Micro Grant Awardee Spotlight 2025 The Hofstra University Museum of Art is grateful for the Huntington Arts Council’s generous Community Impact Micro Grant award. This funding allowed the Museum to create The Shabazz Public Engagement Project, a series of public programs organized by the Hofstra University Museum of Art. The Project will accompany the Museum’s Fall 2025 exhibition Love is the Message – The Photography of Jamel Shabazz. Additionally, funds will support advertising and public outreach efforts. The Engagement Project is supported by Long Island Grants for the Arts through funds provided by the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and administered by The Huntington Arts Council.
Hofstra University Museum of Art
Love Is the Message Reception at Hofstra University Museum of Art
Love Is the Message is more than an exhibition; it is an invitation. Every smile, embrace, and glance becomes a reminder that love is not just the subject of the story, it is the way forward. The exhibition includes two works on loan from Art Bridges, “Native Son (Circus)” by Terry Adkins and “Bronzeville at Night” by Archibald John Motley Jr., to amplify the themes and visual language present in Jamel Shabazz’s photography. Love Is the Message marks longtime Hempstead resident Jamel Shabazz’s first solo exhibition on Long Island, celebrating 50 years of capturing images that inspire and empower. Featuring photographs, vintage cameras, and personal memorabilia from his extensive archives, the exhibition honors Shabazz’s enduring commitment to portraying the beauty of family, friendship, and community. His photographs are acts of care and quiet activism, using joy as a powerful lens to counter narratives of division and reveal the humanity that binds us. An internationally acclaimed photographer and recipient of the 2018 Gordon Parks Award and the 2022 Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl Book Prize, Shabazz’s work resides in the permanent collections of major museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The Engagement Project has three additional components that tie into the Love is the Message Exhibtion. The first Love is the Message: A Conversation with the Artist which took place in October, the upcoming FREE Panel Discussion How the Arts Can Inspire Empathy is on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 6:30-8:00 p.m. at the Leo A. Guthart Free Cultural Center Theater, Axinn Library, First Floor, South Campus. Free Community Museum Tours conducted by Museum educators and staff run through December. For more information on these engaging opportunities go to https://www.hofstra.edu/museum/ For information on the LI Grants for the Arts Program go to www.huntingtonarts.org. For questions contact Grants Coordinator Patty Eljaiek – peljaiek@huntingtonarts.org or Grants Assistant Cassandra Matthews – cmatthews@huntingtonarts.org. For information on advertising, contact info@huntingtonarts.org | 631-271-8423 | FALL 2025
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