MSU Broad Art Museum reclaims space for healing two years after campus shooting

On the night of Feb. 13, 2023, students and faculty in Berkey Hall fled to the MSU Broad Art Museum seeking refuge during the shooting that killed three students and injured five. Now, two years later, the museum seeks to reclaim the space — transforming it from a space of fear and violence, to one of healing where others can process the events of that night.

From now through Feb. 13, the museum will showcase the "Art in the Aftermath: Healing Gun Violence through Activism" exhibition in the Alan and Rebecca Ross Education wing.

Centering the space will be a display of the "Soul Box Project" that was displayed last summer at the East Lansing Public Library. Soul Box Projects consist of folded origami paper that represent deaths and injuries from gun violence, as well as others impacted. These projects are made across the nation.

A student film, documentary excerpts, a mural, oil painting and sculpture will also be featured.

The oil painting was created by Marco Díaz-Muñoz, the professor that was teaching when the gunman entered his Berkey Hall classroom and opened fire.

"The exhibit links to (Díaz-Muñoz) very intimately, but also the students, faculty and staff who were in Berkey Hall that night," said Scott Boehm, a guest co-curator and MSU professor. "The Broad itself was an evacuation site that night, so he and the students were taken into the Broad while the shooting was still going on."

A main reason for bringing this exhibit to this museum was to reclaim the space, Boehm said.

"We wanted to transform it into a healing, regenerative, safe space to process the events of that night," Boehm added. "And (Díaz-Muñoz), every semester would pick that classroom so that he would be able to see the Broad. He really appreciated the museum and what it represented — it's just a lot of symbolic importance to the exhibition being in this particular site."

In the Soul Box Project portion of the exhibition, there are 2,940 boxes lining the wall, each representing those killed or injured from gun violence in Michigan within a span of 13 months. The exhibit will also encourage visitors to create their own boxes incorporating their thoughts and messages.

"The soul boxes represent life and death, but also hope and empowerment," said Maya Manuel, a guest co-curator and MSU alum. "Sometimes you don't have the right words to channel your pain, but you might have a piece of art that can express that for you. Art humanizes the cause."

For Manuel and Boehm, art is one of the only ways they can contextualize their healing. Manuel compares this to the way children learn to paint and color before they learn to read and write.

"I think art helps transmit the unspeakable," Boehm said.

Manuel wants this exhibit to remind students of the community that was built right after the shooting.

"The weeks after the shooting, students would randomly hug each other or give a smile to each other," Manuel said. "We don’t see that anymore, but we know it was there. The community that we created after the shooting was indelible."

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