Drawing attention to the genocide in Darfur UM student artists seek to put crisis on the map

Some of the students in University of Maine professor Laurie Hicks’ Topics in Art Education class were aware of the ongoing violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. Others had heard of the genocide in the African country, but didn’t know many specifics.

Thanks to a service learning project designed by Hicks, the students have had an education in recent African history. Just as important, however, is the lesson they’ve learned through setting up the project itself – an experience Hicks hopes her students will take into their own classrooms some day.

The three-part project will coincide with the opening Friday evening of the 2008 Juried Student Art Exhibition “Art Matters” in the university’s Department of Art. The exhibit, which is now on display to the public, will have its official opening from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 11, at Lord Hall on the University of Maine campus.

The student exhibition, which is now open for viewing, features more than 100 works of art in a range of media.

The art education students will show their three projects Friday with a series of postcards, a PowerPoint display and a silent auction that will feature the works of several faculty members, including Orono artist Michael Lewis, to benefit the charity organization Help Darfur Now.

“[The goal is to] to teach them to use their professional knowledge as artists and creators to affect the world in some way, no matter how small,” Hicks said. “… As educators, they have a responsibility to introduce experiences that aren’t in a textbook.”

It’s a lesson that has made an impact on Shannon Campbell, a senior from Eddington.

“You can do things outside of the classroom but when you start to get the community involved in this type of project, you’re really doing something above and beyond the regular classroom lesson,” she said. “We’re not just learning about Darfur per se, but actually how to carry out a service learning project as we would if we were the teachers.”

UM art education students do service learning projects every year, but in the past the projects have been very local. Students have spent time at the Shaw House in Bangor, for example, or with residents of assisted living facilities.

This year, however, Hicks said she wanted to impress upon the college students that their community extends beyond local, regional and national boundaries.

Students read the book “Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond.” One of the authors of that book, actor Don Cheadle, starred in the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” which the art education students watched.

From there, the students formed three groups to put together around Friday’s opening.

One group focused on the politics of art. That group, of which Campbell is a member, designed a series of four postcards on which students and other members of the UM community can write their feelings about Darfur. The postcards will then be packaged and sent to U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

Another group worked on the educational aspect of art. Those students designed a PowerPoint presentation with images of and statistics about Darfur, which will be projected on a wall of Lord Hall’s first floor during the opening.

The third group organized the auction, which will take place on the second floor of Lord Hall during the exhibition’s opening. Maine junior Dana Andrews said there should be at least 20 pieces up for auction. Lewis, a professor at the university who is also a well-known local artist, is contributing, as are Hicks, and faculty members Owen Smith and Nina Jerome Sutcliffe.

Andrews helped organize the auction, which has been a lesson itself in organization.

“Everyone asks me, why do I want to be an art teacher?” said Andrews, who is from York Harbor. “I want to be able to help other students change culture, change the world, just make a difference. I hadn’t had any real-world experience with it, but I guess I do now. We’re doing something to make a difference. There’s a lot you can do just locally, helping out people in need.”

Lord Hall is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Exhibits are free. The postcards will be available Friday during the auction and Monday from noon to 2 p.m. in front of the university’s Fogler Library. For more information about the auction, contact Hicks at 581-3247.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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