Mercer Gallery Director
Kathleen Farrell has worked at Monroe Community College since 1986 as the Director of MCC’s Mercer Gallery. This position entails administering a creative arts program, art gallery exhibitions, artist workshops, residencies, and an artist lecture series. During her 34 year career at MCC, she has planned, promoted, organized, and installed an average of six major exhibitions per year as well as installation exhibitions and Internal Combustion series events.
In 1996, she was the recipient of the prestigious State University of New York SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service. In 2001 she received the NISOD Excellence Award for teaching. And in 2002 she was the recipient of the prestigious State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities. In 2013 she was the recipient of the John and Suanne Roueche Excellence Award and In 2017 the recipient of Dr. Wesley T. Hanson Award for Teaching Excellence.
Kathleen Farrell retired from MCC as Emeritus Professor in 2020.
Jason Flack became acting director of the Mercer Gallery in 2020 with Kathleen Farrell’s retirement. Taking over in the midst of a global pandemic, he set about creating alternative ways to exhibit artwork. His first venture was creating the Art 114 video series, a collection of videos showcasing artists and their work, highlights from the MCC collection, and recorded artist lectures. He has also aged an extra three years learning web development to begin hosting virtual art exhibitions.
Outside of his gallery duties, Jason teaches Video Production and Photography courses for MCC, for which he has received various awards. He spends his free time creating artwork and films, collecting records, driving across the country with his wife for fun, and sweeping up copious amounts of cat hair in his apartment.