The faculty of Holy Family University’s Art programs, led by Pamela Flynn, MFA, professor of art and Fine Arts coordinator in the School of Arts & Sciences, are working artists who bring both their talent and their technique to teaching aspiring professional artists at Holy Family University. The expertise and experience of the faculty, as well as campus initiatives like the Holy Family University Art Gallery, provide students with vital resources that help them grow in their artistic endeavors and careers.
Though serving as the coordinator of Fine Arts has its many responsibilities, Flynn has continuously worked on her art in her home studio. “I have a Master’s degree from Keen University in painting and printmaking and my MFA is from New Jersey City University in painting and drawing,” explains Flynn. “I am a very prolific art maker. My studio is in my home. It’s the whole third floor, so it’s rather big and rather messy. If I clean up, I can’t find anything.”
Even in her artwork, Flynn sees opportunities to educate by allowing a viewer to reflect on what she presents to them. “My work is in series, so usually I'm focused on cultural, political, social, and environmental issues,” Flynn says. “My work is my voice, and I hope that my art allows the viewer to not only hear my voice and to connect with it, but also to express their own views. I don’t give any answers in my art.”
Flynn began as a painter and a sculptor, but mixed media has become her primary focus. Her mixed media art was featured in her most recent exhibition. “My most recent one-person exhibit was titled Facing Time, and it was exhibited at Ceres Gallery in New York City in January 2022,” says Flynn. “The work addressed memento mori, but not in a negative way. We’re all going to get there, so it was about seeing the progression.”
An ongoing project that Flynn has worked on continuously is Considering Harm, a traveling anti-gun violence exhibit. “That exhibit has traveled all over the upper East Coast and Pennsylvania,” explains Flynn. She uses the roving nature of the exhibit to personalize the artwork for the community that the gallery is in. “Wherever I am invited to exhibit, I look up all the instances of gun violence in that area and then I connect that with the artwork. So, when people go to the exhibit, they can see what gun violence has gone on in their community. It’s very poignant. Gallery visitors have felt an emotional connection with the work because they connect with the incidents. Among the cities Considering Harm has been exhibited include Philadelphia, Trenton, Jersey City, and New York City. So many people don’t realize how bad gun violence is and how arbitrary it is.”
One of the art program initiatives that Flynn has led is the growth of the Holy Family University Art Gallery, which has become a showcase for artists from across the United States. “The Holy Family University Art Gallery was established with the opening of the Education and Technology Center in 2005,” recalls Flynn. “My dream was to have a gallery here, because previously we always had student art exhibits in the Campus Center conference room. My goal with the art gallery is to bring in artists from across the country that have diverse voices and diverse art-making that starts a conversation with people. So, not just pretty pictures, but art that says something.”
Flynn is particularly proud of how the space—which is located on the Lower Level of the Sister Francesca Onley Education and Technology Center—allows art students to be immersed in work created by professional artists. She continues, “Because the art gallery is in the same space as the art studios, students are very involved. They take part in the hanging of the art and help me place the work. They see it every day that they are down there and can discuss it. If it were in a different building, that sense of community wouldn’t be there.”
In addition to the work of artists from outside the University, students have also had opportunities to exhibit their work in the Holy Family University Art Gallery at the Graduating Student Exhibit held at the end of each semester. In November and December 2021, an exhibit of work by graduating senior Cayden McKeon ’21 titled Queer Fear was featured in the gallery.
In addition to teaching classes, the faculty of the art program all pursue their own work. “Our art faculty are all exhibiting artists, which is fantastic for our students,” says Flynn. One of the members of the art faculty, Nicole Patrice Dul, has been teaching at Holy Family University for two decades and has been an essential part of the growth of the art program. “When I need somebody, Nicole is there,” says Flynn. “She helped put together the graphic design courses, and she’s just phenomenal.”
Dul’s work will be exhibited at the 3rd Street Gallery in Philadelphia this summer featuring artwork inspired by the loss of her mother, Pat Michael, Ph.D., a former Holy Family University professor, in November 2020 from COVID-19. This body of work will also be exhibited in the Holy Family Art Gallery in Fall 2022. “I enjoy that I'm able to share my love of art with my students and help them grow as creative thinkers,” explains Dul. “It’s exciting to know that their learning about art may contribute to how they speak to and perceive our world.”