By Sawyer Pollitt, Staff Writer
Located in the UMass Dartmouth Campus Gallery in the College of Visual and Performing Arts is a new and interesting exhibition called Take Two. With its opening reception on February 15, this show is based on the concept of UMass Dartmouth professors working collaboratively with other faculty, master artists, students, or other people outside the university. Every work of art shown in Take Two was made by at least two artists working together to deliver a finished product. Take Two combines traditional fine arts with elements of visual media and graphic design.
One notable piece in this show, hanging from the center of the gallery and immediately visible as you walk in is Dangerous (2018) by Laura Franz and Stacy Latt Savage which is shown above. This installation piece utilizes text to highlight how we are living in a world where words are used indiscriminately to harm and how there is a continual struggle to remain hopeful in a world beset by discrimination and hate. This is by far one of the most visually striking works of art in Take Two due to the fact that it takes up the most space in the gallery and by virtue of that, demands the attention of anyone who walks in.
Another set of works that draws the eye is the piece Nguvu yetu iko katika umoja wetu Our strength is in our unity (2018) and Swahili Kanga and Asante Adinkra (2018) by Ziddi Msangi, Kwabena Boateng, and royal hartigan.
The first piece is a large cotton print that as the name suggests, shows the strength in the unity represented in the work. The second piece is a video showing UMass Dartmouth professor royal hartigan drumming along with others in Ghana. The video also depicts several Adinkra designs. These designs are further explained alongside the video in the exhibit in the form of informative descriptions of the meaning of each Adinkra.
Along one of the walls, The Center for Undisciplined Research displays a series of monthly fliers, Center for Undisciplined Research Newsletters (Issues 1-3) (2017), that are distributed to freshman housing as well as to the Center for Visual and Performing Arts building. The purpose of this ongoing initiative is to offer the members of The Center for Undisciplined Research a chance to hone their skills writing for a specific audience. By knowing that they’re writing specifically for first-year students and CVPA students, the authors of these monthly newsletters can fine tune their message to effectively reach their audience in the best possible way. The Center itself is based out of the Star Store in New Bedford and its primary goal is to encourage students to look at art as a tool to enact positive change. It also helps students with more accurately determining what they want to study and how they can go about researching those topics.
Containing work by the following artists: The Center for Undisciplined Research, James Edwards, Michael Swartz, Janet Fairbairn, Professor Fairbairn’s Professional Design Practice Class, Ben Butler, Susan Dye, Juli Parker, Cynthia E. Cummings, Laura Franz, Stacy Latt Savage, Harvey Goldman, Jing Wang, Ziddi Msangi, Kwabena Boateng, royal hartigan, Elena Peteva, and Anthony Fisher. This exhibition will remain in the Campus gallery until March 9. Although every work of art in Take Two is highly interesting and visually impressive, these eye-catching pieces would be a shame to miss.