The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL) is opening an exhibit on preventing youth gun violence. The visual arts exhibit, “Trickled Down Decadence: Screams For Hope,” will open on Sat. Oct. 26, with a free reception open to the public from 6-8 p.m.
The exhibit will be in JCAL’s Miller and Community galleries at 161-04 Jamaica Ave., remaining on display through Saturday, Dec. 14. Curated by Wanda Best, “Trickled Down Decadence” features work created by a range of established, emerging, self-taught and student artists, including Beverly Anderson, Blaqson, Christopher Spinelli, Entropy, Eric Grandison, Julia Shaw, Kenneth Reams, Luis Caraos, Zahied Mohammed, Dahlia Rogers, Shyla Idris, Wanda Ealey, Carlton Williams and Sabrina Lamb.
“Trickled Down Decadence” is the fifth exhibition of Visual Voices, JCAL’s three-year initiative to support emerging, Queens-based BIIPOC curators. Five curators, including Shenna Vaughn, Juliet James, Seema Shakti Choudhary, Adrian Bermeo and Best, were selected through a competitive application process. Throughout the three-year program, the selected cohort receives fiscal, strategic, and institutional support for developing their exhibition proposals.
Visual Voices curators mount exhibitions in JCAL’s galleries and partner spaces across Queens, centering the exhibits around themes that reflect the BIIPOC (Black, Immigrant, Indigenous, People of Color) experience.
Best said the exhibition educates the public about the “ dire need” to strengthen gun laws.
“It is a cry for help to stop the decadence that is taking over this society with youth killing youth. It is our hope that the exhibition moves someone to hear the screams of those who lost their lives to gun violence and stand up to be a part of the solution to stop this genocide,” Best said in a statement.
JCAL has received support for its visual arts season from Con Edison, and the Mellon Foundation and Howard Gilman Foundation support “Trickled Down Decadence: Screams for Hope.”
Future programming for the exhibit includes an Artist Talk on Saturday, Nov. 9, and “Solace,” an evening of live music, dance, and poetry on Saturday, Nov. 23.
