuss his legacy, include themes of belonging and exile, friendship, sexuality, community and interconnected idealism: black and white collaborators and their impact on internationalism and justice. How James Baldwin belongs to us all in profound interconnection. 

In 1971 James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni taped a two-hour “dialogue” for a public TV show called Soul! At forty-seven years old, Baldwin was a legend for 'The Fire Next Time' and countless other essays, novels, and criticism. Giovanni, then twenty-eight, was a luminary of the Black Arts Movement as the author of the 1968 poetry collection 'Black Feeling, Black Talk.' Their conversation was subsequently published in book form as 'A Dialogue.'

For more on Nikki Giovanni: https://nikki-giovanni.com

The Busboys and Poets Lecture is an annual lecture of ideas brought to you in collaboration with the founder of Busboys and Poets, Andy Shallal. 

Read more about our inaugural lecture here. 

Mason Exhibitions has partnered with the DC Department of Energy and Environment (DC DOEE) and City as Living Laboratory (CALL) to raise awareness about flooding in the Anacostia neighborhoods of Oxon Run and Watts Branch. 

Join artists Cary Michael Robinson and Nicole Salimbene, along with environmental scientists and community organizers, for a day of walking, talking, and making along Watts Branch & Oxon Run streams and neighborhoods. This event is an invitation to honor the power of water through creative expression, and to learn more about flood risks and mitigation programs/actions to protect the community and the surrounding waterways in Ward 7 and Ward 8.

**Please note, this is a two part event. When registering, please indicate if you are interested in joining part 1, 2, or both**

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/respecting-water-through-art-storytelling-flood-risk-awareness-tickets-643902659187

Date: Saturday, June 24th, 2023 (Rain date: Sunday, June 25th)

Part 1: 11am-1pm // Rising Waters: Talk, Walk & Weave

Meeting Point: 4801 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave NE, Watts Branch

We will start the walk in the Watts Branch neighborhood to gain an understanding of houses within the floodplain and end the walk in Marvin Gaye Park where the Watts Branch Creek runs. Participants will be invited to share stories and observations of nature, the neighborhoods, equity and environmental justice. Scientists and organizers will share information about flood risk management and flood mitigation programs currently available for residents. The artists will weave together imagery and stories to visualize these issues for greater awareness and lead the group in a collective art action.

Part 2: 2pm-4pm // Cooling Waters: Gather, Reflect & Rest

Meeting Point: James E. Bunn Amphitheater, Oxon Run Park

We will meet in Oxon Run Park to focus on the relational, reflective and restful aspects of gathering together in nature, as we continue to share and integrate what we are learning about flooding in the area. Artists, scientists and community organizers will create a collaborative action with the group that holds space for honoring the power of water.

Walk Leaders:

Dr. Alsean Bryant, Strategic Support Team Clinical Pharmacist at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for the DC, MD, and VA region

Dr. Travis Gallo, Assistant Professor in Urban Ecology and Conservation in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Maryland

Brenda Richardson, Coordinator for the Anacostia Parks & Community Collaborative (APACC) & Vice-Chair of the Friends of Oxon Run Park

Cary Michael Robinson, Interdisciplinary and Mixed Media Artist

Nicole Salimbene, Interdisciplinary Artist

Dr. Jennifer Sklarew, Assistant Professor, Energy and Sustainability Policy, Food-Energy-Water-Climate Nexus, Social Science, George Mason University