Current Exhibits

Panoramic view across gallery of series of wooden sculptures
photo portrait of Bill and Jean Stephens

Continuum: Artwork by Bill and Jean Stephens

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For more than five decades, Bill and Jean Stephens have been partners in life and in Art. They met in the RIT Printmaking Studio in 1972, and both later earned their degrees in the RIT MST Arts Education Program. Their teaching skills were sharpened at the AllofUs Art Workshop, then under the leadership of Luvon Sheppard, Art Professor at RIT.

Bill taught at FLCC and in the Webster CSD, mentoring hundreds of successful future artists and arts educators, until retiring a few years ago. Jean has taught classes out of her own studio and they both continue to offer classes at The Mill Art Center in Honeoye Falls. 

Across these fifty plus years, their artwork and artistic processes have continued to evolve and expand. There is a support “mechanism” built into their relationship.  I have had the honor and privilege to witness this seamless support both as a friend and colleague in past, and ongoing settings, within our profession. 

Beyond their partnership, Bill and Jean are individually exceptional artists. They enjoy a remarkable setting for their home and studio practices.  Even though the style of Jean and Bill's work differs widely, that work is highly influenced by the natural world around them. As individual artists, they have exhibited their work in the Greater Rochester region and nationally. In many cases, both have won competitions, awards and been asked to speak and present their unique techniques-processes and artistic philosophies at: galleries, workshops and university settings across their long careers. They continue to work, teach, mentor and grow...as artists and as valued pARTners. - Bob Geroux 

an abstract collage of shapes with central rectangle with an arch form above and below suggesting a shield.

Blue Moon mixed media collage. Jean Stephens

an abstract collage of shapes with central diamond shape overlaying a rectangle with bands above suggesting a shield.

Golden Shield mixed media collage. Jean Stephens

an abstract collage of blue circle shapes overlaying a series of white rectangles.

Sweet Spot mixed media collage. Jean Stephens

an abstract white ink on black paper drawing that resembles a satellite image of the earth from space.

Untitled #11 ink on paper. Bill Stephens

an abstract white ink on black paper drawing that resembles a satellite image of the earth from space.

Untitled #10 ink on paper. Bill Stephens

an abstract white ink on black paper drawing that resembles a satellite image of the earth from space.

Black and White Series #1. Bill Stephens

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a graphic on a hot pink background 'Co-Crafting Democracy Redux'

Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism

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Official Call for Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism Entries here!

The exhibition Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism debuted in Rochester, New York – home to Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass – along with an eponymous catalogue (RIT Press, 2019). Works by the 30 artists explored how handwork probes the vulnerabilities of citizenship status, while also working toward positive social change. Over the following two years, the exhibit traveled to four additional venues in the Northeast U.S., realizing opportunities for community, conversation, and critique.

Now, the exhibition is back in an entirely new form – a “redux” that seeks to co-craft democracy. Curators Juilee Decker and Hinda Mandell, in reviving their show concept, are expanding the notion of democracy to the exhibition form itself: all work that is submitted to the show will be accepted and displayed.*

The exhibition is being developed in collaboration and with the support of RIT’s Division of Diversity and Inclusion and College of Liberal Art's School of Communication. Students from RIT’s museum studies program will be involved in the creation and installation of the exhibit. For more information, please contact Dr. Decker, jdgsh@rit.edu.

*Exhibition curators Juilee Decker and Hinda Mandell reserve the right to exclude submissions that are obscene or incendiary.

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More Exhibitions

Past Exhibition
grey pile rug with handwritten script

Bella Walters MFA Thesis

A solo exhibition by Isa Maxine (aka Bella Walters), MFA candidate in the School of American Crafts (Glass). "This work is about a fuller understanding of domestic spaces and the realities of the things that make up our lives outside of ourselves."

Past Exhibition
a color poster with an illustration of a solar eclipse in a darkened sky and a rainbow spectrum beam reaching from the top down toward a silhouetted cityscape.

2024 Total Solar Eclipse Posters

The Rochester Eclipse Task Force sponsors a traveling art exhibition by eclipse artist and astronomer Tyler Nordgren, who designed the posters for Rochester, New York (in the and whose 2017 eclipse artwork is in the Smithsonian collection. The exhibit that consists of posters[...]

Past Exhibition
a group of five wood chairs that are on fire arranged in a circle on a sandy beach with blue water along the shore.

Sticks: Naomi Miller MFA Thesis

"Small things can change you; they might not seem significant at the time and perhaps they don’t happen all at once, but the change is inevitable. The work I’ve made are representations of that change, rooted in my own personal narrative as a transgender woman. The starting point[...]

Past Exhibition
a color photograph of a person performing on stage lit in a neon blue light.

'What We Do' RIT National Press Photographers Association

Rochester Institute of Technology’s chapter of the National Press Photographers Association is a forum for education and discussion among young professionals in the photojournalism industry. What We Do is an annual student competition hosted by RIT NPPA. The contest is an[...]