Pitt-Greensburg art exhibit showcases Black experiences

Watercolor paintings, emotion-loaded images, daring quotations and more line the sidewalk outside the house Chambers Corridor at Pitt-Greensburg.

The artwork can make up “Black Life in Focus,” a multimedia exhibit that puts Black encounters in the campus spotlight.

The show, which contains 21 artwork panels and 10 text panels, has traveled to all of Pitt’s campuses, with Pitt-Greensburg staying the very last halt. The Hempfield campus will showcase the exhibit by April 1.

Pitt-Greensburg President Robert Gregerson claimed he hopes the exhibit fosters a campus dialogue as college students see them selves in the artwork or learn about other views.

“I consider artwork is a way that you can have a lot more meaningful discussions,” Gregerson explained. “I consider artwork can be provocative.”

Quite a few pieces in the show celebrate Black tradition or advocate for racial justice. The artists and writers highlighted in the show have ties to Pitt or Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Pamela Cooper, an award-successful artist from Greensburg, has two items in the show.

Cooper’s to start with piece, “At Peace,” is a black-and-white photograph that she took though at church. In the course of the provider, her minister’s youthful son curled up in her lap and fell asleep.

The positioning of the boy’s palms was “expressive” and “poetic,” and Cooper stated she “couldn’t help” but capture the minute.

Cooper believes the photograph demonstrates the feeling of local community, peace and basic safety identified in Black churches.

“(‘At Peace’) undoubtedly displays what it’s like in the Black neighborhood in the church realm and how we depend on our non secular advice and non secular beliefs to hold pushing ahead,” Cooper mentioned.

Cooper’s next piece in the exhibit is a watercolor portrait of teenager singer Keedron Bryant. Cooper titled the painting “I Just Wanna Live” right after Bryant’s viral song about law enforcement brutality.

Cooper drew from her particular ordeals of racial injustice when portray the portrait.

“(‘I Just Wanna Live’) was an outcry of my stress — and I’m positive of other people’s frustrations — since of the brutality, injustice and not currently being listened to or noticed,” she said.

“(College is) a risk-free haven wherever you can have an open up dialogue, chat freely and study,” Cooper said.