Hudson County Community College to Hold the Grand Opening of the Benjamin J. Dineen, III and Dennis C. Hull Gallery
September 10, 2015
September 10, 2015, Jersey City, NJ – Hudson County Community College (HCCC) Board of Trustees, President Glen Gabert, Ph.D., and the Board of Directors of the HCCC Foundation, are proud to announce the Grand Opening of the Benjamin J. Dineen, III and Dennis C. Hull Gallery. The formal, by-invitation, ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of the Gallery will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 13, 2015.
The Gallery, which is located on the top floor of the College’s Library Building at 71 Sip Avenue in Jersey City, will open to the public on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 with the presentation of the first exhibit, “Through the Collector’s Eye: The Dineen-Hull Collection.” The Benjamin J. Dineen, III and Dennis C. Hull Gallery will be open to HCCC students, faculty and staff – as well as the members of the community – Tuesday through Sunday from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. There will be no charge for admission.
“Through the Collector’s Eye: The Dineen-Hull Collection” will run through September 26, 2015. Included are selections from the 400-work collection of art generously donated to the College by Mr. Dineen and Mr. Hull. While the collection focuses on contemporary New Jersey artists, there are works by those who have achieved national and international renown included.
The second exhibit, “Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963,” explores the historical context, accomplishments, and limitations of these two pivotal events in American history through photographs, documents, and other images. The exhibit, which will run from October 14 through November 22, 2015, is presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Museum of American History, in collaboration with the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The event is made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The third event, “Pope Pius XII: Consensus or Controversy,” will run from December 8, 2015 through January 14, 2016. (The Gallery will be closed December 22, 2015 through January 3, 2016.) From 1939 through 1958, Pius XII shepherded the Roman Catholic Church through the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, and the challenges of rebuilding post-war Europe. Through images, artifacts and contemporary news accounts, the viewer will be able to explore the many facets of the Pope, who was admired by as many as those who were critical of him.
From January 31 through March 8, 2016, the Benjamin J. Dineen, III and Dennis C. Hull Gallery will feature “Contemporary Hudson County,” an exhibit presented by Hudson County Community College and curated by the Chair of the College’s Studio Art program. The exhibit of works by Hudson County artists highlights the County’s diversity and its status as a creative center.
The fifth exhibit, “After Stonewall: An Exhilarating Time in Black and White,” presented by the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, is being curated by Hunter O’Hanian. Drawing from the deep artistic archives of the Leslie-Lohman Museum, the exhibit probes the narrative from the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York in 1969 to the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s via black-and-white photos from the period. The exhibit will run in conjunction with LGBT History Month, from March 17 through Sunday, May 1, 2016.
The final exhibit for the Inaugural Season is “Unframed: An Exhibition of Visual Arts by HCCC Students, Faculty, and Alumni” that will run from May 8 through June 10, 2016. Presented by the HCCC Studio Art Program, the exhibit provides viewers with the opportunity to draw connections between the works that are diverse in concept and medium, and that are produced by artists at various stages of their careers.
“The College is extremely proud to present these offerings and express our deep appreciation to those organizations who are our collaborators,” said Dr. Gabert. “The Benjamin J. Dineen, III and Dennis C. Hull Gallery is dedicated to providing for the arts education not only of our students, but also for the education of all the children, men and women of Hudson County. We invite our neighbors in the County to visit and enjoy the exhibits we will present these next several months.”
Group tours may be arranged for the various exhibits by contacting John Marlin, Ph.D., Associate Dean of Humanities at (201) 360-4651 or jmarlinFREEHUDSONCOUNTYCOMMUNITYCOLLEGE.
About the Hudson County Community College
Benjamin J. Dineen, III and Dennis C. Hull Gallery
At its October 2013 meeting, the Hudson County Community College Board of Trustees affirmed resolutions to accept a historic gift of more than 400 works of art from the personal collection of Benjamin J. Dineen, III and Dennis C. Hull. The Board also voted to name the new gallery space in the College’s Library in honor of the couple.
The collection of works presented to the College includes contemporary art, largely works on paper, from major and emerging New Jersey and American artists. In addition to the art itself, the gift also included a significant amount of ephemera and provenance documentation affiliated with the works, as well as a number of reference books that will be utilized in the College’s Library. The gift helped make the HCCC Foundation Art Collection one of the finest of any college in the country.
Mr. Dineen, who was Director of Development for United Way of Hudson County and a board member of the Hudson County Community College Foundation Board, passed away in April of 2014. He and Mr. Hull, a retired teacher who now works at the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions at Rutgers, were life partners who enriched the lives of the people of Hudson County by dedicating their time, expertise and resources to several individuals and organizations. Over the years, they were also very generous contributors to the College’s Foundation and the Foundation Art Collection, providing gifts and donations.
The College is deeply grateful to Ben Dineen and Dennis Hull for their dedication and generosity.