New Online Exhibition Created by Students Available

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The new online exhibition Womanhood Project is now available.

This past spring semester, three U of A students met with Laurel Lamb, curator of education and engagement at the University of Arkansas Museum.

Each came to the table from differing academic disciplines. Raziel Hernandez is working toward a B.S. in chemical engineering, Meredith Tinkle is majoring in art education with a focus in painting and printmaking, and Victoria Waters graduated this spring with a major in history and minors in indigenous studies and English.

They were asked to decide on a topic that interested and mattered to them. They chose the term "womanhood." With this topic, they explored the museum's collections and picked an object that exemplified womanhood to them. Their efforts resulted in this exhibit and highlight a Panamanian mola, an Arkansas crochet guide, and Indigenous Canadian beadwork. Each student explores womanhood from their own personal perspective.

A noticeable aspect of the students' experience was finding commonalities among themselves despite their varied backgrounds.

"We were three different women with no similar backgrounds and somehow, we managed to agree on an idea and bring our experiences to complete that idea. It really showed me that although we are different, we are still humans who are driven by the same emotions and appeals," explained Raziel Hernandez.

Victoria Waters also noted this: "The opportunity to make connections with other women regarding historical artifacts from around the globe has taught me about our universal human connection."

The Womanhood Project is the first installation in the U of A Museum's new Dialogue Sparked program. The aim of it is to foster meaningful conversation about significant issues and topics that matter to the U of A community. It is open to all U of A students wishing to start a conversation about something they are passionate about, meet new people, gain unique resume experience, and explore the museum collections.

The program will begin with a new topic in the fall 2020 semester. Three to five students from across campus will get to know each other, collectively agree on a topic of significance to the group, and collaborate on a final project involving the museum collections through April 2021. Applications are due before 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21.