September 30, 2021
Providence College professor has photo exhibit at Providence Public Library
Eric Sung, associate professor of art and art history, is exhibiting his photography at the Providence Public Library in downtown Providence. The exhibit, Documenting Place as Witness, is part of a larger project that focuses on stories of isolation, healing, and solidarity in Providence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sung, along with his colleagues Dr. Tuba Agartan, professor of health policy and management, and Dr. Nicholas Longo, professor of global studies, created the project by interviewing leaders of the Providence Public Library as part of a Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research Award from PC’s School of Arts and Sciences. The interviews led to the project, which highlights isolation from the pandemic, but also the potential for creative responses that bring people together.
“This project serves as a reminder of the promise of libraries as spaces for social solidarity and civic connection as well as what can be lost as a result of libraries being closed,” said Christina Bevilacqua, programs and exhibitions director at the library.
“Libraries are places where you go when you have curiosity about something. You have an interest in something. You have a need for something more. To be a space of inquiry, that is where we start: cultivating the practice of inquiry, with inquiry being on some level a state of anxiety and uncertainty and unknowing. And so the pandemic is like a space where we’re all in a space of inquiry — whether we like it or not. Inquiry and discovery, that’s where we’re always moving towards.”
In addition to being a professor of art and art history, Sung is the founding director of PC’s minor in business and innovation. After receiving a master of fine arts degree from Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University, he became a visionary artist, a publicly engaged scholar, and an award-winning teacher. He was recognized in 2016-17 with PC’s inaugural Innovation in Teaching Award and again in 2017-18 with the college’s top teaching honor, the Joseph R. Accinno Teaching Award. He is the only faculty member to win both awards.
The exhibition is supported by a grant for PVD Fest from the Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism. Sung’s photographs are on view in the Empire Street entrance atrium.
more about the sung exhibit
