Transcript of: "Closing Remarks, Art, Race, Space Symposium" by Carol White and Modupe Labode (January 25, 2013)

Recording available from: https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/media/791s45x46b

This is the final presentation, formal presentation. And then we're going to have closing remarks from Hadoop Bay. I just asked that the Twitter feed go up so that we could kind of see what the additional conversations are going on around this topic. So let's, let's go ahead and get started with the last portion. What we did was for those of you who weren't in the room. We did pose several questions for people to answer. And representatives were selected at each table to come and answer the questions. Thank you. So let's see. Let us start with question number three. Number three. Okay, what are productive ways we can have dialogue about race and racism in this community, which is an excellent question. So whoever is going to be our spokesperson, if you'd go to the podium. Excuse me, the microphone. I said it's been a long day. I'm sorry. I've just learned to fight once. Yes, you did very well. Thank you. Say that again. Okay. Question. What are productive ways? We can have dialogue about race and racism in this community. We covered a lot of things in a short period of time, but I hope the consensus was is that it starts off with communication and listen to diverse groups trying to pull them together. Now use the example. The process is still going on. I don't know if anybody knows that the process is still going on in terms of West gonna be put on the cultural trail to represent us. And it's been dialogue between people with different ideas. And like one lady, young lady mentioned, her, her, her opinion change. Basically by coming here and hearing other people talk about itself. From my perspective, that's good. Because sometimes we misinterpret what the person is really saying based upon looking through your own lenses. So we send more open discussion. Art is one thing but to deal with the whole idea of racism and white supremacy has art can do it by myself. But it's certainly can help in some, some, some parts of the community as far as self-esteem, and that's important. Thank you to our group. Okay, Nice job. Thank you. That is great. So from the perspective of this group, it seems that, that encouraging people to communicate, to continue to communicate, to listen to various perspectives is essential to continuing the development of sort of a, a respectful conversation in the community. Right? Okay. This is also very important. History within the community is also essential. And sharing that history among generations sort of entered interdisciplinary groups for lack of a better term. So again, trying to make sure that we hear and see and understand the perspectives of multiple people seems to be a really important outcome for this, for this group. Okay. Thank you very much. Nice job. Okay, Next question. Does Indianapolis need public art? Why or why not? This is question number four. Who worked on number four? Okay. Of course we need it. And one of the reasons we need art is because we get to share and we have to share, we share, we share Indianapolis, Indianapolis as a shared space. It also gives us the opportunity to share our viewpoints, which is what he was saying earlier. And one of the things that got set in our group that was, I thought was really, really important part for me to remember was that. If there's not just one thing, we wouldn't be concerned. If everybody's viewpoints went up. We could say, okay, I like this one, but that one doesn't turn me on, doesn't make me too happy. But there are so many other places that do. And when we learn to do that, so that we share the space and that all of our ideas get presented. It takes, it just makes it a better place. It contributes to the greater good. Okay, Thank you. So another instance in the importance of shared viewpoint. Shared perspectives. Again, being able to see things from the, the different through the different lenses of different eyes. This is another essential piece and why public art is actually important. Okay, number seven. How, okay, this is a long question. Let's see if I can read this properly. How might our cities art and the conversations we have about it impact the way people around the state and around the country. Think of our city. So that's very focused on our local area. Hello. Thank you to all the organizers, first of all, for a thoroughly excellent Symposium. In our group, we had several of the panelists, West graduate students, some of the graduate students from IUPUI. And while we talked about many things, I'll just emphasize what were selected as some of the most important aspects of our conversation. First of all, people around the country and within the state do look at Indianapolis. And so what was described here, what was discussed here was a little bit of a cautionary tale. It was Instructional to hear a little bit about what worked as part of the process and what didn't. I'm very instructional, very important, teachable moment. One of our members of the group, they'll call this deliberative controversy and noted that what's important that we actually pursue action at the end, she noted that this is a political term. So in short, the controversy is not bad. We tend to steer clear of it because it's not necessarily very comfortable process or way to be for a lot of us, but good public art. And this perhaps is what is most important or so of the kernel of what we said brings about good dialogue and attention that will help the people of that place move past that particular conversation and be a continual subject of ideas and further important discussion. So it was just part of a stage instead of an end point. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So to recap, that we should be deliberate, that we should continue the process of conversation. And that it even though there is conflict and there has been conflict around this, that there's been something positive that's come out the other end of it. So in terms of looking at us as a maybe a model for other parts of the country. That maybe what we could say consistently is that there was, there were challenges. However, those challenges presented us with opportunities to have further dialogue. Is that pretty much get at what you all were talking about that close. Okay. All right. Last but not least, number eight, the question is, should public art provoke discussion, beautify, or celebrate heritage? And how do we do, how do these goals relate? Well, in general, we discussed a lot of issues, but we came to a consistency that it can accomplish all three, but it's not completely an inclusive of all three, so you can have a mixture of them. We also stated was that there is obviously not a general consensus on what is public art and how it serves everybody. So it obviously can't be all things to all people at the exact time. Then we also started getting into, but we ran out of time, was to really discuss the actual definition of what is public art and how that is hard to define with society. Okay. Well, one of the things that I realized when I was walking around the room was that there were some very serious and in-depth conversations going on that probably could have gone on for another hour easily. And so what that says to me, I have not talked about what, who, who I am and what I do. I'm an educator, but I'm also a visual artist. And one of the things that I've observed about today is that this is one of, its been a long time since I've been in a room full of people who shared. An idea or an experience that was built around art. And there was such a wide range of experiences and perspectives in the room. So that wasn't just artists and it wasn't just people who were opposed or supportive of the project. There were people from all walks of life in this room. And these questions in some ways to me present us with further opportunities to do more later. So I'm almost going to suggest that I know that there's talk about doing more meetings and conversations. I'm going to suggest that these questions be passed on to the group so that those, that, so that that dialogue can continue. Because it's clear to me that this is important to a lot of people. I know a lot of folks have left at this point, but but I also all day felt the intensity of this conversation. So that would be my recommendation just from an educator artist point of view. Because I think that even as I looked at some of the others, others that we didn't address, that there's a lot more that could happen as a result of this. So that's my portion of the program. Thank you all very much for participating. Carol, thank you so much for the work that you did. I think that one of the things that surprised me was even though people are feeling a little brain weary. And I don't mean we're in a bad way, but we've been doing a lot of labor and I can tell that I feel I feel differently after after this session, after this day than I do say it when I'm just grading all day. Let me say that this is much better than grading all day. So I'm partly because well, mainly because I think that at least I feel when I had made several challenges for myself that I wanted to have patients, that I wanted to allow myself to be changed, that I wanted to listen openly. I found that I think that this was something that other people have made. It seem like they made a similar promises to themselves and engaged openly. This is again, a really rare space, and unfortunately the university often doesn't serve this purpose. But it wouldn't be the same if it hadn't. There hadn't been people who came here and generously, even right until the last minute, decided that they would engage. And I really want to thank you all for that. I'd like to extend a special thank you for all of our speakers. If you can look around and kind of, I'm sure, you know. And to the assault. Now I'm going to call them the social media team in the back. And again to Becky Ellis and I'm Jessica Mathis for their extraordinary support work. I would also like to I was really struck by by Richard pierces. Kind of I wouldn't say invocation or order or benediction because I don't think he I don't know him well enough if he wants to be compared to a, a man of the cloth. But but let's, let's, let's just toss that, Let's just put that aside because that sounds very hierarchical. But his kind of idea to say, go out and do some thing, do something, do something however you want to put it. I know he was quoting Angela Davis, who is probably one of the paradigms of doing some thing. So whether that is in art, whether that's in the private sphere, whether that's in the public sphere. But I am been surprised by even some of the smaller conversations I've heard and been part of a saying like, This is the project that we're going to work on. How are we going to actually allow ourselves to be changed by some of the things that we've heard. So please go out and do something, do something or do something. Thank you so much for being here. Please watch the website again. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to follow up with the e-mail and have a very good weekend. Thank you.