Gallery 1199 exhibitions

Each year, Bread and Roses presents eight exhibitions in New York City, two of which show the work of union members and public school students. Thematic exhibitions are developed each year for Black History, Women's History, Hispanic Heritage, and Asian American recognition months. Four of this year's exhibitions will have relevance and appeal beyond the union and across the country.

• Simon Dinnerstein. An internationally known painter, Simon Dinnerstein is the son of an early 1199 pharmacist who began his career sketching 1199 union members.
  
  
• A Long Walk to Freedom. Portraits of Civil Rights Activists Then and Now. This collaborative presentation designed by New York City high school students and members of Community Works, a public arts project, portrayed the Civil Rights movement and how it affected the lives of union members.
  
  
• NANA. Nana was Dorothy Gertrude Steward, a union activist and member of 1199 for approximately 50 years. Her grandson's wife, Sibylle Pfaffenbichler, in admiration and celebration of this remarkable woman, did these paintings.
  
  
• Working People: The Art of Ralph Fasanella. In November 2000, Gallery 1199 hosted an exhibition of 30 original paintings by Ralph Fasanella that included a series of discussions between labor union members, students and the public. Fasanella's works are in museums and private collections and are rarely exhibited for public appreciation. Bread and Roses has produced a full-color calendar of Fasanella's work. Orders for more than 30,000 calendars have been ordered by major labor unions with the active support of AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney.

Theatre-in-the-Hospital

Professional dramatic, dance and music companies stage these free, daytime/lunchtime performances within the hospitals and nursing homes for 1199 members, patients, and the public. Past performers have included Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Dick Gregory, and Las Afortunados, an African and Caribbean song and dance company. One of the programs, TAKE CARE, an original musical review based on workshops with union members, toured several states in 1991. A television version was shown on PBS in 1993.

Arts Education Program:

In 1995, recognizing the need to reach the children of union members and the thousands of other young people from similar backgrounds with quality arts education (especially at the high school level), Bread and Roses extended its programming to New York City's public schools. In developing its arts program, Bread and Roses has focused on the exploration of social issues and on the stories of inspiring, socially active people of hope and courage. Program topics have ranged from immigration to civil rights, and from the role of labor to the nature of the changing workplace.

In 1998, seventeen sites in Manhattan and Brooklyn served 4,500 students, with over 100 educators trained in how to incorporate the arts into classroom instruction. The arts education program trains teachers from every discipline (art, english, social studies, and music) to incorporate the arts into daily lessons, helping them take advantage of the uniquely engaging qualities of the arts and the natural artistic expression of young people as bridges to academic achievement. In addition, teaching artists use a variety of media -- including drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and painting -- in order to provide hands-on instruction for students during extended day sessions.

Bread and Roses Cafe

A new monthly cabaret by and for members and the public, held in Gallery 1199. Recent member acts include: gospel singers, comedians, calypso singers, poets, and conga drummers.

Why Unions Matter School Arts Project

This student show is a collaboration between the New York City Board of Education and Bread and Roses. The purpose of Why Unions Matter is to teach students how labor unions work and what they do to support social change, economic growth and democratic principles. Participating students reflect on what they have learned and then create a work of art to be exhibited at the annual Bread and Roses student art show at Gallery 1199. Some 15 schools will participate this year including a group of ESL students from Poland who have been in the U.S. less than a year. Two students from LaGuardia High School of Art will help curate the show.

Current Touring Exhibitions

Often, Bread and Roses exhibitions strike a chord and we receive requests to take them on tour, to develop study guides, and to produce posters and/or book versions for classroom and community use. Many past exhibitions, most notably our acclaimed Images of Labor and Women of Hope series, have toured through the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and other countries. Sweatshops (1999) featuring art works by elementary, middle and high school students and Working (1998) are already booked at 14 venues and will tour statewide and nationally for the next two years. Because the images have been reproduced in large-scale, high-quality multiples, the exhibitions can be presented inexpensively in several locations simultaneously.

• Sweatshops is one of Bread and Roses most powerful exhibitions . It presents 46 pieces by New York City students who studied sweatshops, working with artists and union members during a year of study, observation, and personal experience in sweatshops. This exhibit has already received major media coverage and an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from exhibition attendees. After only a short time in the gallery, we received dozens of requests for group visits, study guides, presentations by the students, a publication, and tours. Sweatshops is scheduled to appear at the offices of the United States Department of Labor later this year.
  
  
• Working, conceived over two years ago, involved students, parents, labor unions, and teachers in a study of the economic, psychological and cultural roles of working in our lives. The Working exhibition is comprised of students' photographs, videos, musical performances, poetry, and interviews with workers.

NATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Because 1199 officially announced a major partnership with the fastest growing union in the United States, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Bread and Roses has an unprecedented opportunity to engage literally hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom are not reached or represented by cultural institutions. SEIU's membership includes 450,000 health care workers in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Upcoming projects include:

• Creating a multi-media, multi-arts cultural program for the year 2000 national conference of the SEIU, which will be attended by leaders from all parts of the country.
  
  
• Creating and maintaining a web site which will allow a national sharing of images and ideas and a continuous discussion of cultural movements and issues. The web site will be designed and updated by WEBWEAVERS and will market our programs to a national and international audience of teachers, labor unions and social activists.