T.W. Wood Gallery presents, “HeART and Home: Celebrating Inclusive Communities.” This exhibition is a partnership between the Fair Housing Project of CVOEO, T.W. Wood Gallery, and ONE Arts of Burlington. In celebration of Fair Housing Month, artists were invited to explore what makes a community thrive in the context of fair housing and inclusivity. The two-person exhibition on view at T.W. Wood shares two painters’ experiences of their native cultures and their Vermont communities. 

Picture
"The Woman of the Guitar" by Sabah Abbas
Bio: Sabah Abbas Sabah's work is inspired by Iraqi culture and history and by the traditional Arabic art style. She grew up in Baghdad, Iraq and began drawing illustrations for magazines, books, and public service projects in 1988. She produced illustrations for four children's books and created public posters for UNICEF to promote children's immunizations in Iraq. Between 1990 and 1999 Sabah exhibited her paintings 12 times at the prestigious Widad Orfali Art Studio in Baghdad. She also studied history at university and was a journalist with the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate from 1988-1999. Sabah left Iraq in 2003, moving first to Jordan, then Syria, where she studied classical Arabic arts at the Nada Technical College in Yarmouk. She and her family immigrated to the U.S. in 2014. Since her arrival in Vermont, she has studied oil painting techniques at the Community College of Vermont (CCV), volunteered as an art classroom assistant at the Davis Studio and the Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler, and exhibited at the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington. Sabah's work is inspired by Iraqi culture and history, and by the traditional Arabic art style. Her preferred medium is oil on canvas.
Bio: Pierrevy “Pievy” Polyte Originally from Haiti, Pievy is an artist, farmer, school-builder, and more. In Haiti, he has a large farm on Peak Macaya, Haiti’s second tallest mountain, where he grows coffee, cocoa, fruit, and vegetables. In 2005, he built a school for the local community, Lacadonie, Haiti. It is the only school on the mountain. In the fall of 2016, Hurricane Matthew devastated both his farm and the school. They moved the students into a temporary shelter while they struggled to teach the 500 children. Pievy moved to Burlington in April of 2016 to live with his wife, who is a Vermonter.