The dynamic online exhibit Undefeated from WVU Art in the Libraries is splashy and thought-provoking.
In the months approaching the 2020 general election, WVU Art in the Libraries is getting people talking about voter suppression through its online exhibit Undefeated: Canvas(s)ing the Politics of Voter Suppression Since Women’s Suffrage.
“Art plays a big role in elections,” says Lead Curator Sally Deskins. “We wanted to have this exhibit to provoke inquiry into the role of visual culture in elections.”
The heart of the exhibit is an eye-popping array of bold graphics and typography—77 campaign buttons that expose voter suppression in all its guises, everything from intimidation and gerrymandering to disinformation and disenfranchisement. The buttons were submitted from across the country in response to a call for designs last fall.
The buttons give life to the exhibit’s short essays on themes like suffrage and voter turnout.
And five presentations through the semester celebrate resistance to voter suppression.
Past, available on YouTube
- August 7, series launch with WVU Professor Eve Faulkes on graphic design and social justice theory
- August 26, former National Organization of Women President Eleanor Smeal on the suffrage centennial
Upcoming
- September 25, noon–1 p.m., West Virginia storyteller Ilene Evans performing as suffragist Coralie Franklin Cook—register here
- October 9, noon–1 p.m., West Virginian and former national League of Women Voters President Becky Cain Ceperley on the impact of voter registration and turnout
- October 30, 6 p.m., Marquette University Law School Professor Atiba Ellis on democracy, voting, and race
The curators are hanging a physical exhibit at WVU’s Downtown Library, originally planned for this fall but delayed by COVID-19, as time permits. Check the website for a virtual tour to be posted by January.
