Open For Unfinished Business at the Dorsky Museum

What do we do when we encounter gaps – omissions through tragedy or intention – in the historic record? 

Historians have sought to fill such gaps with new research and perspectives. Their efforts have expanded the historic narrative, made it more inclusive, uncovered and corrected errors in the analysis of historic documents, and produced engaging new articles, books, and historical exhibitions. 

But “life” in history – just as in the present – contains far more than what might appear in official records and written accounts. There is the unwritten record of lives and events passed down through stories or encoded in the material record of things created and left behind. Perhaps artists, working across disciplines and media, can best help us explore those lived experiences left out of the records.

In creating work for the exhibition now on view at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art on the SUNY New Paltz campus, artist Jean-Marc Superville Sovak approached the museum as a “site of interpretation and repair” where he sought to explore the lives and legacies of the Black community in New Paltz which has been largely absent in the material and interpretation of the town’s historic record.

Learn more and plan your visit here: https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/open-for-unfinished-business-at-dorsky-museum