In recent years, Minnesotans have placed increased emphasis on multiculturalism. Still, there's one group that often feels lost in the deluge of diversity. Deaf advocates say Minnesota's non-hearing community is three times as large as some other communities, but they say few people recognize its significant contributions to the culture. As Minnesota's Public Radio's Nikki Tundel found out, an exhibit at St. Paul's aND gallery is hoping to change that.
The exhibit, titled "Images and Visions of a Culture," was the first national deaf art exhibit in Minnesota. In this segment, Tundel speaks with Kate Meyers, owner of aND gallery; Nancy Meyers, co-organizer of the exhibit; and Marian Lucas, one of its artists.
Transcripts
text | pdf |
NIKKI TUNDEL: If art is about communication, then the works on display at Saint Paul's aND Gallery are screaming. The paintings blare with color. The sculptures are loudly forceful, yet all of these creative exclamations were made by artists who live their lives in silence. The artwork and images and visions of a culture comes from deaf artists. Nancy Meyers, one of the exhibit's organizers, says the boldness of the art is a direct reflection of deaf culture. She says that since sign language doesn't use metaphors or idioms, deaf artists are masters of crisp expression.
NANCY MEYERS: The bluntness of the language and the culture is different. There's the joke that if a deaf person sees another deaf person they haven't seen for five years and the person's put on about 35 pounds, they'll just come right up and say, wow, you've gotten fat. It's just straight forward like that. So we start with the little things and get up to the point, and they start with the point and then get down into the little things that add to the point. But you have to start with what the point is.
NIKKI TUNDEL: Nancy's sister, Kate, owns aND art gallery. She set out to bridge the cultural gap between the hearing and non-hearing worlds. And the result is this show. Kate Meyers says it's the first National Deaf art exhibit in Minnesota and the first artistic collaboration between the hearing and deaf communities.
KATE MEYERS: I think people are uncomfortable with going up to deaf people. People just don't know what to do with people that they can't readily communicate with. And art is a common language for all cultures.
NIKKI TUNDEL: Marian Lucas, one of the three Minnesotans whose work is featured in the show, always wanted to be an artist. But the path to successful sculpture wasn't easy. Her first art teacher didn't know sign language and spent most of the class period smoking cigarettes. During her college critiques, well-meaning classmates would consistently refer to Lucas's artwork as nice. Despite her desire for feedback, people just didn't want to criticize the deaf girl.
Still, Lucas says such setbacks never extinguished her drive to create. She says art helped her express the memories she was unable to speak aloud. Memories of the teachers who locked her in the closet with the floor cleaner and the countertop disinfectant because she didn't communicate to their liking, and memories of the iron gates at her residential school, barriers that kept her from the rest of the world. Through an interpreter, Lucas says her work has helped her turn these negative experiences into beautiful art.
INTERPRETER: My artwork helps me carry those experiences to the deaf community and share those experiences that we all have in the past. What really surprised me is that when I show this work to other deaf individuals, they go, oh yes, I have that story. And that's what happened. And that's why I love sharing it with people. It's so nice to bring us all together in that way. It's not like they go, this was awful. This is sad. They go, this is the way it was. That was my life. And they can see the beauty in it as well. This is a history that is brought forward that has not totally died. It's our history.
NIKKI TUNDEL: The deaf community views itself not as a disability group but as a linguistic minority, one that just happens to use sign language instead of English. Kate Meyers is hoping this art show will help make the mainstream population more deaf literate.
KATE MEYERS: I would just hope that people would have a different appreciation for this community who lives amongst us, that there is something that we can learn from each other. Marian Lucas agrees, and she hopes the message of the exhibit is received loud and clear.
INTERPRETER: I want hearing people to recognize deaf people as part of the community, that they have their own community, that they have their own culture, and that we can have strong, good art within the community as well. I want them to see that within the Twin Cities, there are all these different cultures, Hispanic, et cetera. They have their own culture and their own art, and we do too.
NIKKI TUNDEL: Images and Visions of a Culture is on display at Saint Paul's aND gallery through May 7. I'm Nikki Tundel, Minnesota Public Radio.