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The Cohen Library not only supports art on campus with a steady flow of art exhibits throughout the year in the 5th Floor Archives Gallery, several of our staff members are also artists. On the evening of April 15th, CCNY’s Business and Economics Alumni Society hosted the 2024 Spring Gallery - Art as a Business which featured the artwork of Cohen staffers Linda Li and Ebe De Leon.
Cataloging Assistant, Linda Li, Class of 2024, organized the well-attended event with a goal in mind. “I organized the art gallery because I really wanted to bring people together and have a meaningful conversation. I brought (the alumni) back to the campus. I also gave them a mission: talk to the current students, inspire them, share your experience, how you got your first career…advice you want to give to the current students.”
Ms. Li, the Business and Economics Alumni Society’s current board director, also put the focus on her classmates. “Another layer of the mission is that I want to get the students involved. I invited 15 students to get them to experience curatorship, to enhance their communication and marketing skills. The more they engage with our events… or a gallery or even alumni… they will become more familiar and later on they maybe will want to join the Alumni Association. I want to bring people back to the school. They can do more than they can imagine - not only donate money but also their time.”
Some might consider running the Library’s Administrative Office an art unto itself, fortunately we have administrator, Ebe De Leon ‘01, to handle the job. Ebe also happens to love painting. Asked what inspires her art she says “Beauty. Perfection… I’m a perfectionist. It’s like a puzzle to my brain. I like challenges and it’s a challenge. I like mastering things. To me, being able to actually accomplish something beautiful. That inspires me.” Ebe discovered she had a talent for drawing as a kid and enlisted her family’s help. “My father could do simple drawings. I was like, ‘Oh dad, can you draw a horse for me?’ Because I was in love with horses. I would tell my mom ‘Mom, can you draw a house for me?’ And she would draw and then I would just copy. I would learn from them. My father was a crafter. He was a barber. He was a carpenter, he was a salesman. He was a jack of all trades. I feel I am somewhat like that.”
Linda Li also discovered art at a very young age growing up with her father, Chun Hua Li, a painter, calligrapher, and poet. He helped inspire her work titled Gate of Dreams after visiting City College. “ My dad asked me ‘What is the meaning of the gate for you? Be aware that any student before they enroll at City College and after they graduate will be completely different.' Before you enroll in College you haven't had the ability or the knowledge, the confidence, the connections or the networking to push through your career goals. After you graduate - because you spent years here - you build a connection. You learn all the knowledge and - after you graduate - you are ready. Then you have the ability to push through to your goals. It’s a huge, transformative power of higher education. So that is why I created the painting.”
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