It has been a big year for interdisciplinary artist Patricia Cronin. The professor of art from the School of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts earned the title of distinguished professor given by the CUNY Board of Trustees in May—the highest academic honor that CUNY can offer faculty. Soon after that, Brooklyn Magazine named her one of  “Brooklyn’s 50 Most Fascinating People.”

Cronin’s work has stood the test of time as it examines issues of gender, sexuality, and social justice. She has enjoyed numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and internationally, and her work has been featured at the 56th Venice Biennale in Italy; the American Academy in Rome Gallery; Musei Capitolini and Centrale Montemartini, Rome; Tampa Museum of Art; Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans; The FLAG Art Foundation, New York; the Brooklyn Museum; and the LAB Gallery, Dublin. Bronze versions of her acclaimed marble sculpture, Memorial to a Marriage (2002)—the world’s first marriage equality monument—are permanently on view at Woodlawn Cemetery, the Bronx, New York, and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland.

During October’s National Arts and Humanities Month, we asked Cronin about the impact of her work and how she balances creating art and teaching.