September 27, 2013
Four students from Henry Viscardi School at The Viscardi Center recently had their artwork – captivating digital images with interpretive text – selected for display at the 2013 Embracing Our Differences outdoor art exhibition celebrating diversity from October 14-27 at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood. Their work will be enlarged into huge panels, 16-feet wide x 12-feet high, making for a phenomenal, impactful sight.
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Linda Reiser, media technology teacher at Henry Viscardi School at The Viscardi Center, said, “I felt that this contest would be perfect for my students…it would give them an opportunity to use their Photoshop skills to express themselves. Our students face many challenges…and therefore able to produce work that articulated their experiences in a powerful way.”
Delvin’s work, hands of different sizes and colors – including a prosthesis – reaching towards the Earth from space, illustrates society’s struggle to recognize and accept people’s differences; Kiara’s piece, a contemplative girl with negative words appearing across her face demonstrating their hurtfulness; Ron’s image, picturing the Earth divided into distinct sections inside the pupil of an eye, indicates the world’s inability to live in harmony; and Robert, who created a filmstrip timeline of important U.S. legislation from 1830-present, illustrates how past laws of exclusion – Indian Removal Act and Jim Crow laws – have more recently given way to policies of inclusion – such as the American’s With Disabilities Act (1990).
Embracing Our Differences, a project of The Suffolk Center on the Holocaust, Diversity & Human Understanding, Inc., at Suffolk Community College, strives to build better communities by reinforcing values respecting human dignity and promoting freedom. Judged by professional artists and curators, criteria included artistic excellence, how well the work translated into enlarged outdoor panels, and how the artwork addressed exhibit themes of living in a diverse community, impact of prejudice and hatred on human dignity, and varied people and cultures in the world.
| About The Viscardi Center: Founded by Dr. Henry Viscardi, Jr., who served as disability advisor to eight U.S. presidents and became one of the world’s leading advocates, The Viscardi Center educates, employs and empowers children and adults with disabilities. It provides Pre-K through High School education, school-to-work transition services, vocational training, career counseling and placement, assistive technology and workforce diversification assistance to children, adolescents and adults with disabilities, and businesses. A global leader, it employs 300+ professionals, including experts in education, human resources and technology. |