About the Exhibition
In today’s society family is often described as more than just biological relations, including a wide net of people who care for and have special significance to each other. Families are often enriched by the addition of new members and have great trouble adjusting when one is lost. They grow and change often, incorporating individuals of different backgrounds, races, sexual orientations, and religions. Often these family circles affect others like ripples in the ocean. At times the waves join forces in a common direction to enlarge the circle. At other times, they clash and cause conflict between and within the individual circles.
The exhibition Finding Family is part of the “Community Unity” program of the Gallery for the Arts—the aim of which is to raise the community’s awareness of issues involving diversity. The idea of family is typically connected with words like “tradition” and “values,” making it seem like a sacred, unchanging concept. However, family is difficult to determine and constantly evolving. There is a need to explore the diversity that exists within today’s families and the ways in which that diversity affects us individually and society in general. The artists whose works are included in this exhibition share their personal concepts of family. Some, such as Lisa DuPree and Bryce Hudson do so through glimpses into the aspects that make their own families unique, providing the opportunity for viewers to experience aspects of families that may be different from their own. Louis Zoellar Bickett II and Valerie Sullivan Fuchs examine how we construct identity for and explore the diversity within our own families. The ways that individuals and nurturing and unconditional love in relationships outside their biological families are illustrated in the works of Elena Dorfman and Brooke Jacobs, while George Haviland Argo III shares the difficulty of the end of such a relationship. The works of Russel Hulsey comment on the changing concept of family over time and how society shapes the ways in which we view families.
The feeling between people who consider each other to be family is unlike any other. When that connection exists, it represents the opposite of intolerance and injustice. However, it is all too common for the bonds between people to be broken by misunderstanding and prejudice. It is in the best interest of us all to foster understanding of diversity within families so that relationships can thrive. Finding Family presents the beginning of a dialogue that will become more vital as the idea of family continues to change over time.
— Karen Gillenwater
Finding Family was organized by the Montgomery County Council for the Arts and curated by Karen Gillenwater, Director of Art Galleries and Curator of Collections; Georgetown College, Kentucky. Finding Family will be traveling to Georgetown College May 24 – July 5, 2007.
