Welcome to the Center for the Visual Arts CVA Gallery

Welcome to the CVA Gallery. We are Brookdale Community College’s academic art and design gallery, located in The Center for the Visual Arts building on the Lincroft Campus in Monmouth County New Jersey.

Between Experience & Reality

Opening Reception: Tuesday, March 26, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Exhibition: March 27 – April 24
To schedule a tour on Thursdays, please contact Elisa Elorza at eelorza@brookdalecc.edu

Gallery Hours:

Monday – Closed
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday – 1:00 p.m. – 4: 00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Thursday – 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Friday – 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Saturday – 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

 

The Center for the Visual Arts (CVA) Gallery is proud to announce the launch of its spring exhibition, Between Experience & Reality. This innovative showcase not only presents an eclectic array of photography from both Brookdale students and esteemed 20th-century artists but also pioneers a groundbreaking initiative in accessibility and technology integration within the realm of art interpretation.

Scheduled to debut on Tuesday, March 26, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. and extending through April 24, Between Experience & Reality promises to captivate audiences with its dynamic blend of traditional and contemporary photographic works. From intimate portraits to sweeping landscapes, the exhibition offers a thought-provoking exploration of human experiences, and the ways photography intersects with reality.

At the heart of this exhibition lies a revolutionary approach to art accessibility: Alt-Text. Based on Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan’s “Alt-Text-as Poetry” model presented by the Diversity and Inclusion department as part of their Disabilty Justice series earlier this year, and spearheaded by a collaborative effort involving authors Oudai Al-Shuaibi, Sophie Jimenez, Gianella Rios, Anna Boiarchuk, Amy Faris, David Levy, and Barbara Russo, this initiative aims to enrich the viewing experience for individuals with low or no vision. By providing descriptive text for select photographs, the CVA Gallery ensures that art remains inclusive and accessible to all community members.

The exhibition combines famous artworks from Brookdale’s collection by artists like Walker Evans, Danny Lyon, Ansel Adams, Arthur Tess, and Bruce Davidson with pieces from current and recent Brookdale photography students. This comparison encourages discussions about how traditional and contemporary issues meet in photography.

 


 

February 6, 2024

Alt-Text as Poetry

This spring the CVA Gallery, with Brookdale’s DEI services, is partnering with Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan to bring their “Alt-Text as Poetry” workshop to Brookdale, teaching us how to increase equitable access to visual art and design. Together, we will learn how to write creative alt-text to describe art and design images on digital platforms for those with low and no vision. This free, online workshop is open to everyone, and will be based on Bojana and Finnegan’s open-source resource, “Alt Text as Poetry” workbook.

Event: Disability Justice: Alt-Text, Diversity

Time: Tue, Feb. 6, 2024; 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Location: Online, click here for Zoom link

Contact: Angela Kariotis with your questions

As an extension of this workshop, the CVA Gallery will be collaborating with Brookdale’s Learning Center (TLC) to design a companion website showcasing a selection of photographs from our upcoming exhibit, Experience & Reality: Intersections of Identity, Design and Imagination in 20th and 21st Century Photography for those with low and no vision. The website will feature alt-text as poetry written by specific workshop participants, as well as alt-text written by Artificial Intelligence for each photograph. By putting human written alt-text side by side with computer written alt-text we are hoping to learn more about how the two might differ, and what issues may arise as an increasing amount of alt-text is AI generated.

While everyone is invited to participate in the Alt-text as Poetry website, we are actively seeking students, faculty, staff or community members who would be able to attend the workshop to learn how to write alt-text for artwork, and then write alt-text for one of the seven photographs on the companion website. You would, in essence, become a steward for one specific photograph, and your alt-text will be included, and credited, on the CVA Gallery website. If you are interested in volunteering for this opportunity, please email CVA Gallery manager Elisa Elorza at eelorza@brookdalecc.edu.
For more information about the exhibition, the associated events, and gallery times, please visit the CVA Gallery Current Exhibition