Student- and community-designed public art installation and podcast series now on view at the deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum (June 4, 2021 - June 1, 2022).
In the 2020-21 academic year, a team of design students in the Lesley Art + Design Community Design Studio worked with local and national Native advisors, historians, and legislative staff to support a bill to reconsider the racist seal, motto, and flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In addition to creating a series of interactive research documents, students co-designed a public art installation and accompanying podcast that honors the voices of Native cultural and political leaders.
Design students and faculty enacted a community-informed and relational design process that begins with empathy and proceeds through repeated consultation with Native project advisors. The resulting public art installation helps to propel a larger initiative related to the legislative bill to expand respectful awareness of and reciprocal inter-governmental relationships with Native communities and nations today.
The student- and community-generated public art installation “ACKNOWLEDGE + LISTEN” and podcast series “Beyond the Flag” are now on view in conjunction with artist Jeffrey Gibson’s monumental work “Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House” at the deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum which is located in Lincoln, MA on the unceded lands of the Nipmuc, Massachuset, and Wampanoag peoples.
Follow the podcast BEYOND THE FLAG.