(my)BODY POLITIC: WA(L)KING in BED

Curated by Ollie Stevenson and the MACRE Incubator Team

2/06/2026 • 5pm–8pm

415 N. Tioga St., MACRE Ithaca

The following text is excerpted from Locally Sourced Features

Artpocalypse: MACRE

WSKG | By Alyssa Micha

On Friday, February 6, from 5-8 PM, MACRE will host a gallery night that looks and feels very different from the typical wine-and-cheese art opening. The evening centers on work by artist and experimental theatre pioneer Leeny Sack, who will present “(my)BODY POLITIC: WA(L)KING in BED,” her first public exhibition in over five years.

Sack has been a significant voice in performance art for decades, and this exhibition carries that lineage forward while also tracing the more recent contours of her lived experience, particularly chronic illness, limited mobility, and the creative life that continues from bed. Sack has been largely house-bound in recent years, and rather than treating that reality as an absence, she treats it as material. The result is an installation that blends activism, prayer, protest, mysticism, and personal narrative.

Visitors can expect a mixed-media environment spanning multiple rooms. In the main gallery, three clotheslines stretch across the space, hung with standard white pillowcases printed, painted, and hand-drawn with poems, slogans, quotes, homages, images, and prayers. Sack likens these to a hybrid of prayer flags, protest posters, disability signage, and fortune-cookie slips; intimate messages elevated into banners. The gallery will also feature recorded personal, political, and spiritual texts playing in a loop, creating shifting, chance-based layers of sound and meaning as visitors move through the exhibition.

An adjoining long, narrow room becomes a somatic space for slow pacing and breath. Sack guides visitors through a gentle walking meditation via audio, inspired in part by the ongoing Peace Walk led by Buddhist monks. The effect is ambient and reflective, an invitation to notice the relationship between personal body and public procession, between bed and street, between inner trauma and collective hope.

Unlike many gallery nights, this one is intentionally quiet and contemplative. Guests are encouraged to linger, return, and experience repeated audio segments as they fall into new dialogues with the visual works. Sack notes that the imagery and sound are meant to “evoke and provoke associations and connections between past and present trauma in our psyches, our homes, communities, cities, states, in our wounded nation,” while also offering “peaceful, artful, soulful content.” It’s less social hour, more ritual; less spectacle, more felt-sense.

Because of health limitations, Sack will not be physically present. Instead, a monitor will provide a live Zoom connection to her bed-studio, where visitors can say hello or ask questions throughout the evening.

The event is free and open to all. For those curious about MACRE, or interested in performance art as activism, or simply craving a quiet space for reflection, “(my)BODY POLITIC: WA(L)KING in BED” offers a rare opportunity to engage art that is both deeply personal and insistently communal.

Synesthetic Perceptions
Curated by Jada Haynes and the MACRE Incubator Team
12/05/2025 • 5pm–8pm
415 N. Tioga St., MACRE Ithaca

"Synesthetic Perceptions" is a group exhibition led by MACRE Artist-In-Incubator Jada Haynes, serving as the leading curator among the MACRE incubator team. Centered on the idea of interactive and collaborative perception across multiple senses, the exhibition invites visitors to engage with poetic imagery, sound-interactive movement, and collaborative collage as living materials that shift and respond within a shared environment.

A Collage Pop-Up Display will unfold in the Main Gallery, featuring works by participants from the artist’s Collaging Between the Lines workshop held on October 26th at the Ithaca Writing Studio, alongside contributions from local Ithaca artists.

Jada’s synesthetic performances will take place at 6pm and 7pm in the MACRE performance space, activating the gallery as a site of shared perception and collaborative imagination.

November 7th from 5-8pm

Cornell StudioLab's Comics, Posters PAR+D showcase returns for a second run in our Main Gallery & Library. The showcase will be on display 11/7 thru 11/15.

In addition... E of the ElectroZone will present a Synthesizer Petting Zoo in our PSP studio. This will be an assortment of synthesizers that participants can engage with first hand, learning not just about synthesis but also how it is applied in different synthesizers. E will be on hand to supervise the zoo and to explain features of the different synthesizers.

And lastly, our Incubator Artist, Jada Haynes will share work as a sneak peek into what she's incubating here at MACRE through early January.

MACRE Ithaca is proud to present Call + Response led by MACRE artist-in-incubator Jennilie Brewster. Opening on Gallery Night, September 5, the group exhibition unfolds as a creative chain reaction—with each artist contributing work in response to the other work in the space.

Drawing from both the musical tradition and the logic of engineering systems, the show embraces a call-and-response dynamic in which signals, creativity, and visions pass through MACRE members like electricity through a circuit. In a time shaped by social fragmentation, climate crises, and wars, what does it mean for us to listen to others—and to answer them?

Participating artists include Leo Kang, Daniel Rotsztain, Tia Eytina, Norm Scott, Skeleton Hands, Ry Ferro, and Jennilie Brewster. Works on view range from painting and projection to audio installation. Opening night will also feature live performances by McKenzie Jones and Bronwen Exter. This event is made possible through the generous support of the Ithaca ReUse Center and PhotoSynthesis Productions, whose commitments to sustainability and creative community resonate deeply with the spirit of the exhibition.

Our Artist-In-Incubator program isn’t just about making art — it’s about growing together. We welcome emerging artists with kind hearts and strong creative spirits who may lack access to space, resources, or support. This is a place to take root, take care, and create something that truly matters for our community.

Exhibition Information

• Exhibition Title: Call + Response
• Opening Reception: Gallery Night – Friday, September 5, 2025, 5-8pm

Free and open to all.

3-8pm

415 N. TIOGA STREET, ITHACA, NY

THIS IS A FREE EVENT

MUSIC, DANCING, SNACKS, ART, MARKET, PIÑATA

COME PARTY WITH US BY THE CREEK!

LIVE DJ SETS 3-8pm

3-5p - aparece

5-6p - Nazanin

6-7p - Hot Pants

7-8p - Fern

ALL ARE WELCOME.

LET'S DANCE IT OUT TOGETHER!

A fundraiser benefiting CREATIVE REUSE OF ITHACA + MACRE.

Bring a bag of recycling to transform into a masterpiece, and we’ll bring the art supplies & snacks!

Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners provided by local businesses!

This is a family friendly event. Children under the age of 12 must come with a guardian.

All proceeds will support these initiatives to reach their shared goals of creating spaces for learning and creating through connection with others. Our mission is to share creative resources that are affordable and accessible to all.

CUMEP and MACRE are starting a 3-year project to research and create an educational docuseries. The ultimate goal at the end of the 3 years is to create 16 (16-minute, 3 minute, & 30 second) episodes of inquiry-based lessons from the CUMEP curriculum with accompanying materials for youth, teachers, families, and community leaders. Made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by the Community Arts Partnership.

A two-day joint workshop with Norm Scott and Leo Kang, where art, sustainability, and mindfulness meet. Through hands-on projects that explore circular motion—both visually and sonically—we’ll experiment with creative reuse, basic electronics, and meditative processes. Stay tuned for repeat opportunities to participate in this workshop!

MACRE’s Grand Opening on June 1st, 2025, was a huge success! We celebrated with an exciting mix of interactive media art, documentary film, sound art, painting, and live DJ sets — all by amazing local artists and musicians. Free and open to all.