About the Exhibit

“When There Were Birds: Process and  Being” an intimate gallery conversation with Millicent Young and Sara Lynn Henry.

Sara Lynn Henry is an Independent Curator and Emerita Professor of Contemporary Art and NEH Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Drew University.

When There Were Birds (part I) is the inaugural solo exhibition filling the first floor of the newly opened venue. Five of  Millicent Young’s sculptures occupy the fore gallery; her eponymous ‘When There Were Birds’ installation of suspended vine and hair structures occupies the aft performance space, rendering the light flooded hall into a sanctuary site. As forms, these  works are meditations on the ravages of war and other forms of vanishment yet they exist side by side with the Other for which there is no name, bringing  beauty as witness to the unthinkable.

About the Artist

Born 1958 in New York City, Millicent Young received her MFA from James Madison University and two Professional Fellowship Awards from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1999 and 2014.

Exhibiting widely, her work has been recognized by curators and directors from institutions including DIA, Hirshhorn, New Museum, Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Museum. Young’s work received a top award at the 2005 Biennale in Florence, Italy. Her most recent solo show, “Of This”, was at Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, New York. Millicent Young currently resides in the Hudson Valley.