The Social Justice Institute at UBC just launched a new virtual and digital art gallery, showcasing work relevant to the field of gender, race and social justice. The gallery will be open to the public, located in the GRSJ foyer and will feature original student artwork. The first exhibits will be the works of GRSJ students Joshua M. Ferguson and Katherine Fobear, who also founded and co-curate the gallery.
Ferguson's exhibit was inspired by an original film and artwork made by students from four schools in the Philippines where it was screened. The film, Whispers of Life, aims to raise awareness about suicide among transgender and gay youth, as well as reduce anti-gay bullying. The students who saw the screenings were encouraged to create artwork of their own relating to the film's subject matter.
“In their responses to the film and in the Q&As that we had, I came to the realization that allowing students to respond to the film … in secondary artistic responses would continue the work that the film does,” said Ferguson.
Ferguson and Fobear were inspired to create the gallery after noting the cross-sectional relationships between much of the work being done at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice and art. They now see it as a tangible representation of the impact and importance of their own work and the work of other students at the institute.
“The gallery is evidence of how the work that we do can have an impact on reality and an impact on lives. The work can act as an agent of change, which is real social justice,” said Ferguson.
The duo feel that being both physical and virtual will help the gallery reach a broader audience as well as help that audience gain a deeper understanding of the artwork. The physical component is largely a display of the exhibits, while the digital component online goes into greater detail about each of them.
“It will really turn into an archive over the year as we hope to feature two new exhibits every year on an ongoing basis,” said Ferguson.
Eventually, they hope to expand the gallery to not only be displayed in the GRSJ space, but on screens and monitors in other places on campus.
Ferguson, who self-identifies as a “visible non-binary trans person at UBC,” feels that UBC is behind many other universities in regards to social justice, especially with discourse around trans rights, inclusivity and protection. Ferguson notes a lack of gender-neutral washrooms and changerooms as an example of this.
Beyond serving as evidence of the importance of academic work in GRSJ at UBC, Ferguson hopes that the gallery will “act as an example to remind people that areas of social justice are important and that they affect all of us.”
The Social Justice Institute Virtual and Digital Gallery is currently on display both online and downstairs in the Jack Bell Building in the GRSJ space.