Our Votes – Our Values, Letterpress print, 2024, Basecamp Printing Company
The Art Museum of WVU launched a new exhibition that challenges visitors to examine the relationship between their values and voting decisions.
“Our Votes, Our Values” opened to the public on September 6 and includes photographs, prints, paintings and sculptural works from the Art Museum of WVU’s collection. It also features three original pieces from the graphic memoir of late civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis, “March.”
Erik Herron, the museum’s 2023 faculty fellow, worked alongside Curator Bob Bridges and Curator of Education Heather Harris to bring the exhibition to life. “Our Votes, Our Values” is presented in themed sections that provide a neutral look at various political issues, using art as a medium to allow voters to determine how their voting decisions relate to their values.
“One section asks visitors to consider how to balance rights and responsibilities,” Herron said. “We have placed – side by side – a painting that shows an idyllic hunting scene next to a sculpture that speaks to the costs of gun violence. The exhibition doesn’t take a position about policies that should be adopted but challenges visitors to think about these types of issues.”
In the middle of the exhibition are illustrations showing different perspectives from the clash between peaceful protestors and state authorities at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965. Herron said these illustrations emphasize the risks past Americans took to gain the right to vote and how participating in elections honors their legacy while impacting the nation’s future.
In addition to the Art Museum exhibition, “Our Votes, Our Values” will feature special guests and complementary activities throughout the fall semester, including early voting at the Museum Education Center. Starting October 23, voters registered in Monongalia County can visit the museum and vote at the same time.
Election materials from around the world are currently on display in the Evansdale Library, and a complementary art exhibit, “Prescriptions for Change: Value Voting in Healthcare,” is at the Health Sciences Library. Nate Powell, illustrator of “March,” will spoke at the Canady Creative Arts Center on September 16. On September 19, historian Tracy Campbell visited the Downtown Library.
There was an election roundtable in The Mountainlair on October 8. On October 15, the Downtown Library will host a talk about raising citizens in a democratic society. Herron will host a Lunchtime Look about “Our Votes, Our Values” on November 1st at the Art Museum of WVU. The exhibitions will be available until the end of the semester.
The exhibition and related activities aim to encourage students and visitors to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming election. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 67% of registered voters participated in the 2020 presidential election, and 52% voted in the 2022 congressional election.
“It can sometimes seem like voting doesn’t have an impact, which can deter people from participating. But this art shows how exercising our right to vote honors the legacy of those who fought and died for the opportunity. It also reminds us that voting allows us to influence who makes decisions that affect us all,” Herron said.
From October 23 to November 2, the Grand Hall in the Museum Education Center will serve as an official early voting location for Monongalia County. For more information about “Our Votes, Our Values,” visit artmuseum.wvu.edu. You can register to vote at https://communityengagement.wvu.edu/.