Exploring the Art of Diversity: Virtual Art Exhibits 2021
Diversity is represented through art in a variety of ways. Over the past semester, students in Mr. McLean’s Art of Diversity class looked at the many ways artists communicate diversity. This served as a basis for developing their own exhibits, individually or in a group. The resulting exhibits showcased below illustrate the many ways artists understand and express diversity. Each exhibit showcases one idea that encompasses a particular aspect of diversity.
As students developed their projects, they were lucky to get feedback via Zoom from a museum expert in Florence, Italy — Valentina Zucchi, curator of the Museo delle Terre Nuove in San Giovanni Valdarno and head of cultural mediation for MUS.E Firenze. Doctoressa Zucchi encouraged students’ exploration of building relations with viewers through art by highlighting emotion and provided tips on how to structure exhibits that include a narrative logic leading viewers through the works.
The following student themes explore ways that art expresses diversity formally (through composition, color, etc.), through content (subject matter i.e., ethnicity, gender, etc.), or both. Exhibit topics include: The Diversity in Dogs, The Diversity of Styles, and Wave To Land. Through these lenses, students have showcased their own work as well as work by classmates. Students invite you to explore this art and to come up with your own understanding of diversity.
The Diversity In Dogs, by Bridget A. ’24
Exhibit Overview
Diversity can be shown through anything, art included. I decided to share my interpretation of diversity through an exhibit called “The Diversity in Dogs.” In each picture, you will see a dog with a different breed, personality, and fur color than the dog next to them. I chose dogs because even though they are genetically the most diverse land mammal in the world, there is an aspect that always unifies them, which is the love of their owners.
Every picture included in this exhibit was sent in from a dog owner with a different perspective on diversity; each person was asked “what is the most diverse thing about your dog?” Their answers were incorporated into the description of the pictures. I decided to ask everyone this to show how differently everyone thinks of diversity.
While looking at the pictures I invite the viewers to answer the question “what do you think the most diverse thing about that dog is?”
The Diversity of Styles, by Ellie L. ’24
Exhibit Overview
This exhibit shows all different aesthetics of clothing. Diversity is shown in this exhibit because of the different colors of the clothing, styles, expression through clothes, people, and body types. These are all shown not in but threw the clothing benign worn.
Wave To Land, by Sarah B. ’24
Exhibit Overview
“Wave To Land” is a collection of wave-based images, which include different media and artists. The purpose of this collection is not only to be something beautiful to look at, but also to show differences through the diversity of the physical waves themselves, for example their location, or shape, or color. All of these pieces together help to paint a picture of diversity through different facets, and though some are very unlike others, they are all unified under the theme. The titles and artists are beneath the art pieces.
