Arc of the Viral Universe: A Notebook Project by Carla Rae Johnson

ON DISPLAY: Sept - Oct 2023

"You and your fellow artists often captured what I was thinking, and I was so impressed and moved. I didn’t feel so alone all of a sudden knowing others felt what I felt."  Visitor to “Arc of the Viral Universe: A Notebook Project”

Curator/”Arc-ivist,”  Carla Rae Johnson describes the origins and intentions of this profound and timely project: “In recent years, I have been increasingly concerned about the trajectory of justice in our country.  A quote by Theodore Parker continued to recur in my mind…”

“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”  Theodore Parker 1853 (quoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Barak Obama)

Does the arc indeed bend towards justice?  Johnson asked over 100 of her creative contemporaries for responses in “The Arc of the Moral Universe: A Notebook Project.” The resulting 56 completed notebooks offered many responses to this compelling question.

The inaugural exhibition of  “The Arc of the Moral Universe” was held at the Croton Free Library.  Now, in 2023 “Arc of the Viral Universe: A Notebook Project” will update visitors to the beautiful Ottinger Room with stories, images and poems created during the world-wide pandemic from which we are yet to completely emerge.

The gallery installation in the Ottinger Room will allow you to browse through the notebooks sitting in comfortable chairs so you won’t miss a single captivating page. 

Notebooks created by:

Karen Allen - Inez Andrucyzk - Anne E. Bruce - Jo-Ann Brody - Angela Carrozza - Laurel Garcia Colvin - Linda Cunningham - Patricia Dahlman - Maria DeLaney  - Beth DeWitt - Maureen Dillon - Flori Doyle - Linda Jean Fisher - Marcy B. Freedman -Wendie Garber  Bonnie Glauber - Steve Jacoby- Claudia Jacques Carla Rae Johnson - Barbara Lipp - Mary McFerran  G. Ray Mak - Brook Maher - Willie Marlowe - Susan Obrant - Amie Oliver - Bonnie Peritz - Francine Perlman - Pearl Rosen Golden - Cristina Ramos-Payne - Jacqueline Rivera - Sharon Rubinstein - Ann Shapiro - Devin Siglock  - Barbara Suggs - Peg Taylor - Lavinia Wiggins  Dava Frog Wing

Visit Carla Rae Johnson’s website for more information:  www.carlaraejohnson.org