Clara Ogbaa, GCC Library and Learning Commons director, Susan Chenard, associate professor of English and Gateway's ESL program coordinator, and Renee Gaines, an English instructor in the GCC Humanities Department, are collaborating with Jessica Sack from Yale University's newly-established Nolan Art Center as part of the Muslim Journeys Bridging Cultures National Endowment for the Humanities Bookshelf grant. 

Yale University's Nolan Art Center at the Yale Art Gallery is hosting six interactive educational events next fall for students and members of the Greater New Haven community as well as members of Yale University's Program for International Educational Resources (PIER) program at the MacMillan Center.

PhD's from Yale University Art History Department will lead the sessions of up to 45 students at a time in three separate groups through the Art of Islam exhibit and related exhibits in the African, Indo-Pacific, and Asian collections. 

The events are part of an exciting collaboration between Gateway, the Nolan Art Center, the Yale Art Gallery, and Yale’s PIER program at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. The goals of the Muslim Journeys Bridging Cultures Bookshelf program are to help people broaden their understanding of the Muslim community and to encourage lifelong learning. 

Recently, Ogbaa, Chenard and Gaines participated in “The Masterpieces of Islamic Art” at the Yale Art Gallery and a gallery talk by Kishwar Rizvi, Yale University associate professor of the History of Art. 

Chenard said they learned about some of the masterpieces in the exhibit, about how other works of art in the Yale Art Gallery can be cross referenced and how the art and the art histories overlap across many regions of the world including Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and the Indo-Pacific. 

“My hope is that by providing opportunities for Gateway students, their families and their friends to attend these sessions at the Yale Art Gallery, they will broaden their outlook and insight into how various cultures share overlapping histories, literary traditions, faiths, points of view, and personal journeys," Chenard said. 

See related story, Gateway Community College Awarded ‘Muslim Journeys Bookshelf’ by National Endowment for Humanities.