This past Wednesday students were invited to the UW Art museum to promote civil discussion over dinner.
The People’s Supper is an event put on as part of the Pokes Vote series of events in conjunction with the Service, Leadership and Community Engagement (SLCE) group and the UW art museum. The hope is for the event to promote civil discourse over dinner. Attendees were encouraged to set aside political and ideological biases for an evening and to focus on listening and engaging with others.
The UW art museum invited roughly 60 students, faculty staff and community members into their building for an evening of discussion. Students Jandey Shackelford and Cameron Green curated an exhibition featuring pieces from the existing collection in the museum to coincide with some of the topics covered later on.
“It took us about 3 months to select the pieces for the exhibition,” said Shackelford. “The hope of the exhibition tonight is that it gave a voice and safe space to talk about politics.”
The curated pieces featured themes of the American identity and their relationship to the freedoms we enjoy. The hope was to get people interacting and considering politics through an artistic medium. Green invited those admiring the artwork to take some time to consider how they perceive themselves and the juxtaposition of perceiving others.
An interactive component was also incorporated into the showcased artwork. Attendees were invited to fill out freedom cards as part of the For Freedom initiative. The cards featured a space for people to write in what they were glad to have the freedom from, the freedom to, the freedom of and the freedom for.
“People can fill them out about something they’re passionate about, something they want to vote for or against,” said Lucy Ward, a student member of the advisory board for SLCE. “And hopefully that will get them thinking and realizing why it is so important to vote.”
“The purpose of the peoples supper is to establish the human connections,” said Ward. “A lot of the times when you talk about voting you talk about policy and it can get really aggressive and divisive. Tonight was about recognizing everyone as humans with their own unique identity and their own unique experiences then creating a dialogue around those in a thoughtful way in regards to politics.”
The national For Freedoms project helped influence some of the evening’s topics. A nationwide non-partisan organization, For Freedoms looks to promote civic engagement through being a hub for artists and art institutions.
“Because we are part of this national initiative through For Freedoms, we wanted it to be really relevant to Laramie, the campus and the community,” said Katie Christianson, the Curator of Education at the UW Art Museum. “We wanted to partner with people who had the campus audience.”
This was one of the first times that the SLCE office and other groups partnered with the UW Art Museum to create a unique experience for those looking to have open and honest discussions.
“Doing this with the Art Museum allows both us to get some folks at this event that may not have come otherwise,” said Richard Raridon one of the staff members from the SLCE office in charge of community engagement and volunteer services. “This event is part of a bigger picture with a lot of other series of events and programs which I hope people realized.”
Topics of conversation during the evening ranged from sharing personal experiences of injustices to looking at politics through the lens of art.
“Art is a common ground,” said Logan Stefanich, a student who attended the event. “Everyone can understand it no matter race, gender or ethnicity.”
The goal of the evening was to spark good discussion, promote the idea of listening and responding to others without the desire to change or influence their beliefs. Many tables focused on political conversations including how they view politics and what the curated exhibit made them consider in regards to the role of politics.
“Politics today has become speeches and legislation and how good you are at those. I don’t think art and creativity has a place there today,” said Adrian Vetter a student at UW. “Art reminds us that there are more ways to communicate besides those.”
The hope was for those who came to the event to leave with a greater sense of understanding about others. Some even found common ground about values they held dear.
“No matter where you stand most of us can agree on one thing at least,” said Vetter. “There’s still a lot more to fight for in the world.”
