PROVIDENCE COLLEGE PROFESSOR MOUNTS PHOTO EXHIBITION AT PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY
(Providence, RI) – Providence College announced today that Eric Sung, associate professor of art and art history, has mounted a photo exhibition at the Providence Public Library (PPL) in downtown Providence. The exhibit, Documenting Place as Witness, is part of a larger project that focuses on stories of isolation, healing, and solidarity in Providence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sung, along with his PC colleagues Tuba Agartan, and Nicholas Longo, created this project by interviewing leaders of the Providence Public Library as part of a Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research Award from the School of Arts and Sciences at Providence College. These interviews led to the creation of this project which highlights the isolation from the pandemic, but also the potential for creative responses that bring people together.
“This project serves as a reminder of the promise of libraries as spaces for social solidarity and civic connection as well as what can be lost as a result of libraries being closed,” Christina Bevilacqua, programs and exhibitions director at PPL said. “Libraries are places where you go when you have curiosity about something. You have an interest in something. You have a need for something more. To be a space of inquiry, that is where we start [at PPL]: cultivating the practice of inquiry, with inquiry being on some level a state of anxiety and uncertainty and unknowing. And so the pandemic is like a space where we’re all in a space of inquiry–whether we like it or not. Inquiry and discovery, that’s where we’re always moving towards.”
In addition to being a professor of art and art history, Sung is also the founding director of a cutting-edge minor in Business and Innovation at PC. After receiving his MFA from Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University, he went on to become a visionary artist, a publically engaged scholar, and an award winning teacher. Providence College recognized Sung in 2016-17 with the Inaugural Innovation in Teaching Award. He was recognized again in 2017-18 with the Joseph R. Accinno Teaching Award and is the only faculty member to win both of these prestigious awards.
The exhibition is supported by a grant for PVD Fest from the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism.
Sung’s photographs are on view in the Empire Street entrance atrium at PPL. Read more about the project here.
Providence Public Library (PPL) is a 146-year-old nonprofit corporation providing free public library services through its rich and historic physical and digital collections, extensive information resources, thought-provoking exhibitions, impactful educational programs, and expert staff. PPL is continually transforming and focused on providing equally transformative experiences for all Rhode Islanders. The Library is actively expanding our reach through critical statewide collaborations and serving as an open and supportive teaching and learning place where communities can connect, experience, create and achieve, whether in our physical or virtual realms. To achieve our mission, the Library is strategically focused on serving Rhode Island families and early care providers, teens, downcity residents, learners seeking workforce development, and those pursuing creative and scholarly endeavors.
Founded in 1917, Providence College is the only college or university in the United States administered by the Dominican Friars. The Catholic, liberal arts college has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 4,000 students and offers degrees in 52 academic majors and 38 minors. Since 1997, Providence College consistently has been ranked among the top five regional universities in the North according to U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges.”
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