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The ArtRage mission is to exhibit progressive art that inspires resistance and promotes social awareness; supports social justice, challenges preconceptions and encourages cultural change. Our goal is to provide ArtRage visitors with an experience that encourages the breakdown of boundaries so that people can see themselves in the work and then in one another. And that, we believe, is the seed of a movement for cultural and social change.

About the Director: Rose Viviano

Rose Viviano

Rose has a background in art and community work that began in the early 1970’s in Boston, Massachusetts. A native of Syracuse, New York, she received a Fine Arts diploma from the Art Institute of Boston with post-graduate courses in glass painting and structural stained glass from the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. During that time she also worked in various political

and community organizations in Boston.

In 1987 Rose returned to Syracuse as a glass studio manager where she developed her restoration skills. In 1994 Rose opened her own studio, ROSE COLORED GLASS, specializing in painted restorations of damaged and aging church windows creating original designs for clients, architectural firms and gallery exhibition. In 1998 she was commissioned to create work for the Syracuse Stage theater season brochure. In 2001 Rose began volunteer work with the Syracuse Peace Council and presently serves on three active committees including the Steering Committee.

Rose is a recipient of the 1999 Cultural Resources Council’s Individual Artists’ grant; was invited to show her work at the 1999 Contemporary Crafts Exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany and received the Harley J. McKee Award in 2004 from the Preservation Society of Central New York. In 2010 Rose was honored by Peace Action of Central New York with their Peacemaker Award.

Her work with ArtRage is the culmination of years of passion for art and social change.

About the Community Engagement Organizer

Rose Viviano

About the PuttersKimberley McCoy, originally from Boston, Massachusetts, earned her BFA in Art History from Syracuse University. During her time at SU she became involved in several campus-based activist groups. In 2002, she organized a Women’s and Children’s Art Exhibition at Syracuse’s Community Folk Art Center in response to the September 11th attacks and the War on

Terror. After graduation, she became an Americorp VISTA working at a youth development after-school program as the Community Arts and Culture Organizer for two years. As an Americorp VISTA she organized “Art in the Park” a free weekly summer art program for youth. She also helped to organize the youth cultural education program, Syracuse Africa Bound, and accompanied the group on two trips to Ghana. She then went on to Boston University to earn a master’s degree in Arts Administration. While in Boston she taught youth art classes at the Munroe Center for the Arts in Lexington, MA and the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA. She is currently a member of the Bread and Roses Collective House in the Westcott neighborhood.

Norton S. Putter

Norton S. Putter was born in Poland which his family left to escape poverty and the attacks of anti-Semites. Having never forgotten this oppression, he went on to become involved in the major social movements of his time. Norton spent his life in the United States working for peace and social justice, especially in the civil rights movement. He actively supported the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, worked in the 1948 Henry Wallace presidential campaign, was a lifetime member of the NAACP, a leader in the desegregation of the Syracuse public schools and became a financial supporter of The Davis- Putter Scholarship Fund. He also worked passionately in support of the arts as a co-founder of the Metropolitan School for the Arts, as a supporter of classic music radio and the Paul Robeson theater group.

ArtRage grew out of the Syracuse Cultural Workers which Norton financially supported in its early days when no other sources of capital were available to it. He remained active in progressive politics and the arts in Syracuse, and worked for peace and justice until his death in February 2001.

Ruth C. Putter

Ruth C. Putter, as a young photographer living in New York City, was influenced by the “Decisive Moment” work of Henri Cartier Bresson and she joined the progressive Photo League. In Syracuse, she worked for a time with Fred Demarest of Syracuse University. Her photographs have been published in national photography and feminist publications and calendars including the Syracuse Cultural Workers’ Peace Calendar. She co-authored a book of photographs and writings on the women’s Peace Encampment at Romulus, New York, entitled; “The Women’s Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice”, (Temple University Press). Her exhibits include those at the Everson Museum, Lightwork and many local and national galleries.

An activist, feminist and talented artist herself, Ruth generously offered to fund the creation of ArtRage: The Norton Putter Gallery, as a memorial to honor her husband’s many years of volunteer work for social justice. We proudly carry on the tradition of resistance in his name.