(exciting music) - Originally, this was the YMCA located here on State Street.

It was built in 1926, and there's what had been a walking track above us here.

(exciting music) It is a combination of gallery, the Rise Gallery, and also studio art space.

(exciting music) Schenectady is growing.

Schenectady is expanding in terms of its arts offerings, and I think that this provides an ideal space that connects with the college community and the community at large of Schenectady.

I think that that relationship is very important.

It's vital not only to the college itself, but also to the vibrancy of Schenectady as a whole.

(catchy music) March 28th, we had an incredible opening with so many people, so many families, politicians, trustees, faculty, among others.

We wanted this exhibition to be a showcase of all of Schenectady, as well as community members, like former faculty and current faculty members and students, and so it was a real coming together.

It was like a family experience.

I'm teaching a course in Introduction to Drawing, and I can tell you that over the years I have felt blessed by meeting quite a number of different students who have various types of talents and skills.

One of those students who is represented in this show is Emely Davila, and she is just an amazing visionary in her own right.

- As soon as I stepped in here, I was very amazed with the space.

I'm an artist.

I would say all types of art.

I'm very interested in music and digital art, traditional art.

I have my piece, "Life in Gaza."

I very much like representing more underrepresented communities, and I like bringing light to voices that usually don't get heard, and that's something that I do carry with myself and with my art very personally.

I feel like it's a very beautiful gallery that represents so many walks of life.

It's a place where you can really just, you feel the creativity exuding from people in here.

- She is a person of consciousness, a person who has a great heart, and we are just pleased and honored that she accepted to be part of this exhibition.

Miki Conn is an incredible artist.

She's not just an incredible artist.

She's an incredible human being, and she is very much a legend in the Schenectady community through the Hamilton Hill Art Center, which her mother, Margaret Cunningham, helped to create.

- The pieces that I have here, I think I've got two pieces.

The first one, sort of as you go around, I call "A Few of My Favorite Things."

They are things that inspire me, that make me happy, that bring joy into my life.

Farther on in the display is a collage, a paper collage, that was motivated by the thoughts of our ancestors who were enslaved and who leapt off of the ships rather than to become slaves, and sort of what did they feel?

Did they console each other?

Did they support those who did live and went on to become our ancestors?

I'm very excited that we have the Rise Gallery.

We need places in this community where we can see art of all different kinds.

(soft music) - I'm very blessed and privileged to have come at such a perfect time where we do have this art concentration opening in fall of 2024.

- We're very excited about it, and it will give students an opportunity to learn about the business of art, to use their skills in communication as a way of amplifying their voice and reaching the public.

(lively music) The Rise Gallery is open to the general public.

We're open several days a week at specific hours, usually a period of four hours per day, and it's free of charge, so we invite families, we invite so many people to be part of this experience.

My hopes and wishes for this space are to engage the community.

We'll be having public conversations about subjects that are important to the community, subjects that deal with the environment, social issues, with science, with music, so that there are many different ways that people can engage and come together to share their voices and also experience the works of artists who address these particular types of subjects.

The idea of Rise is very aspirational.

One could look at it as a revitalization of inner Schenectady exhibitions.

I think that at the heart of it, that the arts can be a vehicle that pulls people together, that links people together, that amplifies their own interests as a community for the general wellbeing of the community.

(lively music)