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Syracuse University, School of Art, Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Shemin Auditorium at the Shaffer Art Building on the SU Main Campus, Syracuse, NY (2026)

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Shemin Auditorium At The Shaffer Art Building On The SU Main Campus

04/21/2026

This week’s VALS speaker, the last of the semester, is Monique Aimee. She will speak in Shemin at 6:30 on Thursday, April 23.

Monique Aimee is a Boston illustrator and multidisciplinary artist. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Lesley University in 2014 and has been freelancing since her graduation.

She has illustrated over 40 book covers and worked with clients big and small, local and worldwide. Her style is bold, harmonious, and celebrates living in New England. With a love of the fiber arts, Monique draws inspiration from textiles to weave a story together through her illustrations.

She’ll also be hosting a workshop called Hand Lettering For Book Covers in Shaffer 332 at 12:30 pm on Thursday.

https://moniqueaimee.com/

04/14/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Francisco echo Eraso. He will speak in Shemin at 6:30 on Thursday, April 16.

Jointly presented in conjunction with the Center on Disability and Inclusion and Syracuse University Art Museum, artist Francisco echo Eraso offers an experimental lecture on the intersections of disabled identity and ecological crisis. Given the increasingly toxic and disabling environments across the globe, disability is simultaneously deemed “unnatural” and therefore disposable and to be eradicated.

Francisco echo Eraso (he/él) is a Colombian-American interdisciplinary artist, educator and access worker. He uses textiles and ceramics as well as minimalist sculpture and sound art to engage topics of liberation theology, family, and revolution.

Through an “Eco-Crip” framework, Eraso challenges the idea of disability as a pathological deficit. Looking to Disability Justice principles to challenge binaries of natural/unnatural and normal/abnormal, disability is presented as part of human diversity and as a cultural and political identity. Eraso discusses his own art practices alongside the work of contemporary disabled artists to illuminate disability as a crucial source of wisdom and leadership for the future ahead of us.

Eraso received his MFA in Fine Arts from Rutgers University in 2025 and a BA/BFA from Parsons, The New School in Visual Studies and Fine Arts in 2018. He has been a keynote speaker at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2025), received the Wynn Newhouse Award (2024), received the LEAD award from the Kennedy center (2023) and served as the call to action speaker for the Art-Reach Conference on Arts, Culture and Disability (2023). He has been an artist-in-residence at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts SHIFT residency for arts workers (2022-2023), FABSCRAP (2022-2023), Textile Arts Center (2020-2021), 77Art (2021) and Art Beyond Sight’s Art and Disability Residency (2021). He has exhibited at Mason Gross Galleries (NJ), The Re-Institute, Tempest Gallery, The Shed, EFA Project Space, Westbeth Gallery, Chashama Space Gallery, Ford Foundation Gallery, Amos Eno Gallery, Flux Factory and Sheila C. Johnson Gallery (NY), Mead Museum and A.P.E. Gallery (MA), The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (OH), Museo Antonini in Peru, among others. He has been published by NYU Press (2025) Art in America (2022), and Ugly Duckling Press (2020).

Eraso currently works as an accessibility consultant, independent curator, youth minister, and part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, Parsons, The New School and Middlesex Community College.

This event is part of the Syracuse University Humanities Center’s 2025-2026 Syracuse Symposium on “Creativity.”

A reception, which is open to all, will be held in the Galleria (outside the Museum and Shemin) from 5:00-6:30 on the 16th.

Eraso will also hold a workshop in the Galleria on April 17 from noon-2:00.

https://franciscoechoerasojr.com/home.html

https://humcenter.syr.edu/calendar/eco-crip-workshop/

04/07/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Sara Felice. She will speak at Shemin at 6:30 on Thursday, April 9.

Sara Felice is the Curator of the Leepa Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs, Florida, where she cultivates over fifteen rotating exhibitions per year, implements collegiate and community programming, and develops LRMA’s permanent collection of over 7,000 works of modern and contemporary photography, prints, fine art crafts, paintings and sculpture. In the Tampa Bay Region, she has served as a guest judge and consultant of several art festivals and organizations, most notably Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, one of the largest juried fine art festivals in the Southern United States.

She received her MA in Museum Studies from Syracuse University and was the Director of Point of Contact Gallery in Syracuse from 2017-2021.

Outside of her practice as a curator and arts administrator, Sara has been a working professional photographer since 2006.

04/01/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Jordan Sondler. She will speak at 6:30 on Thursday, April 2 via zoom.

Jordan Sondler is a Brooklyn-based illustrator, professor and the author of Feel It Out. She designs many things—including murals, television sets, books about feelings, children's clothing, 90's nostalgia diaries, and beyond.

Jordan loves to contemplate death and the big questions in life, such as “How many New York City men must one date to meet someone emotionally available?” Join her over at the Dead Parent Club or drop her a line to work on something FUN!

Her clients include The New York Times, Google, Adweek, New York Magazine, Scholastic Books, Meta, Doc Marten, Nickelodeon, Foundation for Su***de Prevention, Fisher Price, Time Out New York, Chronicle Books and more.

https://www.jordansondler.com/

https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/j/97891283734

03/24/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Holly Brown. She will speak at Shemin at 6:30 on Thursday, March 26.

Holly E. Brown (VPA ’98) is a New York City-based artist, educator, and the founder of Clockworks Press®. Holly has spent nearly three decades translating the technical rigor of the VPA printmaking studios into a prolific career centered on the structural geometry of the NYC skyline and most notably its iconic water towers.

As a full-time Elementary Art Teacher at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and in her studio, Holly champions the intersection of fine art and sustainability. Since trademarking Clockworks Press in 2016, she has emerged as a leader in the "Made in NYC" movement, producing a signature line of locally manufactured goods including the W28 Tote (up-cycled from US Navy camouflage), the Denim Clutch, and her hand-printed denim pillows. Her commitment to "green" printmaking has led to multiple exhibitions in the Netherlands and a featured spread in Pressing Matters Magazine.

Her notable collaborations range from portfolios with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic to sustainable art installations and collaborative pieces with Colombian artist De Ver Azul. Most recently, she debuted collective works with the Exquisite Blue Towers trio in Chelsea, NYC and partnered with UK artist Ian Berry for the global project during the pandemic. She remains a prominent global voice in the print medium, teaching specialized printmaking workshops internationally, selling her work at local markets and representing the Speedball Professional Artist Network. Holly’s Syracuse-rooted craftsmanship is preserved in numerous private collections and the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, Yale, and Princeton.

https://www.clockworkspressco.com/

Holly E Brown, Clockworks Press

03/17/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Allison Cole. She will be speaking via Zoom on Thursday, March 19 at 6:30. The class will meet at Shemin to watch the Zoom.

Allison Cole is an illustrator with over twenty years of experience creating artwork for licensed products, editorial, and publishing. Her licensed work has appeared across a wide range of product markets, including gift, apparel, stationery, and fabric, with a focus on bold color, strong concepts, and narrative-driven imagery. She is also an adjunct professor at RISD, where she teaches undergraduates in the Illustration department.

https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/j/97853359306

https://www.allisoncoleillustration.com/

03/03/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Sam Chung. He will speak at the Everson Museum, on Thursday, March 5, at 6:30pm as part of the 16th Annual Ceramic Arts Lecture. Busses will be available to pick up students at the College Place bus stop at 6:00, where they will take them to the Everson.

Sam Chung is a Korean-American ceramic artist living in Phoenix, Arizona, where he is a Professor of art at Arizona State University. He creates pottery that reframes historical ceramics from a cross-cultural perspective. Chung’s most recent work draws influence from Korean art and design, which has a long history of using clouds as a ubiquitous symbol. On a personal level, Chung is interested in how clouds represent a phenomenon that is constantly in flux. Their nature to morph and adapt is similar to the ways in which the artist relates to his own floating sense of identity. These cultural references serve as an anchor, pointing toward Chung’s own ethnic lineage, while also questioning the perception of belonging.

https://www.samchungceramics.com/

02/24/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Ruben Castillo. He will speak at 6:30 on Thursday, February 26 in Shemin.

Ruben Castillo is a visual artist and educator who investigates themes of intimacy, q***rness, archival history, and the body through a range of media, including printmaking, drawing, installation, sculpture, and video. His most recent imagery draws on photographs and documents to explore connections among q***r people. Castillo’s work has been exhibited at venues such as Print Center New York (NY), Pier 36 for the 2025 Art on Paper Fair (NY), the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (KS), the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (MO) and can be found at institutional collections such as the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum & Art Gallery (NY), the Museum of Texas Tech (TX), Crossroads Hotel (MO), Zuckerman Museum of Art (GA), and the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY) among others. In 2023, he received the Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Art Award and was a finalist for the 21C Kansas City Artadia Award in 2022. Ruben received his MFA in Visual Art from the University of Kansas (2017) and a BFA in Printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute (2012). He is currently an Assistant Professor teaching Printmaking in the Department of Art at Skidmore College.

https://rubenbcastillo.com/

02/17/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Orion Wertz. He will speak at 6:30 on Thursday, February 19, in Shemin Auditorium.

Orion Wertz, Professor of Fine Art in Painting at Columbus State University, was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The derelict industry and forested hills of the region left an impression that reappears in his artwork. Orion studied painting at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he received his bachelor's degree. He went on to study at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he received his master's degree and taught painting and drawing. He has exhibited paintings, drawings and sculptures in a variety of venues and has produced several comic books. His graphic novel, The Boxridge Table, tells the story of a farm commune in a near future post-petroleum America. His paintings and comics depict surreal environments and characters in fantastical narratives.

He will be hosting a workshop, "Synthetic Figuration," discussing both figure and composition perspective at 12:30 in Shaffer 332. The workshop is open to all who wish to attend. Participants should bring paper and drawing tools.

https://www.orionwertz.com

02/10/2026

This week’s VALS speaker is Todd Conover. He will speak at Shemin on Thursday, February 12 at 6:30.

Todd Conover is an Associate Professor of Design and a professional studio artist who has been teaching at Syracuse University since 1995. His academic background includes degrees in music, fashion design and an MFA in Studio Arts. A trained metalsmith with over fifteen years of studio practice, Conover’s work centers on contemporary jewelry and small metal forms that blend rigorous craftsmanship with narrative, wit, and material curiosity. Often incorporating sterling silver alongside found and historic materials, his pieces evoke objects that feel simultaneously intimate, archaeological, and quietly strange. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in private collections throughout the United States and abroad.

https://www.toddconovermetalworks.com

Syracuse University, School of Art, Visiting Artist Lecture Series

04/21/2026

04/14/2026

04/07/2026

04/01/2026

03/24/2026

03/17/2026

03/03/2026

02/24/2026

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02/10/2026

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