Barrett

Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

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Art Exhibitions and Social Justice: Curating Empathy

Description
Museums are influential platforms due to the high degree of trust the public places in their information. This platform becomes especially useful for curators and activists seeking to increase awareness around social justice issues. A way curators can connect with audiences and further the potential impact of their art exhibitions…

Museums are influential platforms due to the high degree of trust the public places in their information. This platform becomes especially useful for curators and activists seeking to increase awareness around social justice issues. A way curators can connect with audiences and further the potential impact of their art exhibitions is by cultivating empathy within their audiences, especially social empathy. There are two forms of empathy, interpersonal and social, both of which help an individual gain knowledge and understanding about the world around them. Museums are institutions that teach empathy by providing opportunities for visitors to interact with different people and learn new perspectives. Curators can encourage empathy by using three methods of audience engagement: reflection, discourse, and building relationships with outside community organizations and individuals. Through the analysis of three social justice contemporary art exhibitions, Beyond Borders: Stories im/Migration (2018) at Santa Clara University, Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency (2021) at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and Undoing Time: Art and the History of Incarceration (2021 - 2022) at the Arizona State University Art Museum, I identify examples of how these methods can be utilized to grow empathy and suggest changes museums, curators and audiences can implement to build empathy and increase the plausibility for positive change within communities.
ContributorsAvila, Camille (Author) / Fahlman, Betsy (Thesis director) / O'Connell, Lauren (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2022-05