Resilience Week
Brought to you by the Diversity Committee at Maine College of Art and the Students of Color Coalition, Resilience Week is dedicated to our mission of racial, sexual, and gender inclusivity here at MECA. By bringing together an exhibition, reading lists, film screenings, community meals, and workshops, we provide a network of support for those committed to fostering change here at MECA. Generating conversation and awareness of topics surrounding identity, race, representation, and justice allows us to carve a space where our students of color don’t just survive. They thrive.
Resilience of Diversity
“Resilience of Diversity brought together student artists from MECA, alumni, faculty and members of the community to broaden the narrative of artists of color. In sharing the intimate pockets of the emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual mind of these artists, we invite you to look beyond any preconceived ideas to explore the nuances of our stories, our work, and our experiences. As makers, as humans, as a family, we share ourselves with you to expand the conversation beyond stereotypes and ignorance. We showcase the beauty and resilience of diversity while critiquing the Western art historical canon that perpetuates racist, sexist, and exclusionary pedagogy throughout art institutions. Together, the participating artists showcase the beauty of intersectionality, vulnerability and their own cultural traditions to tell the story of community, identity, resistance, and justice.”
- Ashley Page and Alejandra Cuadra
Mend The Gap: A Community Blanket
Mend the Gap is an all ages inclusive workshop that worked with parents and children to discuss topics of race and equity over craft projects. Inspired by the Gee’s Bend Quilting Collective, participants made quilt squares out of upcycled textile material. The individual squares were sewn together to create a blanket representative of our vibrant and creative community. Focused on collective healing through the act of patching, mending, and upcycling textiles to generate conversation surrounding the topics of diversity, representation and inclusivity through art making. The final blanket was included in the Resilience of Diversity exhibition at Maine College of Art.
POC Led Workshop & Lecture Series
A large part of Resilience Week was to engage our community in a dialogue about race, equity, representation. Hosted events were free and open to the public, as we aimed to engage with every level of our community. Providing the MECA student body, and general Maine community with opportunities for growth, learning, and understanding was deeply important in the development stage. To experience and celebrate our cultural difference, and opening our hearts to exchange and conversation, we work to break down the imaginary barriers between us. Programing included West African Dance Workshop with Athena Lynch, artist lecture by portrait photographer Sean Alonzo Harris, Embody the Vessel crochet workshop with Ashley Page, Black Poets Speak Out Talk with Amanda Johnston, History of Hair braiding workshop with Kris Patridge, 7 Ways Non-Black People of Color Perpetuate Anti-Blackness by Pulmira Muniz, Cultural Identity Contemplations with Roland Bryan Mendiola, and a Freestyle Friday with Marco and Mimi of SignatureSoul.
The Welcoming and Belonging Meal
In partnership with the Cafe at MECA, members of the Students of Color Coalition provided a free meal to the students, faculty, and staff at the college. At the heart of community lies dialogue and generosity centered around meals that feed the souls and bodies. Within the celebration of the Resiliency of Diversity, we wanted to have the opportunity to sit down, slow down and be mindful of space, people and energy. We asked the question: What does it mean to enjoy a meal together within the community that we are all a part of? This meal was meant to be a space to step outside of comfort zones, in order to open the hearts, minds, ears and stomachs of our community.
A point of reflection
As a member of the core planning group, we wish to acknowledge that this particular series of programming is a response to our student experiences here at MECA, and is in no way a comprehensive scope of diversity and resiliency. This week also included a Crit/Brunch where students of color were invited to show their work and get the perspective of other artists of color, as well an an LGBTQ+ BIPOC film festival called Navigating the Intersection. Hosted and moderated by Ashley Page, this festival was meant to broaden the narrative of queer people of color, and illuminate the multifaceted nature of identity. With curated reading lists, community meals, dance parties, live performances, and exhibitions, we have danced, sang, drummed, ate, watched and learned the different ways to be together. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what representation, diversity and inclusion can be and look like. We ask that you extend these conversations and ideas well into your life, and take away a sense of connectivity and understanding.
Photo credits to Kyle Dubay, Shiva Darbandi, Alejandra Cuadra, and Ashley Page
A special thank you to:
Planning Group
Aminata Conteh
Jenna Crowder
Alejandra Cuadra
Shiva Darbandi
Annika Earley
Candice Gosta
Athena Lynch
Roberta March
Kelly McConnell
Ashley Page
Nikki Rayburn
Rachel Sommerville
Our Volunteers
Catherine Allen
Jill Beuning
Matanah Betko
Laila Fatimi
Heather Harvey
Nicole Holmes
Chris Malcolm
Araminta Matthews
Charles Melcher
Renée Michaud
Abby Peck
Julie Poitras Santos
Pam Ryder
Marie Shurkus
Julie Smith
André S.F. van de Putte
Ling-Wen Tsai
Participating Artists
Jawad Al Fatlawi
Shance Bagos Taylor
Heather Flor Cron
Titi De Baccarat
Eddie Dechaine
Candice Gosta
Sean Alonzo Harris
Reggie Burrows Hodges
Patrick Kiruhura & Rukundo Jean Baptise
Athena Lynch
Roberta March
Daniel Minter
Oliver
Ashley Page
Madison Poitraist-Upton
Asata Radcliffe
Liz Rhaney
Sidney Sanchez
Ben Spalding
Ling-Wen Tsai
Evelyn Wong
Golaleh Yazdani