Freshmen use visual art to encourage diversity

It may be the first time in the history of the world that an administrative report inspired an art exhibition.

Produced by First-Year Interest Group (FIG) students at UW–Madison, the show uses the university’s Plan 2008 as its foundation. The students intend the 32 images to encourage dialogue and action on the plan. Students in the “Imaging a Diverse Community” FIG selected the images by researching similar exhibitions and other online resources.

“In Your Face: Identification and Discrimination” debuts tonight and will be on view in Memorial Union’s Lakefront and Theater Galleries through Friday, Jan. 13. The exhibition is free and all are welcome.

“The research team based their decisions on how thought-provoking images were and chose images that truly convey the purpose of our exhibition,” says Jessica Wesley, one of the students in the FIG. She intends to major in communication arts.

First-Year Interest Groups are learning communities of about 20 students all enrolled in a cluster of three related classes. Common themes or curricular topics link the courses; the integration helps students discover how disciplines relate to each other.

This year, UW–Madison offered 24 FIGs dealing with such subjects as Revolutionary Russia, Human Nature and Animal Nature, Ecology and the Environment, Introduction to Hispanic Cultures, and more.

Wesley’s FIG, led by Jill Casid, assistant professor of art history and theatre and drama, explores the social and political roles of art exhibitions in building diverse communities. Wesley says it has succeeded admirably.

“I feel that we have made the underlying themes of our seminar come to life,” she says. “Plus, we all know what it is like to be curators of an exhibition now. We’ve learned hands-on the responsibilities and goals of a curator, rather than just discussing them in class.”