Seattle University Spectator
Thursday, November 03, 2011
Between Sept. 21 and Dec. 16, the Vashon Gallery and Kinsey Gallery are featuring exhibits that show the various ways in which high school and elementary school students have been impacted by the efforts of Seattle U's artistic community.
The exhibit demonstrates how art has the potential to venture far beyond mere visual stimulation. In this instance, it is used as a way to highlight the journeys, identity issues and everyday difficulties of kids growing up in a culturally diverse neighborhood.
Photography professor Claire Garoutte is one of the exhibit's primary organizers. Garoutte teamed up with Global African Studies professor Saheed Adejumobi to put together a project titled "Picturing Ourselves: A photographic and textual exploration of identity and citizenship through photography and writing." This portion of the exhibit, located in the Vashon Gallery, features a number of photographs taken by high school students in the Somali community. Accompanying the photos are reflective, insightful comments from the program's participants, which are displayed in the form of scattered snippets of text.
"Working with the kids gave me insight into what they deal with on a day-to-day basis," Adejumobi said. "We saw them navigate their identity as Africans and African-Americans. Each of them has a lot to say about their positions in those two categories."
Garoutte and Adejumobi set a number of goals for the workshop. Not only did they want to "explore and express" the concept of identity and community among Somali youths, but the duo also hoped to address "global issues of immigration" through creative expression. Through art, they worked to establish a cross-cultural dialogue.
"It's been very educational and cross-cultural. Community engagement and fine arts — what a great combo," Garoutte said.
The Vashon Gallery portion of the exhibit also features a video by junior film studies major Stefan Wanigatunga on his experiences working with the Literature Circles program at Bailey Gatzert Elementary. Wanigatunga has been volunteering with the Children's Literacy Project since he was a freshman. When he became involved in the reading circles, he was asked to put a film together.
"It was a unique experience because I was making a film about something I was actually participating in," Wanigatunga said.
Wanigatunga recently received a grant to start a film program at Bailey Gatzert. Now he is in the process of purchasing film equipment and figuring out what the program will include.
"I want to get kids comfortable telling their stories on film. It's an opportunity to bring the most modern form of expression, which is film, to the students," he said.
The fourth portion of the exhibit is in the Kinsey Gallery. It features paintings that reflect the design process that went into the Bailey Gatzert mural. Professor Danila Rumold who organized the mural project last spring in a quarter-long art class. The entire class of students dedicated time and effort to the mural design that eventually went up at the elementary. The original paintings from the class are featured in the Kinsey Exhibit.