EMERGENCE – a new Daemen-led initiative to highlight early-career artists in Western New York – has announced a slate of exhibitions at prominent galleries and a keynote by celebrated entrepreneur and artist Edreys Wajed this spring. 
A call for work for EMERGENCE – issued last autumn – received more than 50 submissions, mainly from visual artists, but also from artists representing mixed media, performance, and music.
A jury selected 18 artists whose work will be shown in three exhibitions:
- The Crucible Arts Collective: March 18-29
- Daemen College Tower Gallery: April 7-22
- Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology: April 14-29
“The focus of EMERGENCE is on early-career artists who have already begun to find a toehold in the professional world,” said Robert Waterhouse, chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) at Daemen.
A work by Edreys Wajed, who will give EMERGENCE’s keynote address
“We wanted to find those artists who will be causing waves and ripples throughout the region and beyond in the coming years,” he added.
“We also wanted to know what these artists can tell us about how they have managed to successfully launch their early careers,” Waterhouse said.
The three (so-far-scheduled) art shows will be augmented by lectures and workshops focusing on ways in which artists can build a career.
(The names of the artists selected for the exhibitions – as well as the winner of a $1,000 Best in Show award – will be released soon.)
Notable keynote
Known as a hip-hop artist, muralist, and playwright, Edreys Wajed is perhaps best known for paintings that interpret music. He is recognized locally for his contribution as an artist on the Freedom Wall, to which he contributed paintings of seven civil rights dignitaries.
EMERGENCE brings together a slew of WNY arts organizations
His keynote address will take place April 7, 2022 at 5.30 p.m. at the Tower Gallery, Haberman Gacioch Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, Daemen College.
EMERGENCE is presented by the Leadership and Entrepreneurship in the Arts program at Daemen – one of the first undergraduate degrees of its kind in the country.
More information is available about EMERGENCE and the Leadership and Entrepreneurship in the Arts program at Daemen.