The Bay State: A Multicultural Landscape, Photographs of New Americans by Mark Chester is a moving and powerful exhibit of more than 300 newly naturalized U.S. citizens who are residents of the Commonwealth. These inspirational photographic portraits create a visual archive celebrating the diversity of Massachusetts’ citizens from 165 countries around the globe. New Americans enriches the viewer by sharing the vast cultural resources and rich ethnic heritage of the Massachusetts’ 351 towns and cities.

Reception
Postponed to Saturday, 4/25 | 2-5pm
Artist talk at 2:30pm
Speaker Westy Egmont at 3pm: “Up The Golden Stairs: Dreams of Being American”
Nordic Hall

On view March-April. Gallery hours vary. Call 617.527.6566 to confirm availability.

About Mark

Mark Chester has been a professional photographer since 1972. He was Director of Photography and staff photographer at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), in New York City, prior to relocating to California in 1975.

His photographs and/or feature stories have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post,Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner, Christian Science Monitor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Denver Post, Prime Time Magazine (Cape Cod Times), among other periodicals.

Chester created, produced and photographed the book No In America (Taylor, 1986), a collection of tongue-in-cheek photographs of “NO” signs. Previously, he photographed Charles Kuralt’s book, Dateline America (HBJ, 1979). His latest book,Twosomes (Un-Gyve Press), was released in 2011.

In 1987, Chester created and produced the traveling exhibition and catalog, “Shanghai: In Black and White”, in commemoration of San Francisco’s “sister city”, as part of the San Francisco-Shanghai Cultural Exchange Program. The photographs were displayed at the San Francisco Main Library; the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; The Kogod Arts Center of the Sidwell Friends School, Washington, D.C. and other venues.

Chester’s photographs are in permanent museum collections, including Baltimore, Brooklyn, Corcoran, Denver, Portland (Maine), San Francisco, and other institutions. His images have been exhibited nationwide in galleries, including O.K. Harris (NYC), Camera Obscura (CO), and San Francisco Airport and in galleries in Japan, Vietnam, London and alternative exhibition spaces.

Born in Baltimore, Chester grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from the University of Arizona (1967) with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He is a member of the Copley Society of Art, Boston. A former Adjunct Instructor at Cape Cod Community College, and photography instructor at the Falmouth Artists Guild and Cape Cod Art Association and Lesley University Seminars, Chester contributes the column, In My Mind’s Eye to the Community Newspaper Company on Cape Cod, including the Falmouth Bulletin.

Learn more about Mark’s work here.