Annual Report 2022-2023
Previous year committee membership, including year when each member’s term ends
David Phram, Mathematics & Computer Sciences (2025)
Julia Rothenberg, Social Sciences (2025)
Faustino Quintanilla, Art Gallery (2025)
Franca Ferrari-Bridgers, Communication, Theater & Media Production (2024), Chair
Aviva Geismar, Health, Physical Education & Dance (2024)
Jessica Prepetit, Nursing (2024)
Hsiaofang Huang, Business (2023)
Madeline Ruggiero, Library (2023), Secreatry
Huixin Wu, Engineering (2023)
Previous year liaisons, designees
Carlene Byfield, Nursing, Steering Committee Designee
Susan Agin, Executive and Artistic Director, President's Liaison
Laura Cohen, Executive Director KHC
Upcoming year committee membership, including year when each member’s term ends
Franca Ferrari-Bridgers, Communication, Theater & Media Production (2024)
Aviva Geismar, Health, Physical Education & Dance (2024)
Jessica Prepetit, Nursing (2024), Chair
David Phram, Mathematics & Computer Sciences (2025), Secretary
Julia Rothenberg, Social Sciences (2025)
Clarence, Hall Jr, History (2026)
John, Talbird, English (2026)
Guozhen, An, Engineering Technology (2026)
Previous year committee officers
Franca Ferrari-Bridgers, Communication, Theater & Media Production (2024), Chair
Madeline Ruggiero, Library (2023), Secreatry
Upcoming year committee officers
Jessica Prepetit, Nursing (2024), Chair
David Phram, Mathematics & Computer Sciences (2025), Secretary
Committee Meeting Dates and times
- October 14, 2022
- November 30, 2022
- February 22, 2023
- May 5, 2023
List of Bylaws charges and notation of “completed” or “not completed” with reasoning for incomplete items
- Complete: the committee meetings remain open to all; we posted our meeting times well in advance of the meetings.
- Report to Academic Senate concerning activities, acquisitions, and facility updates at the QCC Art Gallery, Queensborough Performing Arts Center (QPAC), and Kupferberg Holocaust Center.
- Complete: the committee officers attended all meetings held by the steering committee and will file this report detailing the above.
- Complete: Faculty on the committee promoted events and colleague projects within their own departments and with their networks. Essential to this was hearing from our cultural center directors at each meeting about their upcoming events.
- On November 30, 2022, the committee organized an online brown bag event: 'How to boost creativity in the classroom using Queensborough's cultural resources". The event aimed to promote faculty collaborations with the cultural centers. Approximately 20 faculty and staff members attended the meeting.
- Complete: The committee focused on organizing the committee website to promote faculty projects on the 'teaching resources' page.
- The committee created and posted an 'addendum' page and updated the 'teaching resources' page.
List of Steering Committee charges and notation of “completed” or “not completed” with reasoning for incomplete items
- Complete: This report will detail all donations to the cultural centers.
- Not Completed: faculty projects have already been highlighted and documented by the cultural centers, and we as a committee felt that linking to main pages on the cultural center websites where this is stored would be a more efficient use of our committee website.
- Completed: We updated the 'teaching resources' page adding videos and documents of faculty collaborations with the three cultural centers.
- The guidebook was updated in 2020, so there was no need to revisit the guidebook this year.
- Completed: This section of the report is our assessment.
Committee recommendations for upcoming year
The committee is encouraged to continue the work of updating the website and keeping all information current. There is still work to do in converting the PDFs of minutes, agendas and annual reports to the new webpage format.
In our last meeting of the Spring 2023 semester, the committee discussed the idea of holding a second event where faculty and the cultural center directors could present their collaborative projects to integrate the work of our cultural centers in the coursework. The event will also focus on promoting to QCC Administration, Senate and faculty the recognition of the cultural values, the economic patrimony, and academic functions of the three cultural centers on campus. The event will take place in Fall 2023 and it will be held at the Art Gallery.
Cultural Centers Year End Reports
QPAC
CCAR Yearly Report – QPAC FY23
The goal this season was to open QPAC after a more than 4-year hiatus; for student exploration, revenue generating activity and community engagement. Despite delays in acquiring the materials to complete the re-opening project, a soft opening ensued on April 15, 2023, to best serve QPAC’s demographics and to fulfill the college’s obligations to its students. Prior to the opening, a number of special events had to be postponed or cancelled because of contractors failing to miss the deadline.
The performing arts center opened to a nearly sold-out audience, for the musical group The Bronx Wanderers. The new accommodations including a wheelchair accessible theater entry, auditorium seating, and restrooms, a new lobby, including a new ticket booth and refreshment area, and auditorium renovations to replace acoustical finishes, and a new elevator were met with great enthusiasm by long-standing customers, and those with disabilities. QPAC introduced customizable subscription options, with a focus on choice and flexibility over traditional ticketing, “premium seating,” and discounts that matched the allure and energy of the new facility. With show offerings that reflected the diversity of the borough, the integration of all cultures was noticeable. The re-opening of the theater also allowed for the music, dance, theatre, business and nursing departments to utilize the facility for workshops, performances, service-learning activities and graduation. Important to note, is that over 10,000 elementary to high school students returned for cultural programming at QPAC. The center was celebrated in the Timesledger Newspaper (https://qns.com/2023/04/queensborough-performing-arts-center-renovated-theater/) and notables including Councilmember Gennaro, Speaker Adams and District Attorney Melinda Katz all made in-person appearances, to welcome audiences back to Queensborough. Events scheduled following the theater’s re-opening included:
Saturday, April 15, 2023
The Bronx Wanderers
Vinny Adinolfi had already enjoyed plenty of success as a gold-record Producer, when he put together a band featuring himself and his two immensely talented sons. Almost a decade later, THE BRONX WANDERERS have turned into a cult sensation! The group’s ability to recapture the sounds of the hits from the 50’s through today, have made them fan favorites! Having just completed a Las Vegas residency, where their show was rated in the top 5, they are celebrating being inducted into the East Coast Music Hall of Fame.
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Neil Berg’s Peace, Love & Rock N’ Roll
Relive the greatest decade of rock and roll – the 60’s! The counterculture movement of the 1960’s became synonymous with the most iconic music of all time. This powerhouse concert event includes the songs and stories of many of the iconic artists of the era. The “Woodstock Era” defined a generation of music, in a world that was rapidly changing. Under the direction of Producer, Arranger, Neil Berg, get ready for two hours of peace, love and rock n’ roll!
Sunday, April 23, 2023
Peabo Bryson Live!
For nearly three decades, Peabo Bryson has been the undisputed master of the romantic ballad. Now, for the first time, a career-spanning concert of his favorite hit songs comes to QPAC. A two-time Grammy Award winner, and with twenty albums to his credit, Peabo Bryson has enjoyed unprecedented international success. Bryson has the distinction of being the first artist in music history to have different albums top four unrelated music charts.
Saturday, April 29, 2023
Bee Gees Gold
Backed by a live band, the Bee Gees Gold Tribute recreates the look and sound of the Bee Gees from the 60's to the late 70's, with their unique falsettos and the songs that made them legends. The Bee Gees Gold Tribute is the ultimate salute and opportunity to experience the Bee Gees in their prime once again.
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Kol Esperanza
The Israeli based vocal group is back by popular demand! Having made their New York debut at QPAC, and subsequently touring Israel, Germany and Central America, the group promises an electrifying concert, performing American standards, Jewish classics, Israeli favorites and Broadway showstoppers! Five classically trained world-class vocalists, backed by a live band, sing it all! A unique, new concert experience, where Classical and Pop music blend. More than just a concert, Kol Esperanza is an international phenomenon.
Friday, May 5, 2023
Tito Puente, Jr.
If his father, Tito Puente, was the Rey del Timbale (King of Timbale), then surely we have the prince in our midst. Rather than shy away from his father’s profound impact on Latin music, his son embraces the legacy and works to keep it alive. The heartfelt mission is fueled by passion. “There was magic in the music my father made. It made people happy all over the world.” His reverent and energetic 2004 album In My Father’s Shoes, is a loving tribute to the songs his father played around the world.
Saturday, May 6, 2023
The Commodores
Legends and icons for over 50 years! 70 million albums sold, 7 #1 hits, Pop and Motown legends live at QPAC! One of the greatest Motown and R&B/Funk artists of all time, The Commodores’ Walter “Clyde” Orange, James Dean “JD” Nicholas, and William “WAK” King have influenced artists both young and old and in all genres with their classic songs. The Commodores brand is bigger than ever as they continue to blaze trails all over the world.
Sunday, May 14, 2023
Teatro Lirico D'Europa: Madama Butterfly
The most performed opera in the United States, Madama Butterfly is one of opera’s most enduring tales of unrequited love. Audiences never seem to get tired of her, and opera companies could not survive without her. The entire opera is set from the point of view of the title character, Cio Cio San, who falls in love with American naval officer Pinkerton. Enduring both shame and sorrow, she decides to take destiny into her own hands--leading to one of the most devastating and legendary final scenes in all of opera. The drama, accompanied by Puccini’s emotionally charged musical score, portrays the dangers of misguided love, and a brave pursuit of a better life. Fully staged production with orchestra.
Sunday, August 18, 2023
The Modern Gentlemen
These four gentlemen have been the voices appearing alongside the legendary Frankie Valli for the last decade. Hand-picked to tour the world with the rock and roll legend. Not since the sounds of the Four Seasons or the Bee Gees has there been a group with this much vocal chemistry. On stage together, they bring their charm, high energy and spot-on vocals, performing classic pop, rock and doo wop songs for a modern audience.
The traditional season was followed by QPAC’s Free Summer Concert Series - eleven free and fun outdoor concerts for the entire family. Local and national acts performed music in genres including Disco, Rock, Motown, 50’s, 60’s 80’s and even a special tribute to the King of Rock and Roll – Elvis. Concerts took place throughout Queens including Belle Harbor, Bayside, Fresh Meadows, Middle Village and Howard Beach.
With new offerings that build on QPAC’s brand, we believe that we can effectively increase Queensborough’s visibility, and increase revenue through facility rentals, with the potential to bring to the campus upwards of 160,000 individuals annually.
QPAC helps to expand Queensborough’s brand in a positive way. It allows for education outside of the classroom and provides a valuable resource for additional revenue for the college.
QCC Art Gallery
Installations
September 10 – November 10, 2022
September 11, 2001: The Day That Changed the World
In collaboration with Student Activities, the educational exhibition recounts the events of September 11, 2001, through the personal stories of those who witnessed and survived the attacks. Told across 14 posters, this exhibition included archival photographs and images of artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s permanent collection.
November 17, 2022 - March 31, 2023
The Art of the Yaka and Suku: Dr. Arthur P. Bourgeois Memorial
The Yaka and Suku of the southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Angola inhabit a vast area between the Kwilu and Kwango Rivers. Some 300,000 Yaka and 80,000 Suku sparsely populate this vast region with an average of from ten to twenty inhabitants per square mile. This is a high sandy plateau of rolling savanna punctuated by an occasional barren steppe. The Yaka and Suku peoples, though ethnically distinct in some ways, share virtually all of the same types of traditional leadership, initiation, religious practice and social institutions and can be studied as parts of a single cultural whole.
November 17, 2022 - March 30, 2023
Purple Sins by Eleanor M. Imperato
The Purple Sins exhibition features 20 photographs by Eleanor M. Imperato, a writer, poet and photographer. Imperato has imbued these images with a poetic sensibility to evoke emotions and feelings. Whether they portray a house in a landscape of grass, sea and sky, the fecundity of ripe pomegranates, or an iron gate flanked by cypresses, we, the viewers relish the beauty of natural as well as manmade creations.
April 2023- June 2023
NYC Art Bridge: Wellness through Art
QCC Art Gallery in collaboration with the Taiwanese American Arts Council present both a CHATogether workshop & seminar that coincide with an art exhibition entitled NYC Art Bridge,
April 19, 2023 - May 19, 2023
Juried Student Exhibition 2023, Department of Art & Design
The Department of Art and Design is pleased to present the annual juried student exhibition; our face to the college, emerging from the studio all freshly scrubbed.
Compiled by Dr. Franca Ferrari-Bridgers. Dr. Quintanilla report of the Art Gallery was not received when this report was submitted.
KHC
Yearly Report – KHC FY23
KHC ORIGINAL EXHIBITION
The Concentration Camps: Inside the Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide
On View and Online
https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/camps/
This year, the KHC will be offering self-guided audio tours of its original exhibition which surveys the scope and brutality of the Nazi system of incarceration and genocide, underscoring the horrific consequences of antisemitism, racism, and authoritarianism. In addition to the exhibit’s text, images, and artifacts, personal testimonies from local Holocaust survivors offer painful insights into these excruciating landscapes of degradation and dehumanization. This exhibit is curated by Dr. Cary Lane, KHC 2020-21 Curator-in-Residence and Associate Professor of English at QCC.
2022-2023 KHC-NEH COLLOQUIUM
Trauma, Remembrance and Compassion
https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/neh-programs/
What is trauma? What does it mean to remember? What is compassion? This year’s colloquium explores trauma, both historically and in our contemporary culture, and how remembrance and compassion both have and continue to offer meaningful responses to atrocities. If genocide and incarceration are crimes and practices that silence people and remove their humanity from them, then remembering is an act of restoration. In preserving the stories of those who have been dehumanized, we honor their suffering and affirm their humanity. In this colloquium, we explore remembrance as a social action that speaks back to the destructiveness and dehumanization of trauma. We also explore how to meaningfully engage with trauma, to hold space for and learn from past traumas. Finally, we seek to identify ways to respond to trauma through compassion, to consider how in the face of traumas, we can choose to act deliberately to alleviate suffering. Organized in dialogue with contemporary issues, the series is aligned with the current KHC exhibit, The Concentration Camps: Inside the Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide.
2022-23 Faculty Fellows
Dr. Angela Ridinger-Dotterman, Associate Professor of English
Dr. Ilse Schrynemakers, Associate Professor of English
Dr. Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson, Associate Professor of Communication, Theatre, and Media Production
John Yi, Lecturer of English
FALL 2023 EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS SUMMARY
The KHC began welcoming QCC classes again for in-person tours of the new Camps exhibit this semester. These tours were for 11 classes, in 3 academic departments, impacting 176 students.
As part of the KHC/NEH 2022-23 Colloquium and in partnership with CETL, the KHC hosted two Professional Development workshops for QCC faculty and educators in our community impacting 47 educators.
In addition, the KHC hosted tours for academic and administrative departments at QCC, as well as for community members, donors, CUNY divisions, and Holocaust/education-related groups. There were 19 such tours impacting 199 people. This included NYC Council Member Krishnan, Law Student Interns from the Queens District Attorney’s Office-Hate Crimes Division, and a representative from the Office of Governor Hochul.
FALL 2022 PROGRAMMING SUMMARY
- During the Fall 2022 academic semester, the KHC presented 14 public programs including lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and special commemorative events.
- There were 3 thematic program initiatives this semester, the QCC Welcome Read series, the Human Rights and the Museum series, and the KHC/NEH 2022-23 Colloquium – Trauma, Remembrance and Compassion.
- The Center was honored to have partnerships with 15 organizations and groups. Some of whom focus on the Holocaust and other human rights issues, including: Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Academy at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; the Center for the Study of Genocide & Human Rights at Rutgers University; the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College; and the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center.
- There were 4 QCC partnerships including the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), the Welcome Read Committee, and department of Art and Design, and the Creative Writing Club.
- Public programs ranged from our Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration with keynote speaker Ruth Mandel, whose presentation was entitled - “Stones of Memory” (167 registrants), to a discussion about reinterpretation of symbols of cultural imperialism in “Decolonizing Design and Cultural Symbols” with Curator Darienne Turner The Baltimore Museum of Art, to “The Digitization of Genocide Memory: Consequences and Contestation” with Dr. David Simon from Yale University (94 registrants).
- The KHC had 900+ attendees participate in our virtual programs during the Fall semester.
- Recordings of the KHC’s fall programs were shared to the QCC YouTube channel and currently have 2,333+ views (as of 5/24/23)
SPRING 2023 EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS SUMMARY
The KHC continued to welcome QCC classes for in-person tours of the new Camps exhibit this semester. These tours were for 14 classes, in 3 academic departments, impacting 253 students.
As part of the KHC/NEH 2022-23 Colloquium and in partnership with CETL, the KHC hosted two Professional Development workshops for QCC faculty and educators in our community impacting 47 educators.
In addition, the KHC hosted tours for academic and administrative departments at QCC, as well as for community members, donors, CUNY divisions, and Holocaust/education-related groups. There were 19 such tours impacting 256 people. This included hosting six sessions of the QCC Global Leadership Program, tours for the CUNY Executive Vice Chancellor, and representatives from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the United Nations.
SPRING 2023 PROGRAMMING SUMMARY
- During the Spring 2023 academic semester, the KHC presented 15 public programs including lectures, panel discussions, performances, and special commemorative events.
- There were 2 thematic program initiatives this semester, the Human Rights and the Museum series and the KHC/NEH 2022-23 Colloquium – Trauma, Remembrance and Compassion.
- The Center was honored to have partnerships with 10 outside institutions who focus on the Holocaust and other human rights issues, including: the Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Academy at the University of Nebraska at Omaha; the Center for the Study of Genocide & Human Rights at Rutgers University; the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College; and the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center.
- There were 8 QCC partnerships including the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), the Welcome Read Committee, QPAC, the Asian American Faculty and Staff Association, the Asian Heritage Month Committee, and the departments of Art & Design, Theater, and Music. As well as 3 CUNY partnerships including the Museum MA Program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies, The Department of Jewish Studies at Queens College, and the Asian American/Asian Research Institute.
- Public programs ranged from our International Holocaust Remembrance Day Virtual Commemoration with keynote speaker S. Department of State Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain whose presentation was entitled: “The Ongoing Legacy and Impact of the Holocaust in U.S. Foreign Policy.” The event had 398 registrants was co-sponsored by 9 Holocaust Institutions in the greater NYC area, to a new partnership with the Museum of the Moving Image and 3 Generations for a special film screening of the German Concentration Camps Factual Survey.
- The KHC had 1,225+ attendees participate in our public programs during the Spring semester
- Recordings of the KHC’s spring programs were shared to the QCC YouTube channel and currently have 1141+ views (as of 5/24/23)
To view KHC public programs that took place during the 2022- 2023 academic year,
please visit: https://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/recordings/
