TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A picture is worth a thousand words and a local photographer is using her platform to illustrate photography’s influence on the civil rights movement.
“I just wanted to talk about the impact that imagery has on all of us to change our minds to make us think differently, have different perceptions,” says Ann Dean, Lawrence-based photographer and member of the Humanities Kansas Speakers Bureau.
Friday’s presentation came as part of Humanities Kansas Big Idea series.
“The more things change the more they stay the same,” she says. “And you know, we’re we’re still not over the hump. We’re still fighting for the same things that we were, so we really wanted to just show that not only words can have meaning, but imagery can really have great meaning when we’re talking about these issues.”
I think it’s important to explore photography in the civil rights era because it reminds us of where we were, the intolerance, the segregation,” says Valerie Mendoza, historian and lecturer at Kansas City Kansas Community College. “And hopefully it shows us how far we’ve come.”
“In terms of photography, the civil rights era, it preserves an era [sic] with such brave people, brave and dedicated, who fought for change,” says Mendoza.
Dean used powerful historical photos to illustrate her message. You can find links and context for all of them HERE.
“It meant that the atrocities that were occurring on sometimes a daily basis in some cities in the United States could be seen by the rest of the country and the world and get a story out that perhaps wasn’t being told entirely, and allow people to make up their own ideas about what they thought of such behavior,” says Dean.
She points to the famous Whipped Peter photo and the impact it had on the public’s conscience.
“This man, with these beatings shown on his back– and I don’t I think from the very beginnings, people didn’t understand the behavior that went on along with the institution of slavery,” Dean says. “So the power was that it was able to open folks eyes to these are human beings not some commodity to be traded.”
“Sometimes when you read a story, you can read it and it sinks in. But seeing an image is worth a million of those stories, right where you see something and you think, wow,” she says.
More events from Humanities Kansas can be found on it’s website.
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The fact that Franki Raffles is so little known is a travesty. The Jewish, Marxist, lesbian, feminist photographer worked for just over a decade, until she died in 1994, aged 39, while giving birth to twin daughters. In that time she trained her lens, with brilliant fervour, on women, portraying them as gritty, resilient agents of change. Raffles’ life, her work, and her death all speak to the sheer scale of sacrifices women make and the labour they endure in trying to hold a fractured society together.
A new exhibition devoted to Raffles at the Baltic, Gateshead is the largest institutional survey of her work to date. The curators – Emma Dean and Baltic’s director, Sarah Munro – combed through more than 40,000 negatives and contact sheets in Raffles’ archive. As a result, almost none of the 300 photographs in this show have been printed before – Raffles only left a few homemade prints. They offer an unprecedented view into the scope and mission of a photographer who was almost written out of history, even as she tried to record it.
The exhibition is perfectly timed and depressingly timely, bringing the political parallels between the 1980s and now into sharp, irrefutable focus. The clothing and furnishing may date the pictures, but the same issues facing the women Raffles photographed at work in factories in Tibet or Thatcherite Scotland, or chopping wood in the USSR, or working at midwifery clinics in Zimbabwe, the low wages, the precarity, the lack of access to affordable childcare, housing or welfare, the domestic violence have barely improved, and in some cases have worsened.
One stark difference between Raffles’ time and today, however, is the way she worked. Many of these photographs were commissioned by local authorities, intended to try to make sense of shocking statistics on social inequalities, to bolster the women’s movement. Raffles often developed her work with local councillors – a kind of comradeship that’s hard to imagine today. But it made me wonder, what might be possible now if local authorities were more forward-thinking, and if mutual trust could be forged between artists and the authorities?
Photographic projects that were exhibited in Raffles’ lifetime, such as To Let You Understand, portraying women at 40 workplaces across Edinburgh – were shown at swimming pools or leisure and community centres. Raffles didn’t consider herself an artist, nor her photographs artworks – the exhibition display here carefully takes this into account, displaying her images as constellations that gain momentum by number, giving a bird’s eye view over a society. Raffles was interested in the interconnectedness of women. She visualised intersectionality long before the term became part of the vernacular; her works find more similarities than differences between the various communities she worked alongside.
These parallels are evoked in abundance: sausages sold by women in the USSR are just like the sausages made by women in Edinburgh; women appear at the loom in Scotland and Russia; babies are born and bounced on the hip and raised in tandem with the physical labour. The women rarely stop and pose – they simply have too much to do. Raffles caught them doing back-breaking work, axes raised in the air like crucifixes, faces and hands etched with hardship, clothes stained with sweat and blood.
The exhibition presents documents of anti-poll tax protests in Scotland and anti-dictatorship protests in Manila side by side. Also included is Raffles’ best known work – an poster campaign for the charity she co-founded, Zero Tolerance, to raise awareness about domestic violence against women and children. The posters still pack a punch today with their bold typesetting and Raffles’ stark black and white photographs, both word and image subverting victim stereotypes to suggest – as one poster chillingly reads – “whoever, wherever, whenever”.
Another prescient work that chimes with heart-rending clarity today is Lot’s Wife, a project Raffles began in the early 1990s in Israel, before the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and left unfinished when she died. It compiles testimonies of Jewish women who had recently resettled in Israel after the fall of the Soviet Union, with photographs by Raffles. The women’s observations widen the aperture on the domestic space, where women are forced to grapple with the consequences of war and conflict, while thinking of the future. “I don’t want my children to grow up thinking it is all right to treat other people like this,” one woman confides.
What makes Raffles’ sense of solidarity so convincing, perhaps, is the fact she not only photographed it, but she lived by it. When she set off on a road trip across the USSR to photograph women at work, she took her family with her – daughter Anna, then eight, and partner Sandy. She talked to her subjects at length and clearly made them feel at ease. She didn’t try – as many protest photographers now do – to make her subjects look sexy or cool. Raffles rallied and simply rolled up her sleeves and got on with the job. Yet her work was left unfinished. Just as the maxim goes: a woman’s work is never done.
Downstairs, an exhibition by Joanne Coates tells a tale of class and the countryside. Middle of Somewhere sees photographs hung on pink walls to mimic the movement of a migratory journey, as if moving up and down the contours of a rolling landscape, not unlike the places that appear in her images. Inspired by a visit to Raffles’ archive at St Andrews, Coates embarked on a new body of work that in many ways picks up where Raffles left off.
Coates set out to tell the stories of a young generation of women living on low incomes, revisiting remote rural communities on the Orkney islands and the Yorkshire Dales. Moving between enigmatic portraits and landscapes, Coates rejects the romanticised view of country living; these places are harsh, hostile and foreboding. She shows a union jack waving outside a butchers; a dead rabbit lying on an empty playing field. A solitary gravestone on a hillside is engraved with “TA-RA”. A note interrupts a picture-perfect pastoral view: “Take your bags of dog shit home.”
In a reclaimed wooden structure, built to resemble a rural bus stop, Coates presents a short film cutting archival and new footage together, with audio accounts from young women she photographed. They speak about precarity and poverty in their communities, of the menace of the climate crisis. These are pressing concerns for the next generation living in the UK – concerns that previous generations have not had to face. The exhibition builds to a climactic cliffhanger, with two portraits of two of the young subjects, their backs now turned to the camera, contemplating the landscapes they have grown up in, but soon may be forced to leave.
Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works ends 16 March 2025. Joanne Coates: Middle of Somewhere ends 17 November 2024, both at Baltic, Gateshead
“South Beach” photograph by St. Mark’s student Patrick Flanagan, who also won two first-place awards among other honors at the Texas Photographic Society’s 2024 International Student Competition.[Copyright: Patrick Flanagan]
Patrick Flanagan, a graduating senior at Dallas’ St. Mark’s School of Texas, has been named one of 20 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts for 2024.
The U.S. Presidential Scholars award—one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students who exemplify academic excellence, leadership qualities, and community service—is presented on behalf of the President of the U.S, and honors up to 161 graduating high school seniors of high potential each year. To be selected as a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, students must have attended National YoungArts Week.
L to R: St. Mark’s students Patrick Flanagan, Hudson Brown, and Lukas Palys were all named 2024 YoungArts Winners of Distinction, with Flanagan going on to be named a 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Nathan Meyer and Charlie Hill were named Winners in the YoungArts competition. [Photo: St. Mark’s]
Flanagan was one of three St. Mark’s students to be named “Winners of Distinction” in the 2024 national YoungArts competition. along with Hudson Brown and Lukas Palys. In January, the three students traveled to Miami for National YoungArts Week, a week-long program offering master classes taught by world-renowned artists as well as opportunities for the students to exhibit their work.
Two other St. Mark’s students received the “Winner” designation in the YoungArts competition: Nathan Meyer in photography and Charlie Hill in design arts.
St. Mark’s photography instructor Scott Hunt, who holds the school’s Arnold E. Holtberg Master Teaching Chair, has had 36 students receive recognition from the YoungArts Program over the years.
“I’m proud of all of my boys for the commitment and hard work that goes into developing a competitive portfolio for YoungArts,” Hunt said in a statement. “The boys spend months crafting and creating their portfolio, a process that is not unlike developing a master’s thesis exhibit. While not every boy receives accolades, I’m proud of all of them for embarking on such a daunting task, overcoming challenges and developing portfolios that are meaningful and powerful.”
Flanagan had already won kudos recently from the Texas Photographic Society’s 2024 International Student Competition, where he won two first-place awards in the Fine Art/Abstract and Landscape categories, a second-place award in the Documentaries/Photojournalism category, and five honorable mentions.
Flanagan was just one of 14 St. Mark’s students recognized with a total of 29 selections in the 2024 TPS competition, which is presented annually by TPS and the the Association of Texas Photography Instructors for current high school, middle, and elementary school students.
Of this year’s 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts winners, YoungArts President Clive Chang said the students, “who have so impressively demonstrated academic and artistic excellence, along with commitment to and leadership in their communities—represent the next generation of artistic changemakers who will continue to use their skills and creativity to help us broaden our understanding of the world. YoungArts is thrilled to support them today, and to invest in their lifelong creative freedom.”
More details about all 20 winners below can be found here.
The 2024 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts winners [Photos: YoungArts]
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The newly established Texas Capital Foundation is following the first round of grant awards by opening again for new submissions this November.
Tarleton State University received the go-ahead for a new biotechnology institute as part of Texas A&M-Fort Worth’s burgeoning downtown research campus. Approved in mid-August by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, the biotech institute is situated in one of the nation’s fastest-growing life sciences hubs. “More than 5,000 biotechnology manufacturing and research and development firms — think Novartis, Alcon, AstraZeneca — call Texas home,” according to the university. And DFW now ranks seventh in the U.S. for life science and biotech jobs. The Tarleton State Biotechnology Institute will focus on discovery and innovation in bioinformatics and computational modeling.…
The Texas Cultural Trust’s giving circle invests in arts education for kids across Texas. The deadline to apply for the 2024 cycle is December 1. In June, the Texas Women for the Arts awarded over $294,000 in 2023 grants to 41 organizations across Texas, including seven in North Texas.
The North Texas Performing Arts (NTPA) has launched the NTPA Deaf Theatre, the first in North Texas and one of the first of its kind nationally. It has appointed Daymond Sands as the Deaf Theatre’s new Program Director. Sands will produce the Deaf Theatre’s first major production, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which hits the stage in November. He’s currently directing a cast of 22 actors in the adaptation of the classic story, according to a news release. Award-winning arts educator and mentor Sands, a Dallas native who first took the stage at age five, recently received the Art Centre of…
Dallas Innovates, the Dallas Regional Chamber, and Dallas AI are teaming up to launch the new AI 75 program at Capital Factory’s Future of AI Salon today. The first-ever list will recognize Dallas-Fort Worth innovators in artificial intelligence. Nominations are open through March 20.
From Savannah LeCornu’s intimate portraits to Jason LaClair’s large-scale murals, Native art is vital to Whatcom County’s cultural identity. Deanna Lane, founder of Whatcom County art collective Native Arts 360, has devoted her career to helping historically underrepresented artists find new platforms.
“Art is my entire life. It’s in my DNA,” she said. “The goal is to provide as many opportunities for artists to get their work out there and share it as broadly as possible.”
Lane is a creator herself, but when “no surface felt big enough to make art on,” she realized her primary interest lay in community-building. This led her to found Native Arts 360, formerly Native Arts Collective, in 2013 to help connect Indigenous and other underrepresented artists to broader opportunities.
With Native Arts 360, Lane promotes Indigenous artists through channels ranging from in-person exhibitions and events to e-commerce, marketing and networking.
Lane is of Black, Creek, Cherokee (Eastern Band) and Lenape heritage and got her start in the arts with New York-based nonprofit American Indian Community House. She describes the nonprofit as a “very intertribal community that raised me lovingly,” and views her current work as a way to honor this early mentorship.
Lane has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, and a master’s in cultural anthropology and museum studies at New Mexico State University, noting the latter experience “opened her world in another way.” From there, Lane worked with the Smithsonian Institute at the National Museum of the American Indian in advance of the museum’s Washington, D.C. branch opening.
“That was my extended professional and personal family,” Lane said of the National Museum of the American Indian staff. “[The experience] really showed me just how to get work out there in the most professional and respectful manner, working with the elders, working with emerging artists, and so I’ve just kind of continued that.”
Lane’s family ties eventually spurred a move to Bellingham, where she has helped organize exhibitions and connect Native artists to institutes, including Whatcom Museum and the Museum of Northwest Art. Lane served as the interim director of Sculpture Northwest and DEI coordinator of Allied Arts of Whatcom County, with whom she established the Whatcom Cultural Arts Festival in 2018.
Lane organized her first show with Native Arts 360, “Of This Land,” with Sculpture Northwest in February 2017. The exhibition included traditional Lummi carver Felix Solomon and Lummi glass artist Dan Friday, both of whom Lane said are “huge inspirations for me.” From there, she executed three Native Arts 360 exhibitions with Allied Arts in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Most recently, Native Arts 360 presented an exhibition at COF&, entitled “Thriving,” in October–November 2023 for Native American Heritage Month. In addition to 2D works by artists such as LeCornu, Káa Sháyee and LaClair, the exhibition included an Oct. 28 pop-up market with makers such as Copper Canoe Woman and Maddy Flowers.
During “Thriving,” Lane also collaborated with Western’s Native American Student Union and Northwest Indian College to present an IndigiQueer fashion show on Nov. 15, 2023. The show featured Lummi designer Mariah Dodd and music from DJ Big Rez, also from Lummi.
Lane has also begun promoting artwork created by people of color through Native Arts 360’s e-commerce site, offering artists another way to sell work between shows. The site offers everything from original art to prints and even apparel. This way, Lane said, “the art moves away from being seen and perceived as this elitist thing, to being able to give broader access.”
Current artists affiliated with Native Arts 360’s e-commerce site include LeCornu, Ivan Colin, Taj Williams and LaClair, all of whose art is available for purchase. LaClair designed Native Arts 360’s logo and described Lane as “helpful in so many ways,” whether that be through bringing lunch and refreshments while LaClair works on murals, or helping to promote his work in the community.
In the near future, Lane is promoting Lummi children’s book author Sharayah Lane’s “ABC’s of Grateful,” and will bring works from 10 Buffalos Art into Native Arts 360’s “extended family” via e-commerce.
Lane’s livelihood stems from a belief that art “has the potential to be a phenomenal healer and equalizer.” She said art gives viewers access to stories that can potentially bridge gaps in understanding and build empathy.
“I told my daughter, ‘The more access to stories you have, the more wealth you have,’” Lane said. “There’s a protection in that, because … you can function in different communities when you have access to those stories. You’re not living in ignorance, where it’s very fear-based.”
Lane also sees art as a way to bridge gaps between generations. She noted the crowd at the IndigiQueer fashion show was ultimately “as intergenerational as it’s supposed to be,” including youth to elders and everyone in between.
“We have to make sure that [young people] are empowered and that they see themselves in these events,” Lane said. “We say, ‘If you can see it, you can be it.’”
As she plans for 2024 events, including an exhibition on Camano Island, Lane aims to “pass the torch” and share the mentorship she herself received. In her view, the goal of Native Arts 360 isn’t just to promote Native art — it’s to provide future generations with the tools necessary to tell their own story.
Info: arts360.nativearts360.org, facebook.com/NativeArts360
Cocoa Laney is CDN’s lifestyle editor; reach her at cocoalaney@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 128.
An upcoming artist-in-residency by Lakota artist Danielle SeeWalker in Vail, Colo., was abruptly canceled by the town yesterday.
According to SeeWalker, in January, Vail’s Art in Public Places program extended an invitation to her to participate in a three-week residency program. It was an opportunity with promise, a chance to showcase cultural richness and diversity while engaging with the local community through art that ended with a disheartening narrative of discrimination and suppression.
In January, SeeWalker eagerly accepted the residency offer, viewing it as an opportunity to positively represent the Indigenous community and break new ground as the first Native American to undertake the residency.
SeeWalker signed a contract, expecting the residency would include multiple community art events including working with youth, painting a mural in Vail Village, an art exhibition and giving a talk at their Symposium. In an email to Native News Online, SeeWalker said she turned down other job opportunities to fulfill her contractual obligation to the residency.
Yesterday morning, she received a phone call from Art in Public Places, telling her the residency was canceled. The reason given was that a recent piece from SeeWalker titled “G is for Genocide” — which she unveiled on Instagram in March— was “too political.”
The piece features a Native woman adorned with symbols of solidarity with Palestine. SeaWalker stated she was shocked the town canceled the residency without giving her the opportunity for dialogue or explanation.
“I can’t help but take this personally as silencing not only an artist, but a person of color. This piece of artwork has nothing to do with the Town of Vail. It had never been brought to the Town of Vail’s attention,” SeeWalker said in an Instagram post.
SeeWalker’s intention behind the artwork was to draw parallels between contemporary global conflicts, such as the plight of those in Gaza, and the historical genocide of Native American populations.
The Town of Vail has not responded to Native News Online’s request for comment at press time.
“If you feel compelled or have any type of reaction to this, I wanted to humbly request from the community that you take a moment to write to the Town of Vail and let them know that the continued silencing of our people is not okay,” SeeWalker wrote in an email to Native News Online. “People of color continue to be silenced, oppressed, and have opportunities taken from them and it’s not right. I’ll always stand up for that, for myself, and for all others.”
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May 10, 2024, Press Release from ArtSpace/Lima: ArtSpace/Lima is announcing the call for submissions for their annual Juried Photography Exhibit. Copies of the prospectus can be picked up at ArtSpace/Lima, 65 Town Square, or available online at the ArtSpace website www.artspacelima.com.
The exhibit is open to all ages and all types of photography. The exhibition will open on August 3 and continue until September 14, 2024.
For further information about this exhibit or other ArtSpace/Lima programs, please call Sally Windle, Executive Director, ArtSpace/Lima 419-222-1721.
