We are thrilled to announce that the Reproductive Justice Garden and Waiting Room, which includes herbs that have been used over thousands of years for fertility, contraception and abortion, is now hosted by SUNY Purchase. The project is part of the exhibition, As Of Right, curated by Eleanor King and Rachel Owens, hosted by the Richard and Dolly Maass Gallery located on campus. Begun in 2016, this project has taken some time to realize due the conflicts surrounding reproductive justice in the US over the past three years. Why is abortion such a controversial topic, with two sides so completely at odds with one another? The power to end a pregnancy is so profound, that it has divided our society into two camps. In one sense, abortion is about who gets to decide if, when, how, and why a woman can terminate her pregnancy. It also goes to the heart of the basic beliefs and founding principles of a society. What is life? How does it begin? How do we deal with the power that women have to birth or not birth? Reproductive Justice Garden and Waiting Room is a learning and art project that demystifies the historical, biological, and ethical stories surrounding abortion. This project is full of objects and resources to help navigate the politically, spiritually, and socially complex terrain surrounding reproductive health. Enacted through gardens, informational kits, and a reimagined abortion clinic waiting room, Reproductive Justice Garden & Waiting Room draws on the deep and complex histories of women’s health. Our goal is to support all people in exercising the right to reproductive autonomy and self-determination. We hope you will have a chance to visit the Reproductive Justice Garden and Waiting Room (the garden is ongoing while the Waiting Room will only be on view until November 20th). There will be several events related to the installations that will be announced soon.

Maureen Connor is a NY based artist and educator. Since 1999 her work has been structured as a series of collaborative investigations where human relationships and social interactions constitute a central focus. She is internationally recognized for her feminist work from the eighties and nineties which has been included in numerous publications and exhibited at such venues as at Austrian Cultural Forum, NY; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Momenta Art, Brooklyn; Museum of Modern Art, New York; MAK, Vienna; ZKM, Karlesrue; Periferic 8 Biennial, Iasi, Romania; Porticus, Frankfurt; ICA, Philadelphia; Hammer, Los Angeles; and the Whitney Biennial, among others. She has received grants from the Guggenheim, the NEA, NYFA and Anonymous Was a Woman, among others. Teaching at Queens College, CUNY since 1990, she co-founded the Social Practice Queens program in 2010 and is now Emerita Professor. Her current collective project, How to Perform an Abortion, which includes creating gardens that grow herbs traditionally used for abortion and contraception, is an ongoing pedagogy and art installation in progress at SUNY Purchase. http://www.maureenconnor.net/

Eugenia Manwelyan is a New York based director / choreographer, educator, and urban planner. She is the co-founder of Eco Practicum desk-free school for arts and ecology, member of Best Praxis art collective, and a founding faculty of School of Apocalypse. She is currently working with the Sullivan County Land Bank to leverage the arts and housing toward regional economic development in the Catskills. Her work is rooted in radical self-determination, social choreography, and the connections between creative practice and survival. As a visiting faculty at Columbia University, Eugenia has worked on environmental planning and arts projects in the New York bioregion as well as India, Vietnam, and Jordan. Eugenia spearheaded a youth theater and peace-building project in Israel and Palestine that is now in its tenth year. She holds a BA in International Development from McGill University and her MS in Urban Planning from Columbia University.
www.emanwelyan.com

Landon Newton is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Currently, her research-driven practice explores the history of herbal medicine, specifically the use of plants and herbs for birth control and abortion. She has participated in the EcoFutures, Deep Trash and Queer-feminist Ecocriticism in Live Art & Visual Cultures at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, London, UK; Open Engagement, SUSTAINABILITY, Featured Project: The Abortion Herb Garden, Queens Museum, Queens, NY; The Feminist Opposition, Hera Gallery, South Kingston, RI; Tiny Acts Topple Empires, Woskob Family Gallery, State College, PA; and the Boston Young Contemporaries, Stone Gallery, Boston, MA. IN 2018 she was a visiting artist fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and has held residencies at the Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA and Elsewhere Studios, Paonia, CO. She has a BA from Smith College and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.