Eight Artists Address Brown v. Board of Education Essay -- Art Exhibit

Eight Artists Address Brown v. Board of Education It was a cloudy Saturday afternoon, when I, accompanied by a friend, went to Krannert Art Museum for the first time to see the social studies exhibition in relation to Brown v. Board of Education. Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court unanimously outlawed racial segregation in public school system. Although the decision is widely considered a major step towards a more equitable and integrated educational system, it did not fix all the racial problems in school system. Today, at the fiftieth anniversary of the High Court ruling, eight Americans artists share their works with the public at the Art Museum, both to commemorate Brown v. Board of Education and to ask the American public to reflect on the current existing racial problems in education. We walked in through the main entrance and were immediately greeted by the museum keeper, an old man with long gray hair, who wanted to make sure that every visitor put his/her bags in the deposit lockers, a ritual that most other museums practice. Krannert was small ? it was as big as a typical Outback Steak House. Yet for all its size, it had a wide array of collections ranging from ancient Chinese pottery in the Shang dynasty to oil paintings in Renaissance to contemporary art photographs. One has to give credits to the curator, who manages to put together neatly in this small building items so different in their geographical and chronological backgrounds. We were enticed by the paintings, sculptures, and some artistic works from oriental cultures. Staring at the ancient Chinese artifacts, we could not help wondering what they had gone through before ending up in an American university art museum... ...the museum keeper interrupted. With ripples of thoughts still lingering in our minds, we left the museum. My friend and I were impressed. For my part, I seldom went to see an art exhibition and had little experience of visual art appreciation. Still, the works of the artists were enough to temporarily desensitize my idea of time, clear my other thoughts and plans, and allow me to commit myself fully to finding as much as possible the meaning so often promised in the seemingly simple yet beautiful pieces of modern art. Art exhibitions may not have the same potent power of a talk or a march in informing people of the latest social problems or pushing for a social movement. After all, artistic works time and again demand personal reflections rather than call for immediate actions. In view of its reflection-provoking nature, this exhibition, to me, was successful.