ST. BONAVENTURE — Carson Waterman, a distinguished artist and revered cultural figure for the Haudenosaunee people of the Seneca Nation, will discuss his life and artwork in a special presentation at St. Bonaventure University in April.
The program, “An Evening with Carson Waterman,” will be held at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2, in the Rigas Theater of the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Doors open at 4:30 p.m.
Caleb Abrams, a Seneca filmmaker and multimedia artist, will interview Waterman in front of a live audience. Images from Waterman’s decades of artwork will be projected on a screen as the artist has a chance to tell the stories behind his works and the messages he hopes to pass down about his culture to others.
“An Evening with Carson Waterman” is free and open to the public, but tickets are required by reserving a seat at Ticketor.com/quickarts.
Much of Abrams’ work pushes back against settler-colonial narratives of place and power, while creating space for Indigenous stories of truth, community and connectedness. He explores these themes through a shifting lens of documentary, magical realism, and surrealist video art.
Abrams was the associate producer on the 2017 Seneca documentary “Lake of Betrayal: The Story of Kinzua Dam.” Completed in 1965, the dam was originally proposed to help mitigate flooding in Pittsburgh, almost 200 miles downriver, but the 27-mile reservoir that formed behind it inundated vast tracts of the Seneca Indians’ ancestral lands, forcing their removal in breach of the United States’ oldest treaty then in effect. Kinzua Dam is located an hour southwest of St. Bonaventure.
Abrams’ interview will be recorded and used in an immersive art exhibition featuring Carson’s work that the Quick Center is planning for the fall.
Waterman’s work can be found throughout the region. His exhibition at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, titled “Art Saved My Life,” is on display through June 1. In May, St. Bonaventure will celebrate Waterman with an honorary doctorate at the university’s 165th Commencement Exercises.
“An Evening with Carson Waterman” is sponsored by St. Bonaventure’s School of Arts & Sciences, Quick Center for the Arts and Office of the Provost.
