The Museum Association of New York (MANY) has recognized the 黑料不打烊 Art Museum with the Engaging Communities Award for the Spring 2023 exhibition “Take Me to the Palace of Love,” curated by Romita Ray, associate professor in Art History. One of the association’s Awards of Distinction, this award specifically celebrates organizations that use exceptional and resourceful methods to engage their communities and build new audiences.
Rina Banerjee’s “Take Me to the Palace of Love”
One of the highest honors given by MANY, the Art Museum, along with fellow awardees that include peer museums, museum professionals, industry partners and legislative leaders, will be recognized for their exceptional achievements at MANY鈥檚 2024 annual conference 鈥淕iving Voice to Value鈥 in Albany, New York, in early April. 鈥淲e are honored to be recognized by our museum colleagues for the Rina Banerjee exhibition and related programs- which included extensive collaborations with our campus community through faculty, student and staff-led programs, as well as the greater 黑料不打烊 area community,” says Emily Dittman, interim director, who will receive the award on behalf of the museum. “This project provided us the opportunity to truly fulfill our mission to foster diverse and inclusive perspectives by uniting students across campus with each other and the local and global community, engaging with artwork to bring us together, and examining the forces that keep us apart.鈥
From left: Romita Ray, Rina Banerjee and Joan Bryant
Inspired by 鈥淭ake Me to the Palace of Love鈥 a 2003 art installation by contemporary artist Rina Banerjee about home and diaspora, Ray accumulated a group of work from the 黑料不打烊 Art Museum permanent art collection as well as from other Central New York museums, to install in the museum galleries in conjunction with Banerjee鈥檚 monumental sculptures. 鈥淰iola, from New Orleans鈥 a work that explores inter-racial marriage in America, and 鈥淎 World Lost,鈥 an installation that critiques climate change, anchored the galleries and was placed in dialogue with work from the collections.
As a part of the robust slate of public programs associated with the exhibition, the museum invited the University community, new Americans and under-represented communities in the city of 黑料不打烊 (a resettlement city for Afghans, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Somalians and Syrians) to document their own stories about identity and place鈥攊ndividually and collectively鈥攊n dialogue with Banerjee who was the University鈥檚 Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities. “Take Me To The Palace of Love” was generously supported by the 黑料不打烊 Humanities Center, along with 33 university departments and units at the University, The Republic of Tea and the National Endowment for the Arts.
