LEFT An interactive timeline provided information on key events, people, and legislation that took place both on the national level and at Dartmouth between 1954 and 1973. Visitors were invited to add their voices by responding to two questions, “How is this history reflected in your life?” and “What does your activism look like?” The hundreds of responses we received revealed the personal connections to civil rights issues then and now.
LEFT Thirteen campus and local residents shared their reflections on various works of art in the exhibition. The community voices labels added a personal perspective and connected our own College and Upper Valley community to the exhibition. Evelynn Ellis, pictured in this photograph, Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity at Dartmouth, wrote a response to Sam Gilliam’s Red April (1970). Photo by Alison Palizzolo.
LEFT Ridwan Hassen, Class of 2015, listens to the free Witness audio guide while taking in Jacob Lawrence’s watercolor Soldiers and Students (1962). This smartphone app was the result of a partnership between the Hood and the Korean-based company GUIDEPLE, for whom Alice EunMyoung Lee, Class of 2014, is the Overseas Marketing Manager. All content was developed by Jessica Womack ’14, curatorial assistant. The voices were those of Dartmouth students past and present. Photo by Alison Palizzolo.
LEFT We officially celebrated Witness by inviting exhibition curators Kellie Jones of Columbia University and Terry Carbone of the Brooklyn Museum to speak about art, activism, and the making of an exhibition. The celebration event attracted nearly 800 people over two days! Photo by Rob Strong.
LEFT Collaborations included one with White River Junction–based theater company Northern Stage. Student and professional actors presented a dramatic reading of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun in the exhibition galleries, overseen by artistic director Carol Dunne and directed by Olivia Scott, Dartmouth Class of 2013 and community engagement associate at Northern Stage. Photo by Rob Strong.
This past fall, Hood Museum of Art staff took advantage of the opportunities presented by the major exhibition on loan from the Brooklyn Museum, Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, to find new ways of engaging with our audiences and incorporating their voices into the exhibition. We are pleased with the success of these initiatives, which will influence our planning for future projects at the Hood. Thank you to all who participated—above are just a few highlights!
