The event is part of the class’s final collaborative art project for the semester. It was inspired by the work of Sheryl Oring, a UNC-Greensboro professor, who leads a movement called “I Wish To Say” where people can write letters to the president.
“They did a lot of readings about how art can be a democratic action and how activism can be art. Not all activism is art and not all art is activism, but it can be,” Slavick said.
In her 23 years at UNC, Slavick has organized other events like this in her classes, but for many of her students, this is their first time participating in an event like this. She said they wanted it to be an inclusive, democratic event.
“I just think it’s great and it’s amazing — you know people are writing things that I totally disagree with. The good thing about this is that you get to listen to everybody and everybody’s voice gets heard, whether they agree with you or not,” Slavick said. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
Sophomore Annie Simpson, a student in Slavick’s seminar, said collaborative art is difficult, but this experience has helped her realize its importance.
“We’re not going into this with any sort of angle,” Simpson said. “We’re just — I mean yeah, we’re presenting a list of issues that people may decide to write about, but at the end of the day they can pick up any post card they want.”
First-year graduate student in the MFA studio art program, Jeanine Tatlock, is the teaching assistant for the ARTS 300 seminar.
“I am happy that people want to respond and write messages. I was just reading a couple of them and they’re actually really, really interesting,” Tatlock said. “So I think it’s cool too that we wanted to display them so that people can read what other people or what people in their community care about.”
