January 2023 | Diversity Awareness Newsletter & Calendar

Dear Colleagues,

A happy new year to you all! I hope you celebrated the start of 2023 safely and in good spirits with family and friends. As we mark the final days of the festive season, I want to reflect on 2022 and thank you all for your contributions over the past 12 months.

I am reaching my first anniversary on January 18, and thank you for your warm welcome as a new member of the PAFA community. I am impressed by and proud of this community’s collaboration and ability to make the most of every opportunity. One of PAFA’s greatest attributes is the ability to pull together when our demands are challenging. You demonstrate incredible dedication and agility even with the ongoing disruptions from the pandemic that continues to have a substantial impact on our work and home lives, as well as on the lives of our students.

In 2022, you continued to adapt to hybrid work schedules while rebuilding the synergies and connectivity of working together in the office within a safe environment. We are a unified, diverse community bound by a common purpose and in service to one another. This month, as we celebrate the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, please look for ways to stay engaged and connected throughout the month and the new year. Dr. King said, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” Let us embrace the belief that our destiny is shared and recommit to our obligations to each other as community members.

Below is the January Diversity Newsletter and Calendar published monthly by the Office of Institutional Safety and Equity. I invite you to take advantage of two community events on January 17:

Faculty & Staff Mosaic Art Project, 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.

Third Annual MLK Evening Service, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM via Zoom.

2023 is set to be another exciting year for us. We can look forward to working further on the many initiatives to deliver the best art education and the most remarkable exhibitions serving our students, partners, visitors, and the public.

Thank you for your continued commitment and effort. We have an important role in the work ahead, and I’m confident we will achieve great things together.

I wish you and your loved ones a happy and prosperous 2023!

-- Eric G. Pryor

President & CEO

MOSAIC ART PROJECT

On Tuesday, January 17, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, Ellen Tiberino, mosaic artist and Assistant Director at the Community Education Center, will guide us through making individual mosaic panels. As an embodiment of MLK’s concept of the beloved community, Ellen will ultimately bind our individual work into a PAFA community mosaic to be displayed in the lobby of the Hamilton building.

Registration is limited, and a formal invite will be sent. However, those interested can email Dr. Lisa Biagas, to reserve a spot in advance.

MLK EVENING SERVICE

The third annual MLK Evening Celebration will be on Tuesday, January 17, at 6:00 PM via Zoom. The theme is "The Light of Creative Altruism." It comes from MLK's 1960 sermon at Friendship Baptist Church entitled "The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life." What can we do to live out MLK’s dream and become a light for creative altruism in the world?

The keynote speaker is Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race and Public Policy, Director, Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is nationally recognized as a day of service - "it's a day on, not a day off." Join the entire PAFA Community for a Day of Service. Click the link to find local (virtual) service opportunities for staff, faculty, and students. We will update this document regularly.

Find Local Community Service Opportunities

MLK Trivia

How old was MLK when he enrolled at Morehouse College?

Which fact about MLK is not true?

Florida was the last state to recognize MLK Day.
MLK's mother was also killed by gunfire.
MLK was jailed more than 30 times.
Over 850 American streets are named after MLK.

From Our Collection

MLK's Humanity of Man.

Allan Edmunds

The founder of the Brandywine Workshop, Allan Edmunds has expanded the limits of printmaking by combining traditional processes with new technologies. He first explored the potential of offset lithography in 1981 with printmaker John E. Dowell, Jr. To create an offset lithograph, artists separate the colors of their imagery onto sheets of mylar with inked brushes, waxed pencils, pens, or spray paint. They then transfer their imagery onto a metal plate through a light-sensitive process. Next, they roll the plate onto a rubber cylinder, which applies their imagery onto a flat surface in its original orientation. Through explorations of the physical properties of these materials, Edmunds and Dowell discovered offset lithography’s unique capacity for the precise registration of forms, retention of fine lines, and subtle tonal gradations. In MLK’s Humanity of Man, Edmunds combines this process with screenprinting, stenciling, and collage to capture the compassion of the Civil Rights leader.