Unwilling: exercises in melancholy is made possible with the support of the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and created in dialogue with the Center’s Faculty Seminar The Arts of Melancholy led by Richard Freedman (Music) with Andrew Friedman (History); Aniko Szucs (Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow); Marilyn Boltz (Psychology); Christina Knight (Visual Studies) ; Erin Schoneveld (East Asian Languages and Cultures); Joel Yurdin (Philosophy).
The curators wish to thank the John B. Hurford ‘60 Center for the Arts and Humanities at Haverford College, particularly Deborah Roberts and James Weissinger for the invitation to develop a project alongside the Faculty Seminar’s research. Heartfelt gratitude goes to Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery Associate Director Matthew Seamus Callinan for his support, comradery and boundless energy throughout this project, and to our friend and colleague Liz Park, for making the connections in the first place. We are grateful also to the Seminar participants – Marilyn Boltz, Andrew Friedman, Christina Knight, Erin Schoneveld, Aniko Szucs, Joel Yurdin, and especially Richard Freedman – for providing such rich inspiration for the exhibition. Meredith Rebar Williams at Alchemist Society/Home Brewed Events, Noemí Fernández, Hyunjin (Kelly) Jung, Kent Watson, Lucia Thomé and Justin Geller provided important contributions for the exhibition. We thank Jonathan Middleton, Derek Barnett and Vicky Lum of Information Office for their beautifully responsive book design. And of course, we are most grateful to the five participating artists – Billy-Ray Belcourt, Mike Bourscheid, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Justine Chambers, and Noa Giniger – for finding such humour, beauty and meaning in mourning.