Adelphi Commemorates 100th Anniversary of Triangle Factory Fire with Art Exhibition in New York City

Garden City, NY, March 06, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Adelphi University is pleased to announce an art exhibit which features individual works and collaborative artwork pieces to be held from March 25 and 26, 2011, to commemorate the centennial of the New York City Triangle Factory Fire at The Great Hall of The Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY. The exhibition, “Made by Hand,” presented by Adelphi in collaboration with the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, is in response to the event that drastically changed worker’s rights in the 20th century. The exhibit kicks off the culminating centennial event, 100 Years After: The Triangle Fire Remembered and Rethought, an evening of music, spoken word poetry, and solidarity in commemoration of the 146 victims. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

The history of the fire and current labor issues are explored visually by artists and secondary school students from the New York City and Long Island metro areas. On March 25, 1911, overcrowded and unregulated working conditions led to the deaths of 146 workers when a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Lower Manhattan. Most of the victims were young immigrant women, locked inside the garment factory with no chance of escape.

Artists: Adelphi University Assistant Professor of Art Cindy Maguire, Hillary Broder, Virginia Duncan, Tara Finneran, Scott Frawley and Anthony Giacchino, Pamela Koehler, , Cat Mazza, and Sharon Papp.

Collaborative artwork by high school students from John F. Kennedy High School, Bellmore; P.S./I.S. 266, Queens; Pan American International and Bronx International High Schools, Bronx, NY.

Adelphi has a number of ties to this tragic event, in a historical context as well as the current one. Frances Perkins, a worker’s rights advocate and sociology professor at Adelphi College, witnessed the tragedy and rededicated her life to change. Later, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretary of labor, Ms. Perkins had a hand in many New Deal reforms that improved the lives of Americans.

Adelphi University’s class of 2014 also read, The Triangle Fire, by Leon Stein, and engaged in discussion about the contemporary re-emergence of sweatshops in the United States and other parts of the world in their Freshman Seminar class. Mr. Stein brings to life the tragedy that occurred, and students are able to compare such atrocities to those being committed in today’s society behind closed doors. This art exhibition is just one more example of Adelphi’s ongoing commitment to keeping this piece of history alive to prevent it from recurring in the future.

The Great Hall of The Cooper Union gallery is open Monday through Friday from 12:00 to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. To learn more about Adelphi’s commitment to preserving the memory of the Triangle Factory Fire’s victims, please visit http://events.adelphi.edu/trianglefire/index.php.

About Adelphi University: Adelphi is a world class, modern university with excellent and highly relevant programs where students prepare for lives of active citizenship and professional careers. Through its schools and programs—The College of Arts and Sciences, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Honors College, Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, University College, and the Schools of Business, Nursing, and Social Work—the co-educational university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as professional and educational programs for adults. Adelphi University currently enrolls nearly 8,000 students from 41 states and 60 foreign countries. With its main campus in Garden City and centers in Manhattan, Hauppauge, and Poughkeepsie, the University, chartered in 1896, maintains a commitment to liberal studies in tandem with rigorous professional preparation and active citizenship.

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