The ArtRage Gallery, now in its 17th year, has a new exhibition schedule, a new staff member and a continuing commitment to showing incisive artworks to promote discussion of peace and social-justice issues.
ArtRage was founded in 2008 by Dik Cool, of the Syracuse Cultural Workers, and Rose Viviano, a stained-glass artist. As director, she worked on the gallery’s very first exhibit, “Combat Paper,” on the many tasks necessary for building a new cultural organization, and on a slew of other exhibitions. She retired this summer.
ArtRage’s staff now consists of Kimberley McCoy, a key employee for 15 years, and Ellis Clay who came on board on August 5. They serve as co-directors, sharing leadership roles and dividing up the workload.
They will hang “Najee Dorsey: Poor People’s Campaign,” an exhibit that opens on September 6 with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.
Dorsey’s vivid digital collages depict neighborhoods beset by industrial pollution, impacting residents with little income and political clout. The artist will speak on September 7, starting at 2 p.m.
Clay notes that this show and other upcoming exhibitions provide an opportunity to renew community ties and pursue new connections. He has experience working as a co-curator for the Pace University Gallery and in curation/community engagement for the Edinburgh Art Festival which reaches out to galleries and community spaces throughout the city of Edinburgh, Scotland.
ArtRage will also host “Reclaiming Our Cultural Inheritance: A Palestinian Diaspora Collection,“ a show looking at a collection of embroidered garments as cultural connectors. That exhibit opens on November 15.
The gallery has scheduled a February 7, 2026 opening for “Visions of Hope: Moving Images by Teens with a Movie Camera.” That exhibition focuses on an ongoing local project that forms a bridge between media artists from Syracuse University and teens from across the city of Syracuse. Various community partners, including the North Side Learning Center and several Syracuse high schools, collaborate on the project.
The artist collective’s hands-on workshops teach storytelling skills and provide a forum for young people’s voices.
Other upcoming shows include “A Rising Tide of Plastic in Art,” which features artworks exploring plastic pollution and opens on April 11, 2026, and “25 Million Stitches: One Stitch, One Refugee.” The latter exhibit premieres on June 6, 2026.
The five exhibitions scheduled for fall, 2025 and 2026 demonstrate ArtRage’s ability to keep on reinventing itself, to continue conceiving and executing shows that are visually and thematically interesting.
Over the years, ArtRage presented a range of exhibits: paintings by Jerome Witkin, a well-known figurative artist; a series of portraits by Robert Shetterly whose body of work honors Americans who stand up and tell the truth; “In The Center of The Crossroads: Standing in the Intersection Between Racism, Climate Change, and Memory,” a series of fiber artworks created by Vanessa Johnson.
In addition, “A Place to Call Home: Photographs by Michelle Gabel and Mike Greenlar” documented the current housing crisis in Syracuse with a portfolio depicting people who deal with housing insecurity. ArtRage partnered with Central Current on that show. Beyond that, “Deadlocked and Loaded: Disarming America,“ which explored gun violence in the United States, displayed work by multiple artists. Karen Gutfreud was guest curator for the exhibition.
ArtRage, located at 505 Hawley Ave., also acts as a gathering place for community members. Lectures, films and poetry readings have been presented in the gallery; so have plays and workshops on how to create art.
After 17 years, McCoy stresses that ArtRage still adheres to the same core mission, to an agenda connecting art and community.
“We want to continue being relevant to what’s happening in our world, to continue inspiring conversations about many topics,” she said.
Carl Mellor covered visual art for the Syracuse New Times from 1994 through 2019. He continues to write about artists and exhibitions in the Syracuse area.
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