Light Work’s galleries are currently closed to the general public as part of our ongoing effiort to stop the spread of COVID-19. Syracuse University students, faculty, and staff who are cleared to be on campus may visit the exhibitions during gallery hours. We encourage patrons to visit our exhibitions and events online and to check out our catalog of artist videos.
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Light Work proudly presents In Solidarity: Syracuse Protests, a group exhibition featuring images made during events at the epicenter of the protest movement in Syracuse, NY. Light Work’s Urban Video Project first exhibited these images at UVP’s outdoor exhibition site on the facade of the Everson Museum of Art. In Solidarity documents forty days of marching, actions, and rallies with images from local photographers Cherilyn Beckles, Mylz Blake & Eric Derachio Jackson Jr., Dennis Fernando, and Maranie Staab. In Solidarity: Syracuse Protests will be on view in the Jeffrey J. Hoone Gallery from August 24 through October 15, 2020.

In exhibiting these works, we recognize the essential role of art and art institutions as vital sites for the radical reimagining of how we engage the legacy of anti-Blackness and racism in our cities, states, and country. It is necessary that we all do our part to make this nation better and demand accountability for the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and so many individuals who should still be here today. We too ask how many Black men and women must die at the hands of the police before this ends. We too ask what “accountability” would look like. In our own city, police have used tear gas against our young people and physically attacked a respected older photojournalist during a demonstration. This mirrors hundreds of attacks on journalists by police across the nation since then. As an organization, Light Work stands in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and joins those in our city, across the country, and around the globe who continue to fight against racial oppression, violence, and discrimination.
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Matthew Connors: General Assembly will be on view concurrently in Light Work’s Kathleen O. Ellis gallery. This exhibition comprises 650 portraits that span the first year of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) in New York City. Both exhibitions are in dialogue with the dynamics of social justice movements and the visual narratives they produce.