Art Exhibits
Upcoming Exhibits in the Multicultural Resource Center
“A Tribute to JoAnne Smart Drane and Bettye Tillman, The First Two African American Women To Graduate From UNCG”
Dates On Display: January 11- March 7, 2013
Featuring work by: Rachel Propst ’12
Art Reception: Wednesday, February 6, 3-4 pm
Description: “My work is meant to be a tribute to JoAnne Smart Drane and Bettye Tillman, the first two African American women to graduate from UNCG. The original photographs were taken in 1956 in what used to be the Shaw parlor here on campus. I decided to make cyanotypes, which is photographic printing process that was discovered in 1842 by Sir John Hershel that relies on ultra violet light to create the image.
The project began in the fall of 2012 after a conversation I had with my uncle. He asked me if I knew whom the first African American students were that graduated from UNCG and I honestly didn’t know. I decided to go to university archives and research the story and history of these two remarkable women. I found five amazing black and white photographs and I wanted to bring them back to life in my own way.
I want my work gives to you a glimpse into JoAnne and Bettye’s lives during a trying time in our nation’s history. These two influential women integrated the Woman’s College, which we now call UNCG (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro). The year was 1956, two years after the Brown vs. Board of Education, four years before the Woolworth sit-in and eight years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. They endured the looks and derogatory words that my generation never had to. Their courage to be the first should not be forgotten but celebrated.”
“Reading OUTLoud”
Dates On Display: March 8-May 10, 2013
Featuring work by: April Parker ’13 (curator), Hannah Hawkings (photographer), Tee Dubose (photographer), Ivy Sutterfield (photographer)
Art Reception: Wednesday, April 3, 3-4 pm. Co-Sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Program
Description: “Reading OUTLoud,”, is a captured opportunity to combine activism, books and identity through art. Using the medium of photography, this exhibit addresses the absence of LGBTQ lives in literacy campaigns, mainstream education, and the healing through bibliotherapy. Bibliotherapy is “the healing through books” and can lead to one’s journey towards self actualization. During the cathartic process of reading we are able to identify ourselves through the stories of others in recognition that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.
As partners, lovers, friends, community members we share resources, histories, realities. The very act of reading together gives us a sense of belonging, it provides a connectedness, and dance of taking and receiving. These still frames of queer couples reading to each other articulates culturally specific practices of care (Hurley—Unpublished Manuscript) that regards education as an ethic of care (Heiz, Noddings). Through imagery we hope to document, celebrate, illuminate, and make accessible the stories of queer people, written by queer people and read by queer people.
The fact that we love is clear, how we love and care for each other is often left out of multimedia, where a simple search of “people reading to each other” reflected seemingly white and straight couples. If the world wide web is so narrow as to not reflect the myriads of brown, and the abundance of variation amongst L.G.B.T.Q we will continuously made invisible. This disparity is an invitation to ReadOUTloud.
Some of us read for entertainment and instantly feel better, or we seek out information and once it is located we feel relieved THESE are the benefits of bibliotherapy.
- Improved Literacy
- Enlightenment
- Understanding
- Lost sense of isolation
- Makes things easier to discuss
- Develops Ethnic/Cultural Identity
- Develops Diversity Sensitivity
- Provides information and insight
- Relief of pent up emotions and anxiety
- Acquire new coping skills
- Releases emotions and relieves emotional pressures
- Helps to develop self awareness and an enhanced self concept
- Encourages examination of moral values and stimulation of critical thinking
- Fosters awareness that we are not alone in our feelings or the first/only one to encounter a particular problems
- Leads to better understanding of group norms and expectations
- Extends awareness beyond one’s own family, community, and background
- Improved ability to understand and cope with problems and issues
- Increased social sensitivity, empathy, and respect for others
- Improved personal and social judgment
- Increased understanding of human behavior and motivations
- Increased ability to transcend or seek help for personal challenges and problems”
A Sampling of Past Art Exhibits in the Multicultural Resource Center
Four different exhibits are mounted in the Multicultural Resource Center during the academic year, two each semester. Pictured below are examples from some of the exhibits to date. Visit the art wall, think about the culture that inspired the work on view and get a conversation started among your classmates! You can also meet the artist at specially scheduled reception times!
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