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Victoria

By Heidi Sutton

They say two heads are better than one. How about two really BIG heads? 

Two sculptures by artist Philip Grausman were unveiled on the grounds of the Long Island Museum (LIM) in Stony Brook last week. Grausman’s “Eileen,” 1993-1996, fiberglass, 10 feet high by 7.5 feet wide by 9 feet deep; and “Victoria,” 1999-2000, fiberglass, 14 feet high by 6.5 feet wide by 7.5 feet deep, will call the LIM home for a two year loan.

“The museum is thrilled to be able to bring fresh new art to our grounds, something for our visitors to enjoy and also something new to take in by the thousands of people who drive by our campus daily on Route 25A. Philip Grausman was prioritized as a great American figurative sculptor that we have wanted to work with for years, so we are so pleased to make this dream a reality. Budco Enterprises, Inc., from Hauppauge, donated their expertise and talent and did an amazing job installing these pieces,” said Long Island Museum’s Deputy Director Joshua Ruff.

‘Eileen’ by Philip Grausman will be on view at the Long Island Museum through July 2024. Photo by Heidi Sutton

Grausman’s earliest sculptures represented germinating buds and seeds, and this eventually led him to explore the underlying structure and form of the human head. A student of José Mariano de Creeft, a renowned sculptor of female heads and figurative forms, he trained at the Art Students League of New York and received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.

Grausman has participated in over 80 solo and group exhibitions at prestigious venues throughout the world and his work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT.

His artist statement reads, “Since the early 1980’s, I have completed a number of monumentally scaled sculptures inspired from portrait heads originally modeled from life. These large-scaled heads are not portraits in a conventional sense. Rather, I view them as landscapes, an association expressed through a shared sense of scale. Fiberglass allows me to create and exhibit on a large scale. The whiteness of the forms appeals to me and suggests a drawing experience where the white page is transformed by line and contour. Creating each portrait sculpture is like sight-reading an unfamiliar musical score. It is the hidden geometry and interlocking volumes that inspire me.”

You can visit these impressive sculptures and others on the museum’s sprawling 9-acre campus at 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook Thursdays through Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www. longislandmuseum.org. 

Education advocates march into the office of state Sen. John Flanagan on Thursday calling for the passage of the New York State Dream Act. Photo by Phil Corso

The Smithtown office of state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport) had a line going out the door last week as advocates called on him and his fellow lawmakers to pass the New York State Dream Act before legislative session ended.

Dream Act advocates congregate outside Sen. John Flanagan's office Thursday in prayer. Photo by Phil Corso
Dream Act advocates congregate outside Sen. John Flanagan’s office Thursday in prayer. Photo by Phil Corso

Various faith leaders from congregations across Long Island gathered in prayer outside Flanagan’s office on Thursday with hopes of nudging the recently appointed Senate majority leader to help pass the Dream Act before session ended June 17. The advocates held up signs in protest of the state’s sluggish pace in making the legislation a reality for the nearly 146,000 undocumented immigrants across New York who graduated from public high schools but are unable to access federally-funded financial aid for college.

The bill, which has passed in the Assembly in February by a vote of 87-45, would open up state aid for the students.

Peggy Fort, a retired teacher and social justice chair of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Stony Brook, stood in the crowd outside Flanagan’s office Thursday and said the state had to act before thousands of up-and-coming immigrant children are locked out of the higher education process.

“Allowing our New York State ‘dreamers’ who are full of courage, creativity and intellect to access funding for higher education is a way of ensuring the future of New York State,” she said. “It makes absolutely no sense to continue this policy of no action. But I think we will be able to turn that around.”

A June 2015 report from the Fiscal Policy Institute found there were 526,000 immigrants living on Long Island, making up 18 percent of the population and 20 percent of the economic output. Of those immigrants, almost 100,000 are undocumented — about half living in Suffolk County and half in Nassau.

Sister Rosalie Carven delivers petitions to state Sen. John Flanagan's Chief of Staff Ray Bernardo on Thursday. Photo by Phil Corso
Sister Rosalie Carven delivers petitions to state Sen. John Flanagan’s Chief of Staff Ray Bernardo on Thursday. Photo by Phil Corso

Victoria Daza, of workers advocacy group Long Island Jobs with Justice, said Flanagan was an ideal Long Island lawmaker to head up the Dream Act push, as his North Shore district encompasses educational hubs Stony Brook University and Suffolk County Community College. Daza said it was unacceptable that Flanagan has yet to publicly support the legislation in the four years since it was first introduced, leaving students to foot their full college bill with each passing year.

“The Dream Act cannot wait,” she said. “Education is a human right and these kids should not be excluded.”

Flanagan’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Soon after a short prayer vigil outside, the throng of advocates marched into Flanagan’s office along with more than 100 petition signatures. Sister Rosalie Carven, a social justice coordinator with the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood, walked into the office with conviction before handing over the paperwork and asking Flanagan Chief of Staff Ray Bernardo to deliver their message.

“It can’t stop here. Everyone here is an advocate for the passage of this,” she said. “The time is now. The job has to get done. It’s discriminatory to keep kids out of higher education.”