CURATORS' STATEMENT

In this 1983 photograph taken at Curator Joan Harrison’s wedding to Michael E. Ach, (SVPA
alumni, #205); Frank Olt (alumni, SVPA faculty #86) converses with Ray Johnson while Joan
Harrison (alumni, SVPA faculty #17) talks with SVPA Dean Emeritus, Lynn Croton (#157).
The photograph was taken by Lorraine Darconte (SVPA Alumni #1), former classmate and
best friend of Curator, LuAnn Pagano Palazzo (SVPA Alumni #9).
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Ray Johnson was all about creative connection. Today, fifteen years after his death, the bonds of his creative legacy and the bonds of friendship here at C. W. Post are still strong and defined by a sense of shared creative history and purpose. The evidence is plain to see through this exhibition.

Many of the artists taking part in this exhibition knew Ray Johnson personally or were correspon-
dents of his, while others are alumni, faculty and students of the university. Even more are part of a creative global network who have been inspired by Ray’s work and moved by the universal theme to answer the call to communicate.

We would like to thank Matthew Rose, the father of the original ABAD Project in 2009, and all those at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University who helped make this exhibition possible. Our special thanks go to Dean Benjamin Moore of the School of Visual and Performing Arts, who, when approached with the idea said simply, “Do it!”

Most of all, we feel deeply grateful to our international roster of contributing artists for sharing their vision, their thoughts, their humor and their remembrances of loved ones lost. The outpouring of love and dedication to this project, and to this show in particular, has been quite literally overwhelming.

Art is a celebration of life lived to its fullest and to quote poet W. H Auden, “Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.”

Joan Harrison and LuAnn T. Palazzo
October 31, 2010