Sugar Hill Children's Museum Of Art & Storytelling Presents Its Summer Exhibition PARADE

The Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling is proud to announce its summer exhibition PARADE: Derek Fordjour, an immersive multi-media installation on view July 27, 2017.

PARADE takes visitors on a journey through the sense-memory of childhood and the process of forging an identity, and harkens back to Fordjour's own curiosities, observations, and obsessions as a child artist growing up in Memphis, Tennessee. At once playful and poignant, disorienting and propulsive, PARADE encapsulates Fordjour's life in pursuit of art while engaging and inspiring adults and children alike. The exhibition is the culmination of Fordjour's yearlong artist residency at the Museum and was guest curated by No Longer Empty's Manon Slome, who coordinated the Sugar Hill Children's Museum's 2016-17 AIR selection process with the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.

The installation begins with a tunnel, supported by lighted archways and reminiscent of the marquees at an amusement park, which guides visitors into the exhibition space. The compositions on display represent a broad swath of Fordjour's artistic practice. There are new "works on paper," Fordjour's term for his signature and highly textured collages of newsprint, and a procession of vignettes, small sculptures, found objects, interventions, and music, which leads to a non-place entered by stooping through an opening in the back of a closet.

The works on view engage Fordjour's own past-the wheelchairs and copy machines he played with as a child while visiting his father at his medical practice, minor experiments with flotation and buoyancy, wheels and ball bearings-all the curiosity, repurposing, and exploration of childhood.

PARADE was developed during Fordjour's residency at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum, a program that provides visitors with an opportunity to engage with a working artist, thereby enhancing the perception of art and art-making as both approachable and personal, core values of the Museum's mission to support the cognitive and creative development of young children. Several elements of PARADE were created through interactions with, inter-generational museum visitors and children enrolled in the on-site preschool as well as other school partners.

ABOUT DEREK FORDJOUR
Derek Fordjour was born in Memphis, Tennessee to parents of Ghanaian heritage. His work has appeared in exhibitions at Roberts & Tilton Gallery in Los Angeles, Sotheby's S2 Gallery in New York and Luce Gallery in Turin, Italy. He is the recipient of the C12 Emerging Artist Award 2017 and has been awarded residencies at Sugar Hill Children's Museum 2016-2017 and the 2017-2018 Sharpe Walentas Studio Program in New York City. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta Georgia, earned a Master's Degree in Art Education from Harvard University and an MFA in painting at Hunter College. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post and Brooklyn Rail. His work appears in several collections throughout the US and Europe including JP Morgan Chase collection and Dallas Museum of Art.

ABOUT NO LONGER EMPTY
No Longer Empty (NLE) believes in the power of art to unlock creative potential and cultivate imaginative responses to the aspirations and priorities of local communities. NLE activates engagement with art and social issues through site-responsive and community-centered exhibitions integrated with educational and cultural programing. NLE generates interactions between artists, sites, neighborhoods, and local histories by combining research, cooperation, and civic participation as fundamental components of a responsive curatorial process. Sited in distinctly urban settings, our holistic approach creates participatory platforms for art and exchange that explore the layered histories and critical issues of each unique place. NLE collaborates with artists, curators, residents, and business owners as well as civic and cultural organizations to build and strengthen networks of creative resources for artists and communities.

ABOUT THE SUGAR HILL CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ART & STORYTELLING
The Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling is the cultural capstone of the Sugar Hill Project in Harlem, a mixed-use community revitalization initiative developed by Broadway Housing Communities, a nonprofit organization based in West Harlem and Washington Heights. The Museum offers year-round art exhibitions, storytelling series, art-making workshops and an early childhood arts education curriculum. Museum programs are designed to nurture the curiosity, creative spirit and cognitive development of three- to eight-year-old children, building the language, literacy and critical thinking skills that lead to lifelong learning.

The Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art & Storytelling is located at 898 St. Nicholas Avenue at 155th Street in New York City. Hours are Thursday through Sunday, 10am to 5pm. Admission prices vary. For more information on the Museum, please visit www.sugarhillmuseum.org.

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