CEPA Gallery awarded $25,000 grant from National Endowment for the Arts

NEA grant to support 2024 exhibition, ‘Photography & the Holocaust’

The Center for Exploratory & Perceptual Arts (CEPA Gallery) announced a grant totaling $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the upcoming exhibition, publication, and community project, “Photography & the Holocaust: Then & Now,” which opens in January 2024 and will run until May. This project is curated and produced by Robert Hirsch along with project manager Ruby Merritt.

A press release stated, “ ‘Photography & the Holocaust’ will investigate the ways in which photo-based imagery is used to shape cultural narratives and reexamine history. It will assess photography’s fluctuating role in documenting, interpreting and understanding the Holocaust (Shoah) with new and reimagined works. This project will feature contemporary photo-based artists whose work wrestles with how the past has impacted them during a time of rising antisemitism.”

Hirsch said, “This project points out that equal rights and justice are necessary for all in order to have an open and healthy society.”

Along with the exhibition and publication, the project activities will include public art installations, a virtual annotated Holocaust timeline, a virtual symposium, robust community partnerships, and a satellite exhibition hosted on-site at Mirabo Press.

“We are grateful for the NEA’s support in bringing this project to life, and we look forward to the community connecting and engaging with such an important project,” said Claire Leggett, CEPA’s executive director.

For more information or to support this project through a donation, visit CEPA’s website, www.cepagallery.org, email [email protected], or visit the project website here.

The press release added, “Located in Buffalo’s historic Market Arcade Complex, CEPA Gallery is a contemporary photography and visual arts center with impact in both local and national communities. With three galleries of changing exhibits and events, multimedia public art installations, arts education programs, and an open-access darkroom and digital photo lab, CEPA creates a vibrant presence in the heart of downtown Buffalo.”

For gallery hours or more information, visit www.cepagallery.org.