The history of any place is so often filled with stories of those who, after observing the world close to their home, formulated thoughts as to create a better world and then enacted the bold steps to create a positive impact.
Names like New York’s Jane Jacobs to the Hispanic labor leader Cesar Chavez to the multi-focused Martin Luther King, Jr. have all made the argument about the power and necessity of having a community conversation.
The impact of such knowledge sharing can become the building blocks of understanding upon which we can grow as a society.
On Friday, Grand Valley State University’s Civic Studio students, led by Professor of Art Paul Wittenbraker, will once again gather to present a semester’s worth of research repackaged in an art exhibition that will ask us to consider the changing face of our city.
This new art installation, At The Plum Grove, is a closing of their project that began in September. It will, for the first time, be the data reworked into artful presentations, which will be revealed to the public at their neighborhood-level (and very temporary) classroom at 336 Straight Street SW (the Old Padnos Offices at the corner of Wealthy and Straight SW).
We begin our journey as the students’ work reveals a time of an indigenous plum grove and from there take us forward to a place we have come to refer to as the Westside.
From the curatorial statement: “This plum grove allegedly served as a gathering place for the Native Americans of the area, as well as perhaps a ceremonial grounds. The grove ultimately was burned to make way for the settler's pastures. This grove as become a sort of imaginary perfect, idealized place in our minds, inspiring us to use it as the basis for our work. By researching as far back as we can find and respecting the memory of this important place brings our focus to our questions at the center of this exhibit, "Who is it for?" By knowing where this land has been and what is has experienced, we can more fully understand our sense of place and respect the history of the area.”
The artworks ask us, the viewer, to consider the history of this place, but, as with most good art, the revealing patterns emerge to prompt discussions about what is really happening in nearly every major American city.
Seeking to highlight these tensions, the students, under the weight of such discoveries, are questioning who has a right to thrive in the Westside of Grand Rapids.
From their advance notice on this event: The Plum Grove calls to us, enticing us to partake. Inspired by the romantic notion presented by the grove, the exhibition aims to present concrete examples of a new public imaginary, staying tied to the here and now, confronted with the issues of Westside residents.
After the Friday night event, there will be a closing discussion taking place on Wednesday, Dec.16th from 4 - 5:50 p.m.
Civic studio is a class in the visual studies curriculum at GVSU and takes place outside of campus; each time the course is taught by Paul Wittenbraker and in a different location in our city.
As I survey past Civic Studio projects that the college has hosted for more than a decade all around our city, this new event has a built-in urgency as I review headlines in the news around the topic of city expansions.
I cannot stress enough how important it is for our community to listen to one another and to begin to craft a vision of our city driven by the engaging and meaningful dialogue around such divisive topics that will impact our place so many have called home for decades.
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