Learning Social Justice exhibition features life lessons for students and the community at large

What is social justice? It is the concept that everyone deserves to be treated equally and equitably. It has been determined in many corners of the globe that this sort of respect has been sorely lacking. Learning Social Justice is an exhibition that aims to show how people are learning and fighting for what social justice can and should be in our region, and where we have come up short. The show will be on view at the Tower Fine Arts Center Gallery at SUNY Brockport from October 19 through November 8, 2023. The Gallery is located at 180 Holley Street, Brockport, and the exhibition is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, October 19, at 4 p.m.

Curated by Gallery Director Tate Shaw, the exhibition reflects an update to the University’s curriculum. SUNY Brockport has added social justice to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion requirements of its General Education program. The Brockport website sums up the heart of the matter: “Interacting with people of all different backgrounds, mindsets, and social experiences can present a challenge without prior exposure to the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.”

Shaw reflected on the concept of social justice and “how artists show it through their processes and practice.” He gathered several diverse regional artists and community publishing projects to consider “expansive meanings of social justice and desires for equity.” Included are Rochester-based artists Hernease Davis, W. Michelle Harris, Martin Hawk, and Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge among others, as well as the publishing projects In This Moment: Revolution, Reckoning, Reparation, Fertile Ground, and more. In an effort to expand the boundaries of the Gallery, one installation – Leblanc-Roberge’s “The Only Thing I See is Sky” – is a series of photo banners that will be strung throughout the lobby of the Tower Fine Arts Center, each flag depicting images of sky as seen from the 33 incarceration or detention facilities within a two-hour radius of Rochester.

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