Currently On View at CSMA
Anima
April 2026 – Upper Gallery
Ithaca Gallery Night debuts April 3rd from 5:00-8:00 pm.
This exhibition explores tending as a creative and communal practice. Through painting, collage, and textiles, Rochele Royster works with fragments—archival images, discarded artwork, and found materials—layering and transforming them through repetition, color, and pattern. Portraits honor figures who carry memory and history, while meditative linework reanimates overlooked surfaces. Botanical forms evoke growth, care, and ecological connection. The Community Quilt Freedom Jacket anchors the exhibition as a collective work stitched through shared stories and participation. Together, these pieces ask what it means to return to what has been forgotten and cultivate resilience, beauty, and belonging through acts of attention and care.
About the Artist
Rochele Royster, PhD, ATR-BC, LCAT is an artist, art therapist, and Associate Professor in the Creative Arts Therapy Department at Syracuse University. Her work explores care, memory, and collective healing through painting, textiles, and participatory art. Drawing from Black feminist care traditions, community archives, and everyday practices of tending, Royster often works with found or collaborative materials—transforming fragments, stories, and discarded objects into layered visual narratives. Her practice bridges research, community engagement, and art
making, frequently involving collective processes such as quilting, workshops, and public exhibitions. Royster is also the founder of the Me/We Creative Arts Lab & Studio, a community space dedicated to art, wellness, and social connection.
Previously on view in the Gallery
CSMA Faculty Exhibition 2023
We warmly invite you to the annual Faculty Exhibition at the Community School of Music and Arts. View the diverse creative styles of CSMA’s talented teaching artists – and get inspired to take a class this fall! Featured artists include Manuela Amzallag, Rachel...
Muhamed Kafedzic – Muha 無派 | Hanami 花見 (Flower Viewing)
On view: April 7 - May 26, 2023 Hanami is a Japanese tradition of flower (blossom) viewing during springtime. In this case, it is an invitation to view a selection of Muha´s works from 2009-2022 showing the artist´s views of Ukiyo-e, reinterpretations of art...
Transcendence: Queer Restoryation
Please join us for Gallery Night from 5-8 PM, including an artist talk with Cai Quirk at 6:30 PM.
CSMA Annual Open Exhibition!
On view: December 2, 2022 – January 27, 2023 Curator: Jennifer Gibson The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) is excited to showcase students, emerging artists, and established artists in our annual Open Exhibition. These amazing submitted works are by artists...
Semillas al Viento: We Are Scattered Seeds
Semillas al Viento: We Are Scattered Seeds Cultura Ithaca Latinx Heritage 2022 Art Exhibition Curated by Daniela Rivero On View October 7 - November 27 Latinx Heritage month coincides with the fall equinox and the Northern Hemisphere’s descent into the darker months...
Faculty Show 2022
On View September 2 - October 1 We warmly invite you to the annual Faculty Show at the Community School of Music and Arts. View the diverse creative styles of CSMA’s talented teaching artists – and get inspired to take a class this fall. The Faculty Show features...
The Eclectic Work of JOYCE STILLMAN-myers
On View July 1 - August 26 Joyce started making art seriously in the early 1970’s. She soon developed a super-realistic style, which she exhibited in major galleries in NYC and internationally. Her paintings of Christmas ornaments won international awards and were...
L’Atelier
On View June 3 – 24 This exhibition features the work of 5 and 6 year old students from Ms. Jessica Custer-Bindel's Kindergarten class at the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School. After a visit to the State of the Art Gallery, the students asked, “Who gets to show...
confluencial
On view April 1 – May 27 confluencial presents the work of al aguas and Sonja Lockhart together. Individually submerging into their experiences of Black and Indigenous peoples’ vitality in bountiful to barren social scapes, they recognize the refuge in turning to...
the climate will determine the green of the future forests
On view February 4 - March 25, 2022 Graphic design students from the Ithaca College Art Department Graphic Design Program, under the guidance of Professor Patti Capaldi, exhibit a series of posters designed to address the challenging issues of climate change and...