March 2001, In Honor of Women’s History Month

Survivors Art Foundation

Multimedia Art Exhibition

In honor of Women’s History Month

Dedicated in loving memory to Gloria Baer Kalender

This event was made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. In Suffolk the County Decentralized Program is administered by the Huntington Arts Council, Inc.

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Sleeping Beauty

“Sleeping Beauty”, Artist: Dee Dee Brower
In this representational installation, the viewer beholds the tableau of a child’s bedroom late at night. To one side, a large bed is draped from ceiling to floor with gauze netting. Through this veil is discerned a girl/doll dressed in night clothes lying, curled up, and pressing both hands tightly against her eyes – a child vulnerable and in obvious distress. Next to her lies a red apple. “…I believe that viewing this installation could encourage a person to feel that their gaze is intrusive, but it is bearing witness to this event that will stir the emotions needed to compel a person to see what is really happening…”

In stark contrast to this, is the presentation of a bedroom full of things associated with a happy and perhaps pampered “princess” – pretty clothes, delicate toys and accessories in excess. The enclosed poem is meant to accompany this ‘tableau of contraries,’ which will explain to the viewer why this child is vulnerable and unhappy when ‘appearances’ are to the contrary.

“…I find that people are willing to put up walls as a means of protection against viewing something that might cause discomfort. However, I feel that if there are not immediate signs of peril, that the viewer will find themselves facing the world as she does – vulnerable with out these stockades they have constructed to block out witnessing the young girls pain…”




Totem Rhythms

“Totem Rhythms”, a collaborative project with Survivors Art Foundation (SAF) and Cheyney University, strives to foster self-esteem and cultural awareness in Native Americans. Native American participants explore and share personal stories, genealogy, group identity, heritage and history, while creating painted totem/story poles. Totem Rhythms began as a dream of SAF Outreach Coordinator Marietta Dantonio-Fryer, who is a Cheyney University Art Professor. The project blossomed into reality this fall when she began work with Thunder Mountain Lenapé people near Saltsburg, PA. Dantonio-Fryer offered Cheyney art students the opportunity to participate with Totem Rhythms Professional Core Team Members and Thunder Mountain Lenapé resulting in new understanding between diverse cultures. As Totem Rhythms expands it will delineate Native American perspectives, reflecting the heritage and culture of people indigenous to Turtle Island before European settlement, and reflect how their descendants view themselves as part of today’s community. Mollie Eliot, Lisa Deemy, Zac and Lee Zelewicz of Quest Publishing provide documentation services from publicity to a www presence at: www.totemrhythm.org Children’s Coordinator: Evelyn Hayden Technical Coordinator: Cheyney University Professor Joel T. Keener Thunder Mountain Lenapé participants: Pat and Jim Selinger; Terry and Shellie Reed and children Dariann and Keyona; Joe and Michelle Newhouse and daughter Jychelle; Jon Knarr; Cindy Moody; Jody Desport; Special assistance from: James R. Keener, Jenny, Mary & Terry Clawson; Cheyney University Students: Aja Bridges, Amir Campbell, Khi Clark, Syrita Jessup.




Electra

Seen next to the “Stand By Me and Be Free” mural, “Electra,” a five foot tall Bronze Sculpture by Artist Oxana Naronzniak

Oxana is a bronze sculptor. Born in Germany and raised in Brazil, she came to the US in 1965. Ms. Naronzniak’s sculptures have been internationally shown, in both individual and group exhibitions. She is the survivor of a savage attack at the age of six, by a neighbor in Brazil, who set her on fire. This attack caused her to suffer tremendous trauma, pain and scarring, and had to endure 27 surgeries.




Also featured:

Art Sense


A nine-foot mural was created with children who have mental challenges, hearing and visual impairments. It took one year of continuous hard work, tenacity, and volunteerism to complete the project. The hopeful message for viewers, either visually or through touch, is one of experiencing heightened awareness of the senses through the creative expression of art. This extraordinary mosaic was the combined effort of Marietta Dantonio, Harrison Hober, Mary Kate McKinley, Pat Shawe, Diana Stevenson, Alexander Trotty, and Terre Walton, along with 200 art student participants from: Brandywine High School Honor Society, The Davidson School (Primary, Middle and Secondary Classes), Elwyn, Inc. (Therapeutic Recreation and Residential Recreation Departments), Holy Rosary Jr. Art Honor Society, and the National A.R.T.S. Center Art Honor Society.

“Flight to Freedom”: SAF – Kosovo Outreach Program, Fort Dix, New Jersey, June 1999

SAF conducted an Art Out-Reach Program with the Kosovo refugees, at Fort Dix, NJ, the last week in June 1999. The project was collaboration with Survivors Art Foundation, the United States Army Arts and Crafts Department, the Department of Human Services and The American Red Cross.

The theme of the piece is “Flight to Freedom,” said SAF Outreach Project Coordinator, Marieitta Dantonio. She designed an Inter-Active Art Project for Kosovo refugees and US soldiers to work on together. SAF worked with different age groups of refugees ranging from small children to adults. The experience was joyful and unforgettable for all involved. The entire event produced 38 circular children’s pieces of art creating a huge mobile and 10 enormous silk masterpiece created by young adults. This project can be viewed here.

“Journey into Healing”

An 8-foot circle, it symbolizes the continuity, unity and balance of life. The mural hangs at Children’s Advocacy Center of Delaware, in the DuPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. The project designer, Marietta Dantonio, collaborated with the National Art Society of the National Art Center, the National Junior Art Honor Society of Holy Rosary School, along with teenagers who are survivors of sexual abuse.





“The Ferris School for Boys Murals”

A framed representation of four original larger murals and writings created at The Ferris School for Boys in Deleware.This project was designed and conducted by Marietta Dantonio-Fryer. The boys at Ferris School for Boys are fifth level maximum-security incarcerated youth. Ferris School for Boys is a model school with curriculum-based education along with therapeutic art programming that is also curriculum-based. All 72 resident boys created the murals. The project took 2 weeks of intensive work each day. The murals are a heartfelt display of our troubled at-risk youth and the deep inner expressions of their needs and fears and cries for help. The honesty of emotion is what is best portrayed in these murals. These murals are featured here.




Performing Arts:

African Dance and Drum Workshop

Learn traditional African rhythms, chants and dance. We start with a half-hour of drumming and chanting, then we warm-up and learn the dance that the rhythm and chant accompanies. If you have a drum, bring it. We do have several drums available for those who do not own one.

Latin Dance Workshop

After a jazz warm-up, learn some basic salsa and samba moves to hot Latin grooves.

Susan Bailey, Instructor

Ms.Bailey, after growing up in South Africa, spent 10 years traveling the world as a professional dancer and performer. She retired to raise her five children and study alternative healing and shamanism. She continues to dance, teaching African dance to adults on the East End of Long Island where she lives with her husband and children. Her youngest son Daniel teaches African drum techniques and plays for the dance classes. She takes her love of indigenous cultures into the schools where she introduces children to the stories, dances and rhythms of tribal peoples. Susan has a healing practice in the New York area.

“Creative Expression Through Dance” Workshops

Linne Deihl, M.E.d, ADTR

Ms. Deihl has extensive professional ballet and modern dance teaching and performing experience. She studied dance therapy with Marion Chace, Mary Whitehouse, and other pioneer dance therapists, and Effort/Shape Movement Analysis with Martha Davis, Irmgard Bartenieff, Marion North and others. Her psychiatric background includes training in psychoanalytic psychology, gestalt therapy, family therapy and sexual therapy. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Dance Therapy Association for eight years. She provides supervision for alternate route students working toward DTR and Dance Therapists working toward ADTR; conducts dance therapy workshops, courses and training groups; has served as a faculty member and guest lecturer at many colleges and universities including Columbia University, Brown University Medical School, Pratt Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, Barnard College, Smith College, Connecticut College, Rhode Island School of Design, York University, Drake University, Naropa Institute, Rutgers University, George Washington University, Queens College, Southampton College, Hahnemann Medical College, and SUNY at Buffalo and conducted a two month dance therapy workshop tour of Western Europe in 1985.

In addition, she conducted the Dance Therapy Courses at the American Dance Festival from 1973-1979. She has worked as a clinical dance therapist in hospitals such as the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Harlem Hospital, Dingleton Hospital in Scotland, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the New York City Prison Mental Health Unit and Downstate Medical Center Department of Child Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition, she has presented dance therapy concepts to psychiatric conferences and has published various articles on her work. She is the editor of the Dance Therapy Bibliography 1981 published by the ADTA. She currently specializes in treating eating disorders, from anorexia to obesity, other P.T.S.D./stress related problems and the terminally ill (AIDS and Cancer).




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