University of Wyoming MKL Days of Dialogue Community Print Making Workshop
The University of Wyoming MKL Days of Dialogue committee approached Wyoming Art Party to see if we would be interested in hosting a Community Tshirt and Print Making Workshop. They wanted a creative event off campus in a safe space where students and community members could get together to create some great personal art and discuss race dynamics in our community. Their theme this year was celebrating black women. After many discussions with the committee, including acknowledging the “noticeable absence”of women artists of color in our community, we decided to carry on. We have noticed and acknowledged this absence before, and while we have no answers, it has again started this dialogue within our art group, which this event is about- dialogue. Racism is not talked about enough in our community. White people too often are afraid of talking about race- for fear of miss-stepping or offending. It will never get better if we don’t talk about race openly and honestly. As white women, we in Wyo Art Party are committed to using our privilege to create a safe space to have this dialogue. As queer women we also acknowledge that the rights we enjoy today, came about because of the work and sacrifices of queer black woman before us. TO honor this legacy we, with guidance form the committee, created a series of line images that celebrate black women hairstyles, combined with prints of famous quotes by black women and MLK (selected by the committee). We ended up loving this project and look forward to work with this group in the future.