Compassion Arts is honored to announce that we will be presenting two programs for PACE University’s month long Earth Month celebration.  Our programs will be held at Pace University’s Butcher’s Suite, Kessel Campus Center, 861 Bedford Road, Pleasantville, NY.

The events are free and open to the public but seating is limited. You must pre-register by Apr. 5th by contacting Angelo Spillo, director of the Nature Center at PACE aspillo@pace.edu.

Animals, the environment, the human-animal bond and the duality of our relationship with animals in society are explored in this compelling presentation of visual art, music and poetry that reflects on the interconnection of animals, humans, nature and culture. “Animals and Culture in Art” presents a poignant and thought-provoking creative arts experience on the paradoxes of selective compassion and its impact on the world we share. Through the paintings of Jane O’Hara, songs of Joy Askew and poems of Gretchen Primack we are asked to reflect through the arts on the human story and its defining resonance in the world we live in for animals and nature.

Jane O’Hara is an artist and the recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award. Jane’s work has been shown in numerous exhibits. She is the curator of Beasts of Burden, of which she is also a participant, featuring the work of 14 artists whose range captures the complex ways in which animals have influenced our lives, opening at National Museum of Animals and Society in Los Angeles in 2017.

Joy Askew is a performing singer-songwriter, recording artist and musician who has toured and performed with Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson and David Byrne and has been a songwriter with Quincy Jones Music Publishing and Warner Chappell.  She is a humane educator and advocate for animals and the environment. Her music is featured in the award winning documentary Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home.

Gretchen Primack is the author of two poetry collections, Doris’ Red Spaces and Kind. Also an animal advocate, she is also the co-author of the memoir The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals. Gretchen’s poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, Field, Poet Lore, Ploughshares, and other journals. She coordinates an education program in a county jail and has worked as an advocate for laborers, women and non-human animals.