Photographs by Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano
September 9th to October 25th, 2024
Reception: Wednesday, September 18th from 6-8pm
Hybrid Gallery Talk (Zoom & in-person): September 18th, 7pm
Please visit www.spokeart.org to register to attend the Gallery Talk via online/Zoom
Gallery Hours by Appointment (Please email at least two days in advance- [email protected])
Spoke Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition by Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano entitled, Independence Day- A work on progress. Sylvia has been working as a commercial photographer, visual storyteller, and digital artist for 40 years. This is not the first time Spoke Gallery has had the honor to show her work. Sylvia was one of the exhibiting artists in Spoke Gallery’s 2013 02127/02210, an annual summer exhibition which also featured the work of Ibrahim Ali-Salaam, Nathan Fried-Lipski, Vanessa Irzyk, Jacob Kulin, Andrew Newman, Christine Vaillancourt and work by the late Bill Frew and Joyce McDaniel. The summer annuals ran from 2012 to 2019 when Spoke Gallery was located at its much larger K Street site. These exhibitions highlighted the breadth of talent South Boston is so lucky to have in its two zip codes. Sylvia still lives and works in South Boston’s zip code 02210.
For her 2024 Spoke Gallery solo exhibition, Sylvia is debuting a new moving and timely body of color photographs taken over a period of seven years. The images are of the diverse groups of people who attend the annual July 4th reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Old Massachusetts State House, the site of the first public reading in Boston on July 18th, 1776. Sylvia shares, “[At] The reading of the Declaration I attended in 2017 … I was profoundly moved at being part of an enormous, diverse crowd gathered in celebration at the corner of State and Congress Streets in downtown Boston. Looking at my photographs of the event over the years, the spectacle and exuberance are evident.”
Sylvia shares further, “This annual event is of special significance to me as I am a naturalized citizen born and raised to adulthood in Ecuador, during which time it was a military dictatorship. ..Although I have lived in the USA since 1975, it took me 22 years to make the decision to become a citizen. I had great affection for my native country and culture. However, I also appreciated the opportunities and freedoms of my “new” country and decided to become a full and active participant. I especially valued the right to vote, a privilege denied to me in my native land. At my naturalization ceremony in 1997, I was overcome with emotion, as were the hundreds of others of every ethnicity from all over the world. The [first] reading of the Declaration I attended in 2017 was equally emotional. I am acutely aware that many Americans, born in this country, often of immigrant parents, resent and fear more recent arrivals like myself. I would like to show these people my photographs[Independence Day- A work on progress]of white, brown, black and yellow human beings celebrating the principles upon which this country was founded, principles that have never been more relevant.. My ultimate goal is to use my talents as a visual storyteller to promote understanding among all people, and to reveal what I believe to be the simple truth – that immigrants are among our very best and most valuable Americans..”
Her photographs brilliantly call attention to the incredible diversity of the U.S. population, the importance of the right to vote, the power of democracy, and the upcoming November 4th U.S. presidential election. Sylvia’s exhibition also asks us to remember the role immigration (forced and chosen) and immigrants have played in the U.S. over the centuries and for us to also remember our own personal family histories- the majority of which include the immigration of relatives to the U.S.
“….. America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respected Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges…” -The first president of the U.S. and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence– George Washington