June 14 – July 6, 2025
Opening reception: June 14, 2025, 5-7 PM
Sanctuary City presents the photography and writing of seventeen students enrolled in a Kingston High School afterschool program that empowers them to explore their identities, deepen self-expression, enhance language skills, and share their personal narratives. Through this program, the students—first- and second-generation immigrants enrolled in the high school’s English as a New Language (ENL) program—are learning to frame their personal stories as artists, investigating identity, community, and belonging through visual storytelling. Through this process and their work, they have built bridges between their cultures. The works in the exhibition focus on themes of community, family, storytelling, and dreams, reflecting both individual journeys and shared aspirations: What does it mean to find or create a sanctuary? These images and words seek possible answers: a self-portrait’s quiet intimacy, the complex bonds of family, the shared spaces of a neighborhood, or a dream’s fleeting landscape. Collectively, the work on view offers a moving portrait of resilience, imagination, and the enduring power of connection.
Sanctuary City is the culmination of a year-long educational program initiated by CPW, directed by photographer and educator Wendy Ewald with assistant and facilitator Reyna Martinez, in collaboration with Kingston High School staff. Funding has been provided by: Mary and Jim Ottaway, the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences, New York State Council for the Arts, Ulster County Youth Services, Kingston Office of Community Development, Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Arts Mid-Hudson, Hudson Valley Youth Foundation, and Community Foundation of the Hudson Valley.
Image (left to right): Yasmin, Marilyn.
About the Community Gallery:
CPW’s Community Gallery is a new space dedicated to fostering connections between diverse local communities using photography. It will host a rotating schedule of short-run exhibitions featuring work by CPW members, local artist collectives, student groups, and projects by local nonprofit organizations. CPW is committed to being a welcoming hub for critical and creative explorations of photography from varied perspectives.
HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TO THE COMMUNITY GALLERY:
Unless otherwise agreed upon, production, framing, installation, and de-installation are the sole responsibility of the exhibitor. Note: The gallery is not intended for exhibitions of individual artist submissions. Our goal is to provide exhibition space to local organizations and collectives that use photography to amplify their missions.
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. Write to communitygallery@cpw.org and please include the following:
- Names and contact information for all organizers and key workers.
- A short description of your project and its goals (300 words or less).
- At least five sample images, with captions and descriptions. These can be examples of previous projects or installations (please provide details).
- Preferred scheduling (month and year) for your exhibition. We will try our best to accommodate these requests whenever possible. If your project has a flexible schedule, please indicate that in your submission.
