Ron Miyashiro's Work Featured in Sandy Relief Fund Art Show

A limited retrospective of internationally acclaimed artist Ron Miyashiro's work will be added to the 3rd Saturday Arts Sandy Relief Fund Art Show currently running at the Society. There will be an artist's reception on June 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Miyashiro's work as well as that of local artists will be on display and for sale. At least half the proceeds will go directly to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Miyashiro's work was featured in the Pacific Standard Time: 1945-1970 exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Martin Gropius-Bau Gallery in Berlin as well as the Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles: 1960-1980 exhibition at MOMA PSI NY and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and will be on display at the Williams College Museum of Art in Massachusetts from July 20 through December 1, 2013.

Miyashiro, a graduate of the former Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, came to prominence when his work was featured along with that of Larry Bell, Ed Bereal, and Joe Goode in the groundbreaking exhibition War Babies in 1961 at the Huysman Gallery in Los Angeles. The War Babies exhibition poster created controversy in segregated Los Angeles during the early 1960s because of the depiction of unity among the diverse group of artists, and their overt use of food stereotypes associated with their cultural identities. 

The Ethical Society of Essex County was formed in the 1950s when the group purchased the building on Prospect Street in Maplewood. The Victorian-style structure was originally utilized as a hospital in the early 1900s. It continues to be the current home of the Society, one of 26 Ethical Societies whose parent organization is The American Ethical Union. The Society serves as a religious humanist congregation in which members can build a community of friends, find inspiration and purpose, provide moral education for their children, celebrate the seasons and life events, and clarify their world views.

Established as the first Peace Site in the Country in 1982, the Maplewood-based Society continues to affirm its commitment to peace by actively espousing non-violent solutions to local and global crises. In addition to an active social action agenda, the building has housed various community service groups, including the National Organization of Women, the South Orange Maplewood Coalition on Race, Alcoholics Anonymous groups, Physicians for Social Responsibility and others. Ongoing programs include food and clothing bank collections, relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters, prison reform efforts, and immigration concerns.