Curating controversy in the Trump era

ABSTRACT

Successful exhibitions engage the public and encourage debate. In the era of Trump, this means curating shows that court controversy and examine issues such as xenophobia, immigration, and climate-change denial. This paper considers a recent exhibition funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, In the eyes of the hungry: Florida’s changing landscape (University of Central Florida Art Gallery and Terrace Gallery at Orlando City Hall, 27 February–23 April 2017), which explored Florida’s history of migrant labor, racism, and urban development, and demonstrated how the arts can act for social justice.

KEYWORDS:

• Art
• social justice
• immigration
• environment
• farmworkers
• landscape

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Keri Watson is an assistant professor of Art History at the University of Central Florida. The recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grants, an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, and a Fulbright-Terra Foundation Award in the History of American Art, she teaches courses in modern art and the history of photography and specializes in twentieth-century American art.

Notes

1 An estimated one million undocumented immigrants live in Florida, and according to the US Department of Agriculture, migrant farm laborers, some 50% of whom are not legally authorized to work in the USA, play an essential role in agricultural production (United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, 2017)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read [grant number 00017926].