By: Dana Fialkowski
Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning hosted a new edition of a visual voices art exhibition to prevent youth gun violence on Friday, October 26. This exhibit was curated by Wanda Best, who founded Art Transforms which is a nonprofit organization that uses art to educate, communicate and express social injustice and healing.
“This exhibition serves as an education about the dire need to strengthen gun control laws,” said Best. “It is a cry for help to stop the decadence that is taking over this society with youth killing youth. It is our hope that the exhibition moves someone to hear the screams of those who lost their lives to gun violence and stand up to be a part of the solution to stop this genocide.”
Her vision on this art exhibit is that it could sometimes change lives, save lives and inspire change.
Best curated many exhibits including the Social Justice exhibit from 2017-2020 and in 2023 she curated the Environmental Justice exhibit in the Queens Community House. Trickled Down Decadence is the fifth exhibition in Visual Voices, JCAL’s three-year initiative to support emerging, Queens-based BIIPOC curators. As part of their work, the cohort cultivates and elevates emerging BIIPOC artistic talent, designs open calls, produces artist talks, collaborates with local collectives, and runs arts workshops and demonstrations in connection with each exhibition, with a schedule set through year-end 2025.
With this powerful art exhibit that is giving a message to the community about the prevention of youth gun violence, this viewing will be going on until Saturday, December 14. Throughout this time for this program, this exhibit will include different events like an evening of live music, dance and poetry on Saturday, November 23 titled “Solace.”
If anyone in the community would like to come and see amazing artwork about youth gun control violence, the JCAL at 161-4 Jamaica Ave, Jamaica, NY will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 10a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Sundays and Mondays.
