The Refuge Gallery serves as a venue for exhibitions of artistic work relating to humanitarian and social justice issues. Using art as a means to illuminate, educate and provoke, the Refuge Gallery seeks to bring the Fordham community closer to the injustices experienced by our fellow global citizens.
Our vision is to create a stimulating environment encouraging of cultural and artistic inquiry through a social justice lens for our students, neighbors, artists, and the humanitarian sector — not only at the Institute but at Fordham University as a whole.
Introduction and about Refuge Gallery
The Refuge Gallery is an extension of the work at the IIHA. To learn more about the Refuge Gallery, group tours, or general inquiry email vstracquadan@fordham.edu. Private self-guided tours are available at our Refuge Gallery address.
Artist Introduction
Maggie Hazen
Maggie Hazen is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist from Los Angeles and is also the Co-founder and Director of the Juvenile Justice Digital Arts Project. Her work explores themes of resistance in a cinematically real world of violence through a combination of moving image, sculpture and performance. She has exhibited, screened, and performed works at Pulse Miami Beach as part of Pulse Play, The Museum of Tolerance, The Granoff Center, CICA Museum, Microscope Gallery, and The Boston Young Contemporaries. She holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and is currently a professor at Bard College in Studio Arts.
Please check back for upcoming events related to this exhibit.
About the Columbia Collective
THE COLUMBIA COLLECTIVE is a coalition of emerging female and trans artists—Jay, Juste-A, Marilynn, Marshmallow, Rory Rei, Tiana, and Toni—who are currently or formerly incarcerated. Founded by artist Maggie Hazen in 2019, the collective began inside a maximum-security juvenile facility and now creates across carceral boundaries, crafting a shared vision beyond confinement. Through practices of healing and radical imagination, the group works to reimagine and transform the prison system from the inside out.
From 2019 to 2021, the group met weekly for arts instruction based on a graduate-school MFA model, in which artists cultivate their own visions and projects, outside of an established curriculum with grades and assignments. For the past five years, Hazen has cultivated artist communities in other NY state prison facilities, actively working with abolition-minded community partners to connect the Collective to resources and transitional support post-incarceration through fundraising, storytelling, and mentorship.
Since the formation of the Columbia Collective, the group has exhibited and collaborated with Pioneer Works, Red Hook, NY; Siena College, NY; Boarder Patrol, Bakersfield, CA; Shandaken Projects, NY; Moxi Childrens Museum, Santa Barbara, CA; The Athens Cultural Center, Catskill, NY; and Girls Inc., Santa Barbara, CA.
Visit Us
The Refuge Gallery is open to all for viewing Monday – Friday 9am – 4pm or by appointment. Please ring the bell for the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs.
Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs
2nd Floor, Canisius Hall, Fordham University
2546 Belmont Ave, The Bronx, NY 10458
Directions to Canisius Hall can be found below:
Canisius Hall is best accessed via Belmont Ave. Buses BX9, BX12, BX17, BX22 stop on East Fordham Rd, only steps away from our entrance. The Fordham Train Station is about five blocks away 417 E Fordham Rd, Bronx, NY 10458. Two hour parking is available on Belmont Ave, however, is limited.
To view a map of Rose Hill campus click here. You will find Canisius Hall outside of the pedestrian entrance in between O’Hare and Faculty Memorial Hall.
Contact Vincent Stracquadanio, Lead Curator at vstracquadan@fordham.edu for gallery appointments and inquiries.
Expulsion – Colored pencil on glassine, aluminum tamperproof bulletin display case, 2024
Support the Refuge Gallery
Every like and share spreads the word about our artists. Please consider sharing Maggie’s work here. Donate to the Refuge Gallery below.
The Refuge Gallery serves as a venue for exhibitions of artistic work relating to humanitarian and social justice issues. Using art as a means to illuminate, educate and provoke, the Refuge Gallery seeks to bring the Fordham community closer to the injustices experienced by our fellow global citizens.
Our vision is to create a stimulating environment encouraging of cultural and artistic inquiry through a social justice lens for our students, neighbors, artists, and the humanitarian sector — not only at the Institute but at Fordham University as a whole. Please visit the IIHAs Refuge Gallery located in the Bronx to learn more about this season’s exhibit.
The Refuge Gallery is an extension of the work at the IIHA. To learn more about the Refuge Gallery, group tours, or general inquiry email vstracquadan@fordham.edu. For collaboration or proposal inquiries please email brcahill@fordham.edu.
