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RCAH gallery offers reflection on the 'African-American experience'

January 29, 2015

A new exhibit in the RCAH Lookout! Art Gallery is bringing attention to a civil rights decision from more than 60 years ago.

Artists Justin Randolph Thompson and Bradly Dever Treadaway, with the help of Michigan State students, have created an exhibit entitled “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics." 

“This particular exhibition is a very special one, it’s the fourth annual version of a series that we’ve had called 'Perspectives on African American Experience: Emerging visions,'” Carolyn Loeb, who organizes  the gallery exhibits, said. “The inspiration and basis of the exhibition is the 1954 supreme court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, that aimed to desegregate public schools throughout the United States."

Loeb said several objects went into the creation of the artwork, including many official documents from the court case.

English senior Stacy Rosner said she, as well as other students, thought the documents which had “denied” stamped on them were powerful.

These document create an archive that tells different stories about social change, Loeb said. She added that, though many objects and documents are official, much of the collection also refers to experiences.

“Archival material and the notions of history, legacy, memorial, were essential to our work,” Bradly Dever Treadaway, one of the artists, said.

The artists each have their separate extremes opposite each other in the art gallery, while the middle is their integrated artwork, Treadaway said.

The exhibit is a collaboration of about 60 people, most of which are students.

The exhibition will remain in the Lookout! Art Gallery through Feb. 13, 2015, and is free and open to the public Monday through Friday from noon to 3 p.m. 

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