Bisignano Art Gallery Opens the 2023-2024 Season with Student-Focused Exhibit

DUBUQUE, Iowa - The University of Dubuque's Bisignano Art Gallery opened the 2023-24 season with a student exhibit aimed at fostering dialogue about how UD students practice and promote inclusion, intentionality, equity, and diversity.

"Student Perspectives on Inclusion, Intentionality, Equity, and Diversity" is free and open to the public through Friday, September 8, 2023. The exhibit displays framed questions posed to 15 students from a variety of vocational pathways and their responses.

"I was excited to have the Bisignano Art Gallery mount the results of the inclusion, intentionality, equity, and diversity project. This subject, much like modern art itself, can be rather confusing and cumbersome. That's why it is important for students, staff, and faculty to see what the subject actually means. In some caustic environments, these terms are in the crosshairs. Unduly. But as you will see in this exhibit, inclusion, intentionality, equity, and diversity is about ending discrimination and building learning and work places that work for everybody. Clearly in academia, we have our job cut out for us to find and to fix those root causes of inequity and potential discrimination. Sometimes it is intentional and overt. But other times there are biased policies, incomplete processes, and even accidental exclusions. This exhibit documents UD's examination of inclusion, intentionality, equity, and diversity by calling for the common sense goal of building a learning and work place free from discrimination. Sometimes common sense isn't so common until you point it out," said Alan Garfield, director of the art gallery.

Student participants who are active on campus were introduced to the student exhibit project by faculty and staff from the master in management - organizational diversity and inclusion leadership program.

"As a campus community, we gather every academic year to support students in their learning environments, such as the classroom settings, living and study spaces, as well as their co-curricular activities and commitments. This gallery project offers us another platform to reflect on terminology and concepts of their distinct meaning for students. As we view the gallery, let us challenge each other in our own area of discipline, expertise, and interest among our global networks to broaden our scope, utilization, and meaning for each term within our everyday lives. Let us embrace our similarities and differences, as we lean in to create a better space for understanding, as well as promote the prosocial attitudes and behavior of curiosity. As curiosity can broaden our self-knowledge, leading us to new interpretations of the human experience, while keeping us engaged to move forward in this life," said Amy Baus, PsyD, chair of the Department of Psychology and associate professor of psychology.

The exhibit is supported by UD's Wendt Character Initiative, which is devoted to promoting a campus culture of excellent moral character and purposeful lives characterized by integrity, justice, and compassion. It is also sponsored by the Network for Vocational Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), a nationwide network of nearly 300 colleges and universities formed to support and enrich vocational exploration and discernment among undergraduate students. A program of the Council of Independent Colleges, NetVUE is supported by Lilly Endowment, Inc. and member dues. "Student Perspectives on Inclusion, Intentionality, Equity, and Diversity" is presented in cooperation with UD's Office of Academic Affairs.

Gallery hours are noon to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. The art gallery is also open in conjunction with all major events in John and Alice Butler Hall, Heritage Center.

"Student Perspectives on Inclusion, Intentionality, Equity, and Diversity" will also be available virtually at http://gallery.dbq.edu.