The Ithaca College Center for the Study of Culture, Race and Ethnicity (CSCRE) will feature a presentation by local visual artist Nydia Blas on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 6 p.m. in Handwerker Gallery. Titled “The Girls Who Spun Gold,” the event is free and open to the public.
Blas primarily works with photography as a medium to explore and present her ideas concerning lived experience, history and imposed constructs. Her presentation will focus on her art practice and the process of working with a group of adolescent girls from the Ithaca area. The photographs they make together create a physical and allegorical space presented through a black feminist lens while weaving a story of circumstance, power and magic.
Part of an exhibition currently on display at the Handwerker Gallery, “The Girls Who Spun Gold” is a collection of photographs, collage, zines, and video. Blas employs these forms to complicate notions of being in a gendered, racialized and sexualized body, focusing on young girls as they negotiate the thin line between child and woman. The exhibit runs through Oct. 12.
Blas holds a B.S. degree from Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University. She was recently appointed as the visual media arts director of Ithaca’s Southside Community Center.
The presentation is part of the CSCRE Discussion Series, which this year is titled “Imminent Generation: Coming of Age in a Time of Uncertainty.” Dedicated to youthful leaders, organizers and future makers who will provide some insight on their experiences, the goal is to foster a critical cross-generational dialogue in hopes of developing strategies to address our ever-evolving challenges.
For more information on the CSCRE Discussion Series, visit www.ithaca.edu/cscre. For more information on the Handwerker Gallery and the exhibit, visit www.ithaca.edu/handwerker.