“Member Show 2023” highlights talent of Schweinfurth members

AUBURN, NY (Aug. 31, 2023) – Schweinfurth Art Center’s “Member Show 2023,” which runs Sept. 1 through Oct. 15, 2023, includes 120 works from 128 people this year. That’s because one of the works was created by the nine members of the Schweinfurth Fiber Arts Group.

It’s a loosely organized group of women and men from Central New York who meet nearly every Tuesday at the Schweinfurth – or maybe at a restaurant or a lakefront – to knit, stitch, crochet, and talk about their lives. They celebrate birthdays, have holiday parties, and offer life advice to each other and members of the Schweinfurth staff.

The group currently consists of Barbara Corey, Regina Delaney, Cindy Dempsey, Carol Gamba, Mary Beth Haswell, Jamie Rathbone, Tina Shrimpton, Bart Wasilenko, and Lilie Welych.

“We had so much fun making a bag for someone, that we decided to work on another project together,” Corey said.

“We thought about (entering as a group) and brainstormed for about a year, but pulled it together in one month,” added Haswell.

The piece, called “Earth’s Eye View,” is a giant crocheted eye with dangling streamers festooned with clear or white beads – perhaps representing tears as Earth watches the destruction wrought by wars and climate change.

Other works in the show also offer subtle messages. Camillus artist Carol Adamec’s piece, “Accepting Diversified Family Groups,” is a sculpture made of towers of different metals surrounded by a metal circle. “Band-Aids” by Mnetha Warren of Aurora is five giant-sized bandages colored in different skin tones.

The show contains a wide variety of mediums, including photographs, watercolors, collages, and even a dress made from palm fronds. It also has drawn entries from as far away as California and Florida.

One work, “GROWTH” by Susan Marie Borden of Buffalo, invites people to touch, move, and flip over the nine plexiglass cubes in her interactive sculpture to create their own version. She suggests visitors snap a photo and share it on social media. (If you do, please tag the Schweinfurth on Facebook as @myartcenter and Instagram as @schweinfurthart so we can reshare it.)

“Member Show 2023” is accompanied by two solo exhibitions, “Rural Voices Rising: Can Art Subvert Media’s Narrative?” by Lake Placid artist Susan Hoffer and “Reflections of a Photographer” by Moravia artist Fred Price. All three exhibits are on display through Oct. 15, 2023.

Admission to the exhibits costs $10 a person, and we also offer a joint admission to the Schweinfurth and Cayuga Museum of History & Art for $15 a person. The Schweinfurth hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays.

This exhibit is sponsored, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts. For video interviews with some of the participating artists, click here.

Participating artists:

Carol Adamec of Camillus, NY
Peggy Ahouse of Lodi, NY
Marilyn Akerson-Corbitt of Orchard Park, NY
Peter Allen of Syracuse, NY
Beverly Amborski of Williamsville, NY
Elizabeth Anderson of Fayetteville, NY
Donna Atwood of Moravia, NY
Mark Avery of Lansing, NY
Christopher Baker of Weedsport, NY
Howard Bartle of Sterling, NY
Victoria Bartling of Syracuse, NY
Michael Baum of Spearfish, SD
Lorraine Benjamin of The Villages, FL
Deborah Bilinski of Interlaken, NY
Helen Bishop-Santelli of Rochester, NY
Linda Blanding of Camillus, NY
Lydia Boddie-Rice of Rochester, NY
Susan Marie Borden of Buffalo, NY
Sharon Bottle Souva of Syracuse, NY
Karen Bove of Auburn, NY
Carol Boyer of Syracuse, NY
Carl Brown of Palm Springs, CA
Eva M. Capobianco of Ithaca, NY
Dolores Card of Syracuse, NY
Hermon Card of Syracuse, NY
Rachel Ivy Clarke of Syracuse, NY
Bob Conge of Wayland, NY
Deborah Connolly of Skaneateles, NY
Barbara Corey of Marcellus, NY
Andrea Creighton of Auburn, NY
Willson Cummer of Fayetteville, NY
Sharon Dec of Auburn, NY
Gail Demi of Auburn, NY
Michael Dempsey of Skaneateles, NY
Marcus DeVoe of Auburn, NY
Mary Diamond of Interlaken, NY
Jill Doscher of Skaneateles, NY
Bobbie Dumas-Panek of Auburn, NY
Leonard Eichler of Tully, NY
Michael Field of Syracuse, NY
Tracy Finn of Warwick, NY
Erika Fiutak of Skaneateles, NY
Alice Gant of Trumansburg, NY
Paul Garland of Fair Haven, NY
Anne Garretson of Newfield, NY
Geoffrey Gilbert of Geneva, NY
Diana Godfrey of Syracuse, NY
Ronald Gonzalez of Johnson City, NY
Rachael Gootnick of Rochester, NY
Rainn Graye of Elbridge, NY
Starlene Greathouse of Port Byron, NY
Patrick Hannay-Zaia of Auburn, NY
Nancy Herendeen of Weedsport, NY
Joyce Homan of Syracuse, NY
Deale Hutton of Red Creek, NY
Laurel Izard of Michigan City, IN
Maureen Jakubson of Ithaca, NY
Mary Jesionowski of Auburn, NY
Tyrone Johnson-Neuland of Oswego, NY
Beverly Kondolf of Romulus, NY
Denise Kooperman of Trumansburg, NY
Barbara Krause of Liverpool, NY
James Kwiatkowski of Ithaca, NY
Gary Larsen of Northville, NY
Beverly Lay of Baldwinsville, NY
Debbie P. Lee of Ithaca, NY
Harry Littell of Ithaca, NY
Jody Longeill of Auburn, NY
Robert Marcuson of Red Creek, NY
Richard Margolis of Rochester, NY
Caitlin Marx of Honeoye Falls, NY
Suzanne Masters of North Syracuse, NY
Barbara Mauger of Rochester, NY
Kathleen Miles of New York, NY
Joni Monroe of Rochester, NY
Denise Moody of Marcellus, NY
Laurel Moranz of Skaneateles, NY
Nicholas Morciglio of Syracuse, NY
Rebecca Moshaty of Auburn, NY
Judy Murrett of Fayetteville, NY
Teresa Nelson-Graham of Baldwinsville, NY
Thomas Nettle of East Syracuse, NY
Daniela Nikolavsky of Jamesville, NY
Richard Nolan of Johnson City, NY
Therese O’Connor of Ithaca, NY
Sewall Oertling of Auburn, NY
Janet Oertling of Sterling, NY
Shirley Penman of Auburn, NY
Linda Peterson of Round Lake, NY
Halloran Peterson of New Orleans, LA
Roberta Ripberger of Skaneateles, NY
Kevin Roberts of Syracuse, NY
Timothy Rodrigo of Marcellus, NY
Masumi Sakagami of Astoria, NY
Penny Santy of Syracuse, NY
Millie Schmidt of Baldwinsville, NY
J. Desy Schoenewies of Spearfish, SD
Schweinfurth Fiber Arts Group: Barbara Corey, Regina Delaney, Cindy Dempsey, Carol Gramba, Mary Beth Haswell, Jamie Rathbone, Tina Shrimpton, Bart Wasilenko, and Lilie Welych
Cheri Sheridan of Cortland, NY
Michael Shoemaker of North Rose, NY
Doreen Simmons of Skaneateles, NY
Colleen Rae Smiley of Brooklyn, NY
Harin Song of Astoria, NY
Nicholas Stefano of Syracuse, NY
Diana Suskind of Marietta, NY
Paula Tardibone of Auburn, NY
d. dargan teska of North Rose, NY
Kate Timm of Sterling, NY
Marie Ucci of Bronx, NY
Jeanne Ulrich of Camillus, NY
Meg Vanek of Auburn, NY
Sam Vann of Trumansburg, NY
Jane Verostek of Fayetteville, NY
Mnetha Warren of Aurora, NY
Bart Wasilenko of Weedsport, NY
George Wegman of Rochester, NY
Cynthia Wells of Liverpool, NY
Stefani Woodams of Freeville, NY
Scrap Wrenn of Albany, NY
Jennifer Zalewski of Auburn, NY

If you go …

WHAT: “Member Show 2023”

WHERE: Schweinfurth Art Center, 205 Genesee St., Auburn

WHEN: Sept. 1 to Oct. 15, 2023

HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays

ALSO ON DISPLAY: “Rural Voices Rising: Can Art Subvert Media’s Narrative?” by Susan Hoffer and “Reflections of a Photographer” exhibit by Fred Price

ADMISSION: $10 per person