Solidarity week art gallery highlights dignity

Lexie Shadix, Campus Carrier asst. arts and living editor

Solidarity Week began in 2017 as a response to the Neo-Nazi riots that were occurring in Charlottesville, Virginia at the time. It was started by five students: Gabby Sola, Ryan Moran, Katie Ott, Diamond Newsom and Sara Jordan. Each year, Solidarity Week has a theme that the student leaders feel aligns with the mission of promoting solidarity among Berry students. This year, the theme was dignity, and it was defined as “the understanding that all humans have fundamental values regardless of their culture, background, beliefs, or actions.”

“[Dignity is] something that you really just can’t take away,” Jake Patton, a member of the Solidarity Week executive committee, said. 

The week introduced students to the views of others and aimed to grow good neighbor culture across Berry’s campus. It is a time for people across campus to come together and interact with each other, and for students to feel seen and realize that they do belong here and that there is a space for them.  

“This entire week is to honor, celebrate and learn about our differences,” Mykelle Patterson, partnership coordinator on the Solidarity Week team, said.  

Events were hosted around campus to educate students and faculty alike; the Solidarity Week Art Gallery that occurred last Thursday was one of these. 

“We wanted to do something a little bit different,” Patterson said. “[The Solidarity Week team] struggled with aligning the art museum with dignity, but the more we talked through it, we thought it would be a great way to present a physical expression of inward dignity.” 

Anyone on campus could submit pieces for the gallery. The exhibit was comprised of 14 pieces; 13 of them were created by students, and one was created by a professor at Berry. 

Song lyrics, sculptures, paintings, drawings, vision boards and the “Be Berry” canvas that was created during Viking Venture could all be found throughout the gallery. The pieces were displayed in Krannert Ballroom C. Blake Howard, the gallery manager at the Moon, assisted the Solidarity Week team with displaying each piece. 

“We were trying to figure out, do we want to just have everything on tables and put tablecloths out,” Howard said. “It’s a lot different whenever something is hung, and it looks nice as opposed to on a table. It’s just a different way to look at it.” 

How a piece is displayed can affect the way that people interact with it. For example, if a piece of artwork is on a table, viewers will often have to look down at it. This could cause them to feel differently about it than if they look directly at it. Ultimately, the pieces were placed on sculpture stands borrowed from the Moon Gallery. Paintings and drawings were supported by easels, and the grand piano was used to display song lyrics. 

“I felt that really brought more of a sense of dignity to the pieces,” Howard said. 

The art gallery provided a way for students to get directly involved in Solidarity Week. They had the opportunity to present what dignity means to them and where they find their dignity. 

 “It’s one thing to go and listen to somebody speak, and it’s another thing to actually have your work on display,” Howard said. “It also builds a sense of community.”  

Patterson was one of these students who had a piece on display. In high school, she had been assigned to watch a video regarding immigration and then create something that represented immigration in some way. The video was about women and girls who are often taken advantage of when they immigrate. They are vulnerable and searching for someone to trust but may end up a victim to trafficking which could hinder their immigration status. 

“Just learning that about immigrants and what they’re going through, I want to be able to express that,” Patterson said. 

Patterson created a piece from the perspective of someone who is trapped like these immigrants often are. Much of the canvas featured a room that was done in black and white, and in the middle of the piece, she drew a circle filled with a vivid landscape to represent what immigrants thought the United States would be like. However, the black and white room symbolized the darkness that they are stuck in. On the tiles of the room, she wrote quotes that they had given regarding their experiences. 

“I wanted to give them a voice,” Patterson said. “Putting their quotes on the tiles of the room allowed me to do that.” 

For the gallery, she recreated her piece from that high school project, leaving out only the circle in the middle due to time constraints. Through her work, she was able to honor these women and girls and express their dignity. 

Artists are not the only ones who benefit from art, however. Art also touches viewers in a unique way. It can speak to not only the world around us, but also give the viewer insight into the life of the artist. That is what Solidarity Week aims to do: open people’s eyes to the lives of others. 

“I hope everyone that came was able to not only appreciate the space, but the people and the individuals that the pieces were representing and symbolizing,” Patterson said. 

There are some things that are incapable of being described within language. Sometimes words do not sufficiently summarize emotions or accurately represent something such as inward dignity. Things such as these may be best expressed through other mediums, such as art.

“It’s a way to get what we’re feeling on the inside, outside,” Patton said. “And I think that sometimes dignity and that value that we all feel is hard to showcase, and I think that we can talk about it as much as we want but, sometimes the physical activity of painting, drawing, writing or singing, those things help to showcase that better than actually talking about it does.” 

While Solidarity Week is only one week of the year, solidarity is not something that should only be expressed during that week. The people that fill Berry should continue reaching out to others and being open to new ideas                    and worldviews. 

“I hope that [Berry] continue[s] to make space for people to have hard conversations,” Patterson said. 

Beyond the Solidarity Week art gallery, the population of Berry must continue to support each other. People are not worthy of honor or respect because of their race, religion, sexuality, gender, grades or wealth. All these things are superficial, they are not what gives someone value. People have value simply because they exist. They have worth that is not defined by their past, present or future, and everyone deserves to have a voice at the table, not just a seat. 

Difference makes the world beautiful, and being willing to understand those differences shows people that they are the ones that make it so. Berry is not only a place to grow intellectually, but it also provides a space for students to connect to others. Reaching out, starting difficult conversations and, above all, being willing to listen can continue to foster solidarity at Berry and ensure that people know they are worthy, simply because they are.