VCP’s PRINT GALLERY
June 2026 Featured Work:
Meeting at Newtown Creek
Lucy Jackson
Exhibition Dates: June 5–30th, 2026
Opening Reception: June 5, 5:00 – 8:00pm
Meeting at Newtown Creek is a series of diptych photographs tracing Newtown Creek, the overlooked waterway that creates the border between Brooklyn and Queens, NY. Part of the Hudson River Estuary, Newtown Creek is linked to the currents that shaped me, growing up in Nyack, NY. I’ve oriented my life through connections to water, and in moving to Brooklyn, walks along the creek shores have immersed me in my community and local history through environmental activism. Connecting with Newtown Creek Alliance, I seek a holistic understanding of the estuary’s environmental history and contemporary restoration efforts.
Newtown Creek has endured centuries of toxic waste, oil spills, and salty runoff, destroying the fragile brackish ecosystem, and leading to its Superfund Site status as of 2009. As Newtown Creek Alliance works to revitalize the estuary’s murky waters, educate community members on the water’s history, and construct access points and parks along the creek’s shores, my diptychs illustrate an uncertain future for Newtown Creek. Toxic industrial dumping continues, supported by the U.S. government’s attempts to hack apart the Clean Water Act, enacted in 1972, leaving marshlands and streams especially vulnerable. One could imagine Newtown Creek as clear and vital like the Connecticut River that passes through Brattleboro, but radical federal and industrial shifts would need to happen, and quickly.
The Connecticut River is an inspiring example of revitalization. Called “America’s best landscaped sewer” in the 1950s, the Connecticut River is now a vibrant ecological refuge and safe for swimming and fishing. This transformation was possible through decades of federal regulations, conservation efforts, and the work of groups like the Connecticut River Conservancy. Without this type of concerted effort, things will continue to get worse for Newtown Creek, especially as environmental protections fade. Newtown Creek’s story is important to tell today, as the creek represents all waterways in the United States, currently under threat from the proposed loosened restrictions around corporate toxic dumping through the dissolution of the Clean Water Act. Working with diptychs allows for these contradictory realities and opposing forces to coexist, illuminating our pivotal moment and unknown future.
About the artist:
Lucy Jackson is an artist from Nyack, NY, working with photography and alternative image making processes. Lucy is interested in tracing interconnection between humans, creatures, and environmental forces. Through historical research methodologies and aesthetic intuition, she hopes to tell stories, express wonder, and merge real and imagined worlds to better understand and steward our living environment.
Lucy graduated from Harvard College where she studied Social Studies, Photography, and Spanish. The Trustman Fellowship supported her postgraduate year in Bolivia searching for frogs and toads and learning about Andean women’s water rituals. Harvard’s Office of the Arts funded her interdisciplinary project on climate change, resource extraction, and community water use along the Hudson River through their Artistic Development Fellowship. She was an artist in residence at Arquetopia in Puebla, Mexico. Her photographs have been exhibited at The Vermont Center for Photography, The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Extra Special with Cheese, The Greenpoint Gallery, The Curated Fridge, The Midwest Center for Photography, and published nationally and internationally in print and digital publications. She is excited to begin a MFA in Photography and Video at the University of Houston this fall!
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How To Have Your Work Featured:
To have a featured 1-month exhibition in VCP’s Print Gallery, participants must be a current VCP member and fill out the online exhibition proposal form (please choose the “VCP’s Print Gallery” option within the form) here: https://vcphoto.org/exhibits/propose-an-exhibit/ If you would like us to consider your work for a show and are not currently a member, we invite you to join today! You can sign up to be a VCP member online HERE.
There is no cost or fee to show your work in the Print Gallery. If you need your work printed for your exhibition, VCP would be happy to offer you our fine-art printing services at a discounted rate.
Work is encouraged to be available for purchase. VCP retains 40% of any artwork sales during the exhibition.
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