Kant

Gallery 33

Jane Peirson Jones Gallery 33 as I understand was a groundbreaking idea for community, culture, and art. It seems to have done so much more than display art works, the gallery exposed the community not only their own cultures, but of the cultures that surround them in the world without adding unnecessary racism. Its unique approach of declassifying and mixing up art by putting the familiar with the unfamiliar seems to give the pieces a much different sense than if they were allow.

From reading the article I believe they have met the majority of their goals, but I feel we should take a closer look at each goal and underline how they have manage to meet them.

Goal one: it should be unique in concept as well as in quality of material. The concept of the exhibit from reading the article seems to be not only unique, but catastrophically different from any other exhibit to date. The idea of showing the differences in cultures through art work multiplies the impact on the viewer. It has much more power than the tradition approach of showing individual cultures art work. Gallery 33 celebrates the difference in cultures as well as the physical work of art. The gallery seemed to really challenge peoples thought on culture. An example of this is in the "Societies" exhibit. The creators had questions and phrases in the exhibit that make the viewer ponder after reading, i.e. why is ethical identity important? And what shapes the roles of man and women? As far as the quality of the material in the exhibit it seems that they were given a wide variety of material from all over the world. From the South Pacific to Asia, to Australia, it seems like the material was valuable but also, it appeared to be material that people are unfamiliar with; which personally I view as an added bonus to the exhibit.

Goal number two: it should take account of multicultural issues specific to Birmingham. Well it appears that an enormous amount of emphasis went into making sure this goal was met. The committee dissected the community of Birmingham and had an extensive understanding of who the end