Keynote speaker Candy Chang discusses power of art at Diversity and Inclusion Symposium
Keynote speaker of the fourth annual Diversity and Inclusion Symposium Candy Chang talks with participants of the event on April 9 in the UC Rotunda.
The ninth annual Diversity and Inclusion Symposium featured keynote speaker and artist Candy Change, who spoke about her work as an architect and urban planner April 9 in the Central Michigan University Bovee University Center Rotunda Room.
Chang discussed her life as a global artist, architect and urban planner. She has worked with communities in Nairobi, New York, Helsinki, New Orleans, Vancouver, and Johannesburg, and created low-barrier participatory public experiments to pursue more inclusive forms of democracy.
“The only way we change is through individuals deciding to take a risk and act on ideas,” Chang said. “I want students to remember and to be encouraged to experiment with their ideas.”
She shared her struggle with grief and depression, and how she channeled her emotional questions into her architectural medium. She said her public art project "Before I Die" is intended to re-imagine her relationship with death and with one another in the public realm.
A lot of Chang’s projects are built in empty and broken-down places because those are the only places our society make room for these things, she said. She said she hopes that changes as our society realizes the importance of public space.
“For me, being an introvert in an urban climbing world where the loudest people ruled, made me wonder how it could be different and more inclusive,” Chang said. “My experiences with grief, depression and existential confusion often became the fuel for my experiments.”
Chang believes the most important thing when reaching out to communities is to go where people already are.
The event featured a student-made art piece that sat outside the Bovee University Center called “My Dream is to…” which was inspired by Chang’s piece, “Before I Die…” The wall was created by CMU students Auburn graduate student Lauren Grotkowski, Port Huron senior Mateo Savedra and Port Huron senior Cass Holdburg.
Holdburg said they were happy with the turnout and thought it was nice to see students, faculty and community members engaging in conversation.
“I hope students and faculty learned something new about diversity and what public space is like at CMU,” said Sapphire Cureg, director of the Office of Diversity Education.
Students and faculty took part in group discussions led by student facilitators after Chang’s presentation. Discussions were led by political science faculty Cherie Strachan, English language and literature faculty JoEllen DeLucia, Mount Pleasant Police Chief Paul Lauria and Isabella Human Rights Commission chair Maureen Ngozi.
The breakout sessions allowed students to learn from and ask speakers about public space and how it pertains to the topic of each session.
“Gender is usually the lens I see myself in when in a public space,” said Leonidas graduate student Donielle Hetrick, who attended a discussion about gender. “I learned how gender has played a role in shaping me and others when interacting in a public space.”
Journalism faculty member Alice Tait also attended the gender discussion session and said she appreciated learning more about how much her students knew about them and how to deal with these situations.
