• Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Your neighborhood. Your News.

newsMilwaukee NNSMilwaukee NNSSearch
Subscribe to NNS today!
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
    • Arts and Recreation
    • Community
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Health and Wellness
    • Housing
    • Public Safety
    • NNS Spotlight
    • Special Report
  • Posts From Community
    • Submit a Story
  • Community Voices
  • How To
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Local Video
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect
    • NNS WGLB 1560 Radio
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • About
    • Staff
    • Partners
    • News 414
    • The neighborhoods we cover
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University

You are here: Home / News / Arts and Recreation / Art exhibit on bullying ‘starts where the students are’

Art exhibit on bullying ‘starts where the students are’

January 28, 2013 by Amalia Oulahan and LouRawls Burnett Leave a Comment

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Dozens of student docents circulate in the Arts @ Large gallery, ready to tell visitors about their new exhibit, while others film and photograph the opening. Videos play, poems are performed, and visitors scribble notes and put on headphones to interact with the anti-bullying artwork.

IMAGINE: Creating School Cultures of Respect and Support displays the work of eighth-graders from several Milwaukee Public Schools. Over two months, the students worked with artists-in-residence at their schools to create multimedia, visual and written art to spark discussion about bullying.

Arts @ Large, a nonprofit organization created in 2001, focuses on bringing arts experiences to MPS students. “The arts are a great tool to allow students to provide their feedback in a safe place,” said Ryan Hurley, program manager for Arts @ Large. And bullying affects students every day.

“When I would sit down with this group of 10 or 15 middle school students and work with them to identify, ‘What are some things you feel like you want to change in your school community?’ across the board, it was like, ‘bullying,’” said Hurley. “It’s something they encounter in the classroom, in the hallways, and they felt like they can make a difference.”

The Center for Applied Theatre’s Mark Weinberg worked with students as an artist-in-residence. He helped them use an interactive technique called Image Theater—which involves silent, whole-body movements—to act out bullying situations from multiple perspectives. The students wrote “six-word memoirs” and then performed them, and they made films of the action to present at IMAGINE.

The six-word phrases—such as, “It’s not cool when it’s you,” “Be kind. We are all interconnected,” and “I will help victims of bullies!”—hang on one wall of the gallery. During the exhibit, visitors can compose and post their own six-word memoirs.

Weinberg said the students displayed a deep understanding about what bullying does to communities.

“It wasn’t really about, ‘Here’s how we deal with bullying,” said Weinberg. “It was, ‘Here’s how we create the larger culture of support, of respect, of mutual understanding and empathy so bullying doesn’t occur.’”

Jennifer Koss, whose Westside Academy homeroom students contributed to the exhibit, said she hopes IMAGINE brings attention to less familiar types of bullying. For example, her students’ film tells a story of how rumors cause conflict.

Koss said arts funding at the school was cut two years ago, so her students’ only opportunity for art activities is in homeroom. Working on this project, the students got to use video equipment, and some began to consider careers in video production.

Jhohaunaus, an eighth-grader at Westside Academy, said he wants to continue making art, about bullying and other subjects, “[as] long as it has something that everyone can relate to and comment on.”

And he hopes the exhibit can change people’s minds.“People will realize bullying is not good, and bystanders will start stepping up and realize they can really help people,” he said.

Although the student work offers alternatives to bullying, according to Hurley, solving bullying problems is not the goal. “We really don’t want to necessarily provide answers, because every situation and school community is unique,” said Hurley. “We want people leaving here with some questions, but not hopeless questions.”

After the exhibit, Arts @ Large will host youth forums, and work with the MPS Violence Prevention Program to help continue the discussion started by IMAGINE.

Weinberg said the effectiveness of the exhibit depends on the students. “Helping them see where there are problems, where there are issues, and where there’s a chance for growth and change and questioning is the role we can play as artists,” he said. “But it always has to start where the students are. The voices that are most important are theirs first.”

IMAGINE runs through March 29 at the Arts @ Large gallery space, 908 S. 5th St.

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Filed Under: Arts and Recreation, Carousel, Education, Home, Neighborhoods, News Tagged With: arts, arts @ large, arts at large, bullying, exhibit, gallery, Milwaukee Public Schools, MPS Violence Prevention Program, multimedia, student, video, violence, Youth

Avatar

About Amalia Oulahan and LouRawls Burnett

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Top Stories

Advertisement

How To …

How to avoid stimulus check scams

A new round of stimulus checks will likely also bring out a new round of scams. Here’s what to watch out for.

More "How To" articles

Advertisement

Recommended Reading

A Vaccine Reality Check

The Atlantic

UWM study on the state of Black Milwaukee describes the city as ‘the epitome of a 21st century racial regime’

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Videos Show How Federal Officers Escalated Violence in Portland

The New York Times

These mayors want to fight Covid-19 and the recession with one big idea: A guaranteed income

Vox

The World John Lewis Helped Create

The Atlantic

News

  • Arts and Recreation
  • Economic Development
  • Education
  • Health and Wellness
  • Housing
  • Public Safety
  • NNS Spotlight
  • Special Reports
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Videos
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect Radio

Engage with us

  • Posts from Community
  • Community Voices
  • Submit a Story

About NNS

  • Staff
  • Partners
  • News414
  • The neighborhoods we cover
  • Internship opportunities
  • Careers
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS feed

Communities

Contact

mailing address
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Diederich College of Communication
Marquette University
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Johnston Hall 430
Milwaukee, WI 53233

email
info@milwaukeenns.org

phone & fax
PHONE: 414.604.6397 FAX: 414.288.6494

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service is a project of Diederich College of Communication and Marquette University.
© 2020 Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Terms of use.
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee WI 53233 • info@milwaukeenns.org

Copyright © 2021 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in