Youth Insights teens meet Rachel Gugelberger, Associate Curator of No Longer Empty
Jul 8, 2015
YI participants Iga, Sophie, and Kylie explore Bring in the Reality and engage with Jennifer Dalton’s How Much Do I Owe You (2012). Photograph by Hannah Celli
On July 8, Youth Insights Arts Careers participants visited Bring in the Reality, an exhibition organized by an organization called No Longer Empty at The Nathan Cummings Foundation. We met with Rachel Gugelberger, Associate Curator of No Longer Empty, who explained that the organization works with curators and emerging artists to exhibit art in underutilized spaces. The exhibitions are free to all visitors. In the past, they have presented work in the Broadway Housing Communities and in the Clock Tower in Long Island City.
Gugelberger was quick to point out that Bring in the Reality is not a typical No Longer Empty exhibition. Rather, the Nathan Cummings Foundation—whose mission is to promote social justice—gave No Longer Empty a grant to organize the exhibition. Bring in the Reality presents work from more than twenty previous No Longer Empty projects, all of which speak about racial, social, political, and economic inequalities.
Rachel Gugelberger discusses Enmedio’s Evictions Are Not Numbers, They Are Faces and Eyes (2012) on display in the Nathan Cummings Foundation waiting room. Photograph by Hannah Celli
Gugelberger remarked that much of the work displayed in Bring in the Reality serves a functional purpose. For example, the Spanish collective Enmedio’s piece Evictions Are Not Numbers, They Are Faces and Eyes (2012) includes postcards that portray evictees accompanied by brief biographies and the logo and address of the bank responsible for the eviction following a 2012 recession. The work aims to educate audiences about Spain’s wave of unjust evictions and encourage viewers to write messages to Spanish banks. Other works speak to inequalities specific to the United States. For instance, Dread Scott’s Wanted (2012) and Nari Ward’s Suspicious Bulge (2012) both address the criminalization, racial profiling, and mass imprisonment of racial minorities, while Jennifer Dalton’s How Much Do I Owe You speaks to income inequalities. After our visit, YI participants discussed how Bring in the Reality is an inspiring reminder that art is an important platform for social intervention.
By Hannah Celli, Teen Programs Intern