With Justice For All?
Artist Statement:
Together Wheel Be Stronger
Caeley McClain and Amanda Studdard created an interactive art piece, a place for people to come and express themselves. They wanted to send the message that underneath all of our differences, everyone is human.
Before they began the piece, they talked to different community members and class peers. They got feedback on what would best send their message and spark emotion. Upon receiving the feedback, they decided on the phrase “If only you knew.” This phrase sends their message by creating a sense of everyone having commonalities no matter what their life or background is like. On the art piece there is a bike wheel called the “Homeless Spokesperson.” On the wheel there are quotes and stories from community members experiencing homelessness. On the wheel it also says “Together wheel be stronger,” which is sending the message that we need to connect all of Durango’s community members to create compassion for each other. They used the bike wheel and mountains to represent the Durango community, as the town is known for its love for the outdoors and mountain biking. In Durango, lots of community members experiencing homelessness rely on bikes as their transportation. They hope you enjoy their interactive art piece, take a moment to add your thoughts, and appreciate other people's self expression.
Together Wheel Be Stronger
Caeley McClain and Amanda Studdard created an interactive art piece, a place for people to come and express themselves. They wanted to send the message that underneath all of our differences, everyone is human.
Before they began the piece, they talked to different community members and class peers. They got feedback on what would best send their message and spark emotion. Upon receiving the feedback, they decided on the phrase “If only you knew.” This phrase sends their message by creating a sense of everyone having commonalities no matter what their life or background is like. On the art piece there is a bike wheel called the “Homeless Spokesperson.” On the wheel there are quotes and stories from community members experiencing homelessness. On the wheel it also says “Together wheel be stronger,” which is sending the message that we need to connect all of Durango’s community members to create compassion for each other. They used the bike wheel and mountains to represent the Durango community, as the town is known for its love for the outdoors and mountain biking. In Durango, lots of community members experiencing homelessness rely on bikes as their transportation. They hope you enjoy their interactive art piece, take a moment to add your thoughts, and appreciate other people's self expression.
Reflection:
We started this project by studying Dr. King’s ideas of Civil Disobedience and his definitions of what makes a just v. unjust law. Then we studied various moral and political philosophies of justice that have influenced our legal system including Deontology, Utilitarianism, John Rawls’ and Libertarianism. We researched various issues of injustice in Durango and heard from community organizations about the issues they are working on from homelessness to immigration to environmental issues. We then researched these issues and voted on Homelessness to tackle as a class. We researched homelessness, hearing from various community organizations who work on this issue (Axis, Ed Aber, Food Not Bombs, Veteran Homestead Project). We went on a field trip to Test Tracks with Ed Aber and Tim, one of the people experiencing homelessness and staying on the mountain. We also voted and defined the problem and goal of our event. We had a group of people in the event planning committee who set up the event and exhibition to give us a place to display and raise awareness. Other students created projects to achieve our goal of raising awareness by creating things such as murals, films, a speech, etc.
Our event was held at the fairgrounds and we had around 200-300 people show up at the event. We started the night with some keynote speakers, then we had time for people to talk to those who created projects and those who had booths set up about their organizations. After this time was over, everyone sat down with one another to eat a dinner and get a chance to talk. During part of this dinner, a student stood and delivered a speech. I had some good experiencing and conversations at this event. I was able to talk to multiple very interesting people with good insight and explain my project to many community members. Two of the most memorable conversations I had were with a man named Brandon and another conversation with a woman named Ember. Brandon talked about the differences in the community and policies around homelessness over the time he has lived here. He told us 20 years ago the homeless community was more welcomed than they are now. The other conversation with Ember was over the dinner and this was memorable because we learned a lot about her and the things she is doing for the camp at Test Tracks. She was fun to talk to, just like a friend.
I believe that I pushed myself in doing this project because getting the whole art piece done in time was a bit difficult, Caeley and I planned an ambitious project with the plan to have it on a wall downtown. However, we began to realize it would be difficult to find a place to put it. We needed permission from business owners and could possibly need permits as well. If we had more time I think we could have found a place, but we settled for putting it on wood and having it in the event. This ended up being good anyway because it gave people the chance to write on it and read each other's thoughts while they were at the event instead of just seeing a picture of it and having to go somewhere downtown later if they wanted to add to it. I believe I contributed a lot to the project, the work was split quite evenly between the two of us. I came up with the initial idea and she helped me add to it and refine it. Then she got many materials and brought them and I helped her find some and I bought a few myself. then we took turns with the painting and worked together putting everything on the boards.
This project impacted me because I learned a lot about people experiencing homelessness. I learned that people get in that position in countless different ways and a lot about how many people are treated poorly. I also was not aware of the Test Tracks camp before this project and how much responsibility people had who are staying on the mountain. The project and exhibition have taught me to be much more open-minded to people and remember to stop and talk to people before making a snap judgment. It has shown me that many of us in the community are more alike than we realize or believe, we all have commonalities even though we have come from different backgrounds. I believe it can just take some compassion for one another and awareness to see this and strengthen the connection between community members.
We started this project by studying Dr. King’s ideas of Civil Disobedience and his definitions of what makes a just v. unjust law. Then we studied various moral and political philosophies of justice that have influenced our legal system including Deontology, Utilitarianism, John Rawls’ and Libertarianism. We researched various issues of injustice in Durango and heard from community organizations about the issues they are working on from homelessness to immigration to environmental issues. We then researched these issues and voted on Homelessness to tackle as a class. We researched homelessness, hearing from various community organizations who work on this issue (Axis, Ed Aber, Food Not Bombs, Veteran Homestead Project). We went on a field trip to Test Tracks with Ed Aber and Tim, one of the people experiencing homelessness and staying on the mountain. We also voted and defined the problem and goal of our event. We had a group of people in the event planning committee who set up the event and exhibition to give us a place to display and raise awareness. Other students created projects to achieve our goal of raising awareness by creating things such as murals, films, a speech, etc.
Our event was held at the fairgrounds and we had around 200-300 people show up at the event. We started the night with some keynote speakers, then we had time for people to talk to those who created projects and those who had booths set up about their organizations. After this time was over, everyone sat down with one another to eat a dinner and get a chance to talk. During part of this dinner, a student stood and delivered a speech. I had some good experiencing and conversations at this event. I was able to talk to multiple very interesting people with good insight and explain my project to many community members. Two of the most memorable conversations I had were with a man named Brandon and another conversation with a woman named Ember. Brandon talked about the differences in the community and policies around homelessness over the time he has lived here. He told us 20 years ago the homeless community was more welcomed than they are now. The other conversation with Ember was over the dinner and this was memorable because we learned a lot about her and the things she is doing for the camp at Test Tracks. She was fun to talk to, just like a friend.
I believe that I pushed myself in doing this project because getting the whole art piece done in time was a bit difficult, Caeley and I planned an ambitious project with the plan to have it on a wall downtown. However, we began to realize it would be difficult to find a place to put it. We needed permission from business owners and could possibly need permits as well. If we had more time I think we could have found a place, but we settled for putting it on wood and having it in the event. This ended up being good anyway because it gave people the chance to write on it and read each other's thoughts while they were at the event instead of just seeing a picture of it and having to go somewhere downtown later if they wanted to add to it. I believe I contributed a lot to the project, the work was split quite evenly between the two of us. I came up with the initial idea and she helped me add to it and refine it. Then she got many materials and brought them and I helped her find some and I bought a few myself. then we took turns with the painting and worked together putting everything on the boards.
This project impacted me because I learned a lot about people experiencing homelessness. I learned that people get in that position in countless different ways and a lot about how many people are treated poorly. I also was not aware of the Test Tracks camp before this project and how much responsibility people had who are staying on the mountain. The project and exhibition have taught me to be much more open-minded to people and remember to stop and talk to people before making a snap judgment. It has shown me that many of us in the community are more alike than we realize or believe, we all have commonalities even though we have come from different backgrounds. I believe it can just take some compassion for one another and awareness to see this and strengthen the connection between community members.