Dyer Arts Center Events

Remembering the Mosaic Work of Melissa Skyer

NTID’s Dyer Arts Center invites you to the opening reception for “Brilliance,” an exhibition of the mosaic work of the late Melissa Skyer, who was an artist, scientist, and faculty member in NTID’s Department of Science and Mathematics. The event is 4-6 p.m. on Friday, March 1, in the Dyer Arts Center in LBJ Hall on the RIT campus.

This exhibition, which reveals the diverse realms of Skyer’s life, a life that mirrored the wetlands she both explored and safeguarded, serves as an homage to the artist and as a guiding force, encouraging us to probe the in-between spaces and moments, where life thrives in its full complexity and beauty. The exhibit is on display March 1 to May 17, 2024, in the Ohringer Gallery on Dyer’s second floor.

Skyer was an RIT/NTID alum and the daughter of retired NTID staff member Solange “Sally” Skyer, who worked as an academic advisor for NTID’s Business Studies students.

This event is free with no registration required to attend.

For more information, contact Fran Flaherty, director of Dyer Arts Center and Advancement for Deaf Culture, at dyerartscenter@rit.edu or visit rit.edu/ntid/dyerarts-center.

[ID: A beige background of a poster with a mosaic shell image in the center. It’s made with blue, white, brown, and pink tiles. Above the mosaic is the title of the exhibit, “Brilliance.” Below the mosaic, text reads: remembering the mosaic work of Melissa Skyer.]

Dyer Arts Center at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf will showcase Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq’s exhibition “Matchlight: Illuminating Deaf Identity, Mental Health and the Therapeutic Process of Art,” which opens January 19 and runs through May 17, 2024, in the Dyer Arts Center’s William Gallery in LBJ Hall on the RIT campus.

Aurangzeb-Tariq is a London-based artist and art therapist whose body of work interweaves her artistic practice with her therapeutic approach, exploring the intersections of deaf identity, immigration, and womanhood. Her artwork serves as a reflection of her personal experience, challenging societal norms and conceptions while offering a unique lens through which to view the complexities of deafness and mental health.

The list of scheduled events includes:

• Friday, January 19, 2024, 4-6 p.m. ET: Opening Reception
• Saturday, January 20, 2023, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. ET: Art Therapy Workshop for Professionals: “Illuminating Deaf Identity, Mental Health and the Therapeutic Process of Art”
• Monday, January 22, 2024, 4-6 p.m. ET: Art Therapy Workshop for Students: “Creativity: My Therapy”

The reception is free and open to the public, but registration is required to attend a workshop: https://forms.gle/LrbMrUqbFMMRcrES7.

For more information, contact Fran Flaherty, director of Dyer Arts Center and Advancement for Deaf Culture, at dyerartscenter@rit.edu. Visit the website to learn more about upcoming events.

[ID: Poster of a square oil painting with a scarlet red background containing a pattern of text arranged in a non-linear manner. It includes words and phrases like "EXPRESS THE,” "OF WORD," "TRANSLATING THE DEAF-SELF”, and “BSL BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE.”  On the bottom right hand corner of the painting is a self portrait of the artist covering her face. It is rendered in blue. Overlaying the poster at the top are words in white: MATCHLIGHT: Illuminating Deaf Identity, Mental Health and the Healing Process of Art. January 19 - May 17 2024. Across the bottom of the poster is a photo of the artist a young woman with dark hair and dark shirt holding out a cube. To the right of that is a red background the words in black: Matchlight Events at Dyer: 01.19.2024 4PM-6PM, Artist Talk and Opening Reception: 01.20.2024 11AM-4PM, Art Therapy Workshop for Professionals: 01.22.2024 TBD, Creativity: My Therapy.]

Join us for a closing reception and dance party featuring, You Don’t Need to Hear to Listen and Anthrophony of Motherhood Intersections with Disability, two thought-provoking exhibitions that explore the themes of disability, motherhood, and communication. The event is 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. Friday, December 1, 2023, in the Dyer Arts Center’s William Gallery in LBJ Hall.

Dyer Arts Center is pleased to welcome Rochester’s own DJ Key-Yo for a dance party to close out these groundbreaking exhibits. No registration is required to attend, and the event is free. Light bites and drinks will be provided.

For more information, contact Fran Flaherty, director of Dyer Arts Center and Advancement for Deaf Culture, at dyerartscenter@rit.edu.

[ID: Background is a photo from the immersive installation of Laurie Shapiro’s You Don’t Need to Hear to Listen. The walls are colorful and psychedelic with a blue hand-made lantern in the center of the image. The text on the image reads: You Don’t Need to Hear to Listen, Anthropology of Motherhood Intersections with Disability, Closing reception and dance party. December 1, 2023 5:30 – 8:30 PM, Dyer Arts Center, LBJ Bldg 52 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623]

The Dyer Arts Center at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf invites you to Anthropology of Motherhood: Culture of Care, on view August 28 through December 5, 2023, in the Williams Gallery in Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall.

Join us to explore artworks that offer diverse perspectives on the experience of disabled artists/mothers and disabled artists/caregivers, highlighting how deafness and disability shape the experience of caregiving, parenting, and motherhood, while challenging assumptions and stereotypes. Among the 20 works in the exhibition are pieces by artists with connections to RIT/NTID, including Patti Durr, retired associate professor in NTID’s Department of Culture and Creative Studies; Laural Hartman, lecturer in NTID’s Department of Visual Communications Studies; and the late Melissa Skyer, former senior lecturer in NTID’s Department of Science and Mathematics.

No registration is required to attend, and admission is free.

For more information, contact Fran Flaherty, Dyers Arts Center director.

[ID: Painting by Patti Durr, features a blue background with drawings of several people depicted, women with long red hair, persons with dark hair and glasses, and colorful splashes of red and orange.]

Modernism in art is largely a product of the Industrial Revolution and is characterized by the challenging of accepted norms in the fine arts. Starting with Gustave Courbet in the late 19th Century, who took the radical approach of depicting everyday life in his art, Modernism has also become a space for confronting issues like social justice and equity in modern life, and has become an important influence in Deaf art.

This exhibit includes some really great pieces from deaf and hard-of-hearing artists who comment on everything from global issues--such as climate change and environmental degradation--to deaf-specific issues, such as mysterious barriers that appear for seemingly no reason. 

This exhibit includes more than 60 contributions from 16 artists, including Susan Dupor, Angie Goto, Raymond Fuyama, Randy Dunham, and Zeinab Sadeghi Kaji. 

The opening reception is scheduled for Friday, February 26, 2021 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. (Eastern) via Zoom. To register, go to bit.ly/deaf-modernist.

[ID: A square graphic is bisected by a white stripe with black text that reads: "THIS IS NOT NORMAL"; "OPENING FEBRUARY 26, 2021"; "7:00-8:30 p.m. (Eastern)"; "Dyer Arts Center"; "Register: bit.ly/deaf-modernist." Above the white stripe is Robin Bartholick's 2007 photo Rise of the Sea, depicting a group of people in business attire struggling through hip-deep water in front of a cloudy sky; below is Bartholick's 2007 photo Dead at Sea, depicting a group of people in business attire seemingly drowned and floating on the surface of steely-gray water, surrounding an upturned umbrella with a curved wooden handle pointing upright.]

One of the best-known Deaf collagists alive today is giving you a rare opportunity! On Saturday, November 21st, Takiyah Harris is offering an online workshop with the Dyer Arts Center that will allow you to explore themes around social justice and racial equity through collage. You will be able to use all kinds of things to create a work of art about issues that you feel are important in the world today.

The workshop is online, so you can participate from home, and will run from 6-9 p.m. (Eastern). The event is free; you will need to purchase materials yourself. You will receive the materials list through an e-mail after you register here: http://bit.ly/harris_collage

Join us and make a work of art!

Join us for a unique webinar from 7-9 p.m. (Eastern) that will explore the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement along with the increasing national recognition of Black American Sign Language (BASL), with the “Black is Black: Blackity AF” curatorial team: Teraca Florence, Najma Johnson, Earl Terry, and Felicia Williams.

The webinar will feature a tour, allowing you to get up close and personal with the Black is Black: Blackity AF exhibit. The curators, who worked hard to plan the exhibit with the Dyer team, will also be discussing the Black Lives Matter movement in more depth.

The webinar will be live streamed on Dyer Arts Center’s Facebook page. Please contact us at dyerartscenter@gmail.com if you need a Zoom link instead.

This webinar will be in ASL. If you need voice interpreters or captioning, please fill out the accommodation form: https://bit.ly/31Uzy1L.  The deadline to request for accommodate is Wednesday, November 4 at 5 p.m. EST.

[ID: Serge Doamba Kiswendsida's black-and-white Debout lithograph of an upraised fist is centered in a black square and surrounded by an aura of the Pan-African colors of red, green and black. Along the top, in red, black, and green text with white outlines, is text that reads "Black is Black:" and vertically along the left side in white text is "BLACKITY AF."]

We’re very excited to host our first online painting party with Paint & Sign* this fall! Join us on Zoom on Saturday, October 3rd, as we paint together at home from 6-9 p.m. Eastern time, led by a fun professional artist: Gino Caci. He will show you the steps to painting a Halloween-themed artwork. You will also have an opportunity to meet Gino himself; he works for Paint & Sign and makes his own artwork, which you can also ask him about.

When you register, you will see information about painting materials that you may want to get for the event.

Please register at bit.ly/paintwithgino and you will receive an email with the link to join our webinar, also. We can’t wait to see you!

*Through visual expression, Paint & Sign is an interactive way to learn and play with sign language.

Image description: Black, white and orange graphic that begins with "Online painting with Gino" in orange on a white background. Then in white on a black background, the text reads: "Join Deaf artist Gino Caci of Paint & Sign on Zoom as he teaches you how to create your own Halloween-themed masterpiece based on the painting below! Admission is free, but you must purchase your own materials. The materials list will be e-mailed to you after you register." In orange and white on the same black background, the text reads, "Saturday, October 3, 2020 6-9 p.m. (Eastern) Register at: bit.ly/paintwithgino Zoom info will be e-mailed to people who register." Next to the date and time information is the painting Gino has designed for the event, which shows a friendly ghost popping out of a lit jack-o'-lantern and signing "I love you." In the background is a starry night sky with a full moon, bats, a spooky tree, and a dark house with lights on in the windows. Finally, the Dyer logo in white and the Paint & Sign logo in black on an orange background along the bottom of the graphic.

This reception offers an opportunity to look through the online exhibition of Palettes of Nature with guest curator Zach Ennis, co-founder of deafgreenthumbs, a Rochester-based small business that focused on houseplant care. 

[ID: Most of the square graphic is occupied by Miguel Díaz Calderon's Reflejo al Atardecer (Sunset Reflection), a 1997 painting that shows a lonely desert landscape under a vast multicolored sky. A storm is visible in the distance; two large trees that resemble cacti stand in the foreground, although they are small in comparison to the sky; the nearer tree shades a silhouetted man in a wide-brimmed hat and his dog. Superimposed on the painting is the text: "Palettes of Nature Flowering on September 22, 2020 A collaboration with Zach Ennis, co-founder of deafgreenthumbs." Below the painting and artist credit is the Dyer Arts Center logo on a black background.]

A Zoom reception for Black is Black: Blackity AF, this event offers a chance to meet the four curators who created, developed, and continue to manage this groundbreaking exhibit. 

Saturday, September 19, 2020
7:00-8:30 p.m. (Eastern)
Register: bit.ly/blackitydeaf

[ID: On a black square, Serge Kiswensida Doamba's Debout, a black-and-white lithograph of an upraised fist, stands in the center, surrounded by an aura made of the Pan-African colors of red, black, and green. On the left side, "Black is Black" rises vertically in the same colors, while on the right side, "BLACKITY AF," also vertical stands in bold white. Along the bottom on the right side is the text "Opening September 4, 2020" above the Dyer Arts Center's logo. At the very bottom left in small white text is the image credit: Debout, Serge Kiswensida Doamba, 2019.]