About the Artists
We are delighted to feature two Dyson College students’ artwork on the cover and inside cover of this issue. Theirs, along with many other students’ works, were showcased at two student exhibitions at the Pace University Art Gallery this spring. We asked our students to describe their piece and the inspiration for it.
Here’s what they said.
Free Churro (cover) by Gavriella Gonzalez ’24, Art
“I’ve been drawing since the moment I picked up a pencil and have rarely wanted to be anything except an artist. I don’t mean that in a career or academic sense, but I always wanted to create, so I always wanted to be an artist in any way possible.
My inspiration for this piece was my friend who lost her battle with mental health in December 2023 and it is meant as a final goodbye gift to her and a celebration of her life. I consider every portrait created to be an immortalization of its subject. My subject, Jill, has been my friend since middle school, and I wanted to capture the appreciation I have for such a long-term friendship and wonderful person in a place where I hope she now resides. The title is a reference to her favorite episode of one of our mutually favorite shows, BoJack Horseman.”
dizzy dancing (inside cover) by Abby Leff ’26, Psychology
“I never expected to find a groove in creating art, as I al-ways became frustrated when I tried to draw with pencil or charcoal, but a Painting and Poetry learning community at Pace sparked my joy for painting. As a medium, paint enables me to embrace the mess and establish a flow.
In my Painting II class, students were asked to paint an object that represents who we are. My time at Pace has been nothing short of self-expression and discovery, full of challenges that force me to think outside of the box. I was inspired to take a risk and paint something I had never attempted before–a disco ball. In this piece, I imagine a scene: It’s 2 a.m. and my clothes are stained with acrylic. The music is loud in the studio and my energy is abundant because I am painting the way I see the world.”
Merging Art with Helping Others
Betsy Lawrence ’95, PsyD, has had an extraordinary dual career as a psychologist and psychoanalyst, and as founder and president of New York School of the Arts, a not-for-profit arts school and cultural center in New York City.
Lawrence is a graduate of the School-Clinical Child Psychology PsyD program at Pace, one she was drawn to because of its flexibility and dual focus. “I think that if you ask students, they will agree that Pace faculty are very, very open to ideas. Sharing is encouraged, and people here tend to have a good heart, too. There was help, and this was really quite special,” she said.
Throughout her career, she was ever an artist at heart. She pursued her artistic talents and enrolled in an intensive art program at the historic National Academy, an art school, museum, and association of professional artists in Manhattan. However, the school unfortunately closed, leaving a gaping hole for many in the art community.
It was a unifying neighborhood staple, and she could not simply stand by idly.
Lawrence worked to open a new institution for the art community to continue, the New York School of the Arts. Through it, she has been able to provide others with what she always wanted for herself: the chance to realize their unique artistic talent. She describes it as a “magical place” where one can palpably feel the creative process within which others are engaged and can be in this “extraordinary walk” with them.
Today, Lawrence’s psychology practice is part-time, allowing her to devote more energy to her artistic endeavors. She now sees herself as, first, a watercolor artist, and second, a sculptor, working with terra-cotta to bronze. Thematically, she loves to incorporate mythology as well as symbolism in her art and feels that stories in literature have as much relevance today as in the past. She credits her background in Greek and Latin languages as giving her a greater appreciation for these stories.
“All these wonderful arts—including languages—just bring people together.”
Art Gallery Grant
The Art Gallery at Pace University received a $20,000 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), recognizing the quality of the gallery’s exhibitions over the past three years. The grant, which will support artist stipends and exhibit marketing, took effect January 1, 2024, beginning with an exhibit featuring contemporary comic book artists.
Writing for Diversity and Equity in Theater and Media Highlights
Supported by the Edmond de Rothschild Family Philanthropy, the BA in Writing for Diversity and Equity in Theater and Media (W4DETM) provides a unique opportunity for students who wish to develop their own voices as writers through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to produce content for film, television, theater streaming, and narrative gaming.
Broadway and Off-Broadway Shows
W4DETM students have access to a variety of artistic experiences within the industry. As a cohort, students watch Broadway and off-Broadway shows, develop new skills in masterclasses and workshops, and tour theaters in the city. Following the shows, they debrief and review the productions through a DEI lens. Throughout this year, students in the W4DETM program attended these productions: Some Like It Hot, How to Dance in Ohio, The Connector, The Wiz, and Suffs. Students met afterward to hold follow-up discussions to debrief about DEI representation in the shows.
Service Day
This year’s service project looked into its own community, to help each other better understand accessibility in the theater industry for neurodivergent artists. The program hosted a discussion event featuring Ariel Reich and Rebekah Greer Melocik from How to Dance in Ohio. Neurodivergent students developed the program and facilitated the discussion to teach neurotypical students about accessibility in the arts as it relates to neurodivergence and to share their own experiences. They explored themes of accessibility in theater and focused on the experiences of individuals with neurodivergence in an open and organic discussion model with industry professionals who are further along in their careers.
Affairs of the Arts
The Pace University Art Gallery hosted a vibrant landscape of exhibitions this academic year, from immigration mixed media to artwork exploring human connections.
Inescaping Legacies
September 30-October 28, 2023 ‣ Inscaping Legacies, a major solo exhibition by the interdisciplinary artist Firoz Mahmud, intertwines immigrants’ contemporary experiences in the South Asian Bengal region with those of the Bangladeshi in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Journey Illustrated
February 13–March 16, 2024 ‣ The Journey Illustrated exhibition highlighted seven cartoonists, graphic novelists, and illustrators who create deeply personal stories of identity that recast the quotidian as heroic and celebrate the essence of the city.
2023
Mother Octopus
November 14, 2023–January 27, 2024 ‣ Mother Octopus, a solo exhibition by painter Mie Yim, presented anthropomorphic abstraction characters in her new paintings.
2024 Annual Art
Student Exhibition
April 9-20, 2024 ‣ The 2024 Annual Art Student Exhibition featured work by 54 individual student artists and several course projects.
We’re Home
June 7-September 14, 2024 ‣ We’re Home is an exhibition featuring artists Destiny Belgrave, Katherine Hubbard, Steven Anthony Johnson II, Yung Oh Le Page, Pixy Liao and Margaret Zox Brown, who each explore relationships within the domestic sphere. The exhibit was co-curated by Sarah Cunningham, MFA, the gallery director, along with Jordanna Naidoo ’26 and Kassandra Schengili ’25, who both received a research assistantship from Pace’s Center for Undergraduate Research Experiences.
2024
Corporate Holiday Party: Project Studio Senior Thesis Exhibition
April 27–May 9, 2024 ‣ Corporate Holiday Party: Project Studio Senior Thesis Exhibition featured work by students enrolled in the Spring 2024 Project Studio B course. Project Studio is the capstone course for the BFA in Art, in which enrolled students spend the full semester working on a single body of work in their chosen medium.
