Course Collaborations

For each exhibition, Instructors have the opportunity to bring their classes to artist talks, workshops, and panel discussions hosted by the Gallery, as well as specialized tours and class assignments. Our exhibitions cover a wide range of topics that are relevant to many departments across Stony Brook campus, including art, art history, history, global studies, women and gender studies, Hispanic languages and literature, Africana studies, sustainability, and much more. We are happy to provide additional information about artwork and artists on view for those interested in incorporating our exhibitions into their curriculum.

To arrange a class visit or to collaborate with the Zuccaire Gallery on an assignment, please email ZuccaireGallery@stonybrook.edu

Testimonials & Past Collaborations

Course:  English

When I first asked students to explore the Zuccaire Gallery’s exhibition Race, Love and Labor and make connections with what they were learning in the classroom I never imagined the transformative effect it would have. Each student discovered very personal ways in which the artworks spoke to them and ignited their curiosity. The excitement generated by the gallery experience energized everything the students were learning and inspired insights that were deeply meaningful to each student. It was one of the most exciting and pleasurable teaching experiences I have had during twenty years at Stony Brook.

Here are just a few comments from the students themselves:

“Although I have taken several literary courses on these subjects, the visual gave me an entirely new understanding….Although I did have to put in extra work, I was excited to do so.”

“I highly recommend this awesome learning experience to anyone….Rather than thinking about this as a graded project, I actually enjoyed researching about the images and had fun in the process.”

“Looking back at the overall experience, what I learned and the fun I had, I would do it all again without any incentive….I hope other students can have the opportunity to experience this as well.”
 
-Susan Scheckel, Associate Professor of English

 

Course: Global Art History 

Ten students in my Global Art History course opted to design and facilitate 15-minute tours at the Zuccaire Gallery as “Student Ambassadors”. The results exceeded my expectation, because Karen helped me prepare the students for the challenging task. Karen ran one tutorial session for these “student ambassadors” and gave them two exemplary tours—one on The View from Here on contemporary Senegalese art and another Artists as Innovators on New York-based artists. The Gallery was flexible in accommodating the students’ needs, allowing students to come to the gallery an hour before the official opening hours in order to spend more time with the art works, and helping them publicize their tours on the gallery website. 

Art history cannot be taught only through looking at slides in the classroom. Close looking of art works is essential. Experience at an art gallery—giving tours or assisting with installation—is crucial. The community of the faculty, students, artists, and visiting curators fostered by the Zuccaire Gallery is a key component to the arts education at Stony Brook University. 

I have also learned so many of my top-class art history students are benefiting from interning with the Zuccaire Gallery and they cherish their learning experience. Some of the most successful alums of the art history program begin their first professional experience at the Zuccaire Gallery. The Zuccaire Gallery under Karen’s directorship has a life-long impact on our students. 

-Sohl Lee, Assistant Professor in Modern and Contemporary East Asian Art, Art History and Criticism / Department of Art

 

Teacher and Leader Education Program

Our on campus field trip was an unexpected treat and trigger for deeper conversations sparked by the Zuccaire Gallery exhibit which presented different artists’ perspectives on life, love, and labor. The images fueled our imagination and curiosity in ways our texts don’t normally address.

 -Lauren Kaushansky, Lecturer, Teacher and Leader Education Program Department of History 

 

Course: Dance Improvisation

Our focus, while in the gallery, was to understand what the term "to behold" means in the process of improvisation practice in dance and creative process. While at the gallery, students were given the prompt to examine the various art works on view in order to understand how visual images and video can be examined as a means for collaboration or as a catalyst for movement improvisation. 

The prompts were simple: What do you see? Look at the art for 10 minutes. Then respond to the art with a conversation through movement and dance. This was a new step for the dancers; and many of them struggled at first, but they quickly found this new playground of imaginations and found their way into a collaboration with the art. They were so delighted with the results, and they took turns watching one another. 

The experience with the Zuccaire Gallery offered us a very clear task to discover what this means. ...in fact, it set the stage from the beginning of class and informed the students for the rest of the semester, as they developed their creative practice. Because students had the opportunity to understand what it means to watch intently, they began a new territory in their creative practice. Thank you, Staller Center, the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery and director Karen Levitov. What a gift to our students and to the process of education in the arts. 

- Amy Yopp Sullivan, Associate Professor in Theatre, Founder and Creator of the Center for Dance, Movement and Somatic Learning 

 

Student Testimonies

“I am excited that we went [to the Zuccaire Gallery] because it was an enriching experience that I would have never chosen to go to by myself. I learned about different ways that art has the power to speak to and inspire people. I had originally never thought that art that does not give an explicit picture can connote a lot of meaning or significance to others, but after visiting the gallery and listening to people talk and teach about the exhibits, I realize that the beauty of art comes from one’s ability to interpret complex ideas for oneself. I now view art as an idea with endless possibilities. You can create art from essentially anything and make use of it in different ways… I am grateful to have been taken to the Gallery because it was an enlightening and awakening experience that I would have skipped over and never considered attending if I wasn’t brought there by others.”

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“I had no idea there was anything like this on campus, so when I found out there's an art gallery just dedicated to exhibition I was fairly stunned(In a good way!). Stony Brook is such a STEM focused school, it's easy to forget that there are still plenty going in the Arts and Humanities here. Touring the gallery: Connecting the drops of water, felt like a very therapeutic and meditative break from my usual fast paced life and I will definitely visit again before the end of the month to enjoy the water sounds and displays. In the midst of Midterm season the sound of the water elegantly flowing throughout the CO2 exhibit was just what I needed to help me calm down and relax…I never imagined I would be one to visit art galleries but this trip has now made me interested in visiting art galleries in the future and even got me interested in making my own art. Therefore this exhibition has truly impacted me and expanded my horizons for a newfound appreciation of both art and nature!”

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“I attended the event in the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery. I attended this event with my SBU 101 classmates. I see this particular event fitting into my academic journey by persuading me to understand the true meaning behind art. It is compelling how one piece of artwork can have different interpretations. In addition, one of the undergraduate students that presented an artwork wasn’t an art history major, which encouraged me to attempt to leave my comfort zone and try new things. I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge whether it be of water or the world in general.”

 

 

 

 

To learn more about how you can incorporated the gallery's exhibitions into your curriculum, email  ZuccaireGallery@stonybrook.edu