Overall, the art exhibits and performances for this year’s conference will look at the importance of creative expression and imagination to coping. As Kurt Vonnegut encourages all people to create art to feed the soul, the coordinators of the art exhibit and performances also wish to recognize the power of free expression.
Exhibits
Thriving Artists Exhibit: This exhibit will feature the performance and visual art of Michael Skinner and Patte O'Connor, both survivors who have utilized art as a source of healing and advocacy.
Youth Art Exhibit: This exhibit will feature the poetry-informed research of the Fearless Writers and collaboration between Rogers High School and UToledo social work program. This year, the students have focused their writing exploration on the increasing rates of depression and suicide for young women of color.
Arts-Based Research Exhibit: This exhibit will include the research of Dr. Natarajan who uses sketches as an autoethnography to explore topics through close artistic observation. Dr. Heather Evans will also raise awareness about human trafficking through photovoice research working with community photographers to represent their stories.
Mental Health Exhibit: This exhibit will highlight the work of artists who are also mental health consumers. These artists explore the power of creative expression to healing. Individuals with mental illness are marginalized in communities based on stigma and stereotypes firmly held in U.S. culture. Visual art is a way for the marginalized to take back their narrative and create a new story as artist.
Art with a Purpose Exhibit: This exhibit will feature a variety of visual artists new to using their artwork to raise awareness about social injustice.
Performances
Sons of Toledo: Matt Foss is a theater professor at the University of Toledo and co-creator of the short film, Sons of Toledo which will be made available in evening screenings as well as a talk-back panel of advocates fighting against gun violence in the city.
Voices Project: Issue Box Theatre will present video productions in collaboration with community writers and performers in evening performances.
Dr. Heather Sloane is the founder of Fearless Writers, which is a creative writing mentoring program with members from local Toledo high schools and interprofessional/ interdisciplinary students from the University of Toledo. This is the eighth year that Dr. Sloane has helped to coordinate art at the IHTSJ Conference.
Dr. Arvindhan Natarajan has published and presented on the use of art as method. He is a self-trained sketch artist who uses art as a way to investigate empathy, grief, and social work engagement. This is Dr. Natarajan's ninth year of bringing art and arts-based research to the IHTSJ Conference.
Daniel Huesman is an experienced mental health clinician in the Toledo, Ohio community. Dan has utilized his years of connection with the community health system to coordinate the mental health exhibits for the IHTSJ Conference for the past 7 years.
Rosie Best is the founder of Issue Box Theatre, a nonprofit utilizing the theatre arts to raise awareness about social injustice and to nurture marginalized voices. This is the third year for the Voices project and the 6th year for Rosie's involvement in the IHTSJ Conference.
Malachi Kublawi is a Toledo, Ohio native. He graduated from the University of Toledo in 2015 with his Bachelors in Marketing and is currently working towards his Masters of Social Work. Malachi has always believed that art, in its many forms, can inspire hope and provoke the imagination to feel something beyond one's own lived experience. Art has the power to heal, the power to connect, and the power to ignite. If we can harness this power while bringing awareness to issues of social justice, together we can speak much louder than our words. He offers the audience of the exhibits Peace and Love.
While attending undergrad at The University of Toledo, Hanna Palmer-Tesema shared mutual friends with the late Sierah Joughin, a fellow student who was kidnapped and murdered in 2016. Her story has led to legal changes and reform, preventing cases like hers from happening to others. As this year’s IHTSJC coordinator of art exhibits, Hanna hopes that every attendee finds a story that resonates with them that can assist them in their journey toward justice and healing.