LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 1, 2017) — One month remains to enter submissions in a call for art proposals for University of Kentucky's Memorial Hall.
In recent years, UK has been the site of several important discussions
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 1, 2017) — One month remains to enter submissions in a call for art proposals for University of Kentucky's Memorial Hall.
In recent years, UK has been the site of several important discussions on inclusion of all members of campus and what makes a more welcoming community.
One part of this conversation has centered on a mural located in Memorial Hall, a popular campus landmark. This 1934 fresco, completed by Lexington-born artist and UK art alumna Ann Rice O’Hanlon, was made possible on campus by the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) established in 1933 during the Great Depression. O’Hanlon’s work and other PWAP projects were part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and marked the first time in history a federal government program supported art on a national level.
O’Hanlon’s mural has stirred a range of responses over time. On one hand, it is recognized as a unique document of a time in U.S. history when the government engaged artists to create ambitious acts of American storytelling. On the other, some argue that the mural misrepresents and sanitizes the imagery of the time it depicts. In doing so, it failed to declare the immorality of slavery and instead minimized the violence and inhumanity that many experienced through subjugation and slavery.
Times have changed and in important ways progress has been made, but the debate about racial climate — on the UK campus and across the country — continues.
Through Sept. 1, 2017, the Memorial Hall Art Committee and the UK Office of the President will accept submissions from Kentucky-based artists (or collaborating artists) with ties to the Commonwealth (born in Kentucky but live elsewhere, UK alumni, etc.) to create artwork(s) to be installed in two vaulted spaces measuring 13 feet high by 8 feet wide located in the vestibule of Memorial Hall.
“The possibility of contemporary art helping to reshape the experience of Memorial Hall and the O’Hanlon mural is very exciting. We