Political Exhibition: What are you voting for?

Election Week Pop-Up Exhibition Highlights the Value of Art in Politics

Looking for some fresh perspective and a break from political ads this upcoming election week? Take a break at a pop-up exhibition at the Georgia Museum of Art. Curated by UGA students, the exhibition explores the role of art in politics.

Students in Katelyn Stauffer’s intro political science class (POLS 1101: American Government) have been meeting at the museum every week this semester. As part of their coursework, they collaborated on an unusual project: creating a pop-up exhibition centered around voting and politics in America. Students spent hours working with the museum’s collection to put together “What are you voting for? Light, Dark and Truth in American Politics.” The pop-up exhibition will be on view in the museum’s Shannon and Peter Candler Collection Study Room during regular hours November 5 – 7.

Working as a team to create an exhibition was a learning experience as students engaged with works from the museum’s permanent collection. Twice a week, Stauffer’s students gathered at the museum to work on the project. Ultimately, they selected pairs of artworks that reflect opposing aspects — the light and the dark — of the modern American political climate.

While each pair of works is meant to reflect these opposites, they also encourage viewers to consider gray areas. Politics can take many forms, and creative expression through art can help us recognize a more diverse and complex background to our culture. Political expression through art and other creative arts can increase our cultural comprehension of our political landscape and our community.

Student-written descriptions will offer interpretations of the works on display, and students selected all of those works. The ones they chose resulted from group discussions that helped students consider politics from all sides.

Stauffer appreciates using the museum’s collection as a teaching tool in her classes. The collection provides an interactive experience that can help students consider a topic like politics in a much more complex and novel way. “I thought working with the art museum would be a great way for students to learn about politics and political communication,” she said. “But it also helps students do some critical thinking in a unique way.”

This project shows how UGA classes can interact with items from the museum’s collection for cross disciplinary study. The journey of creating the pop-up exhibition — choosing pieces, establishing themes and connections, writing interpretive text and descriptions — offers an enriching experience for students in areas of study outside of art history and studio art.

Using the collection for hands-on learning encourages students to engage with course material and themes from new perspectives. It invites an alternative way of thinking and making connections and has turned out to be a lot of fun for students. Stauffer noted: “In my experience, it’s usually when we have fun in class that the most learning happens.”