Arts of Dignity

This now annual series will focus on how the arts provide ways of concretely experiencing the dignity of people and cultures marginalized by various forms of injustice. 

Spring 2023

Call for Art: Juried Art Exhibit

Calling all UND, SMC, HCC, and IUSB undergraduate and graduate creatives to submit work for the Arts of Dignity juried exhibit. Works can explore contemporary realities in which dignity is threatened or enhanced. The show will open on April 20 at the Center for Social Concerns.  

  • Eligible Media: Any original painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, ceramic, mixed media, and design made in 2021–23 is eligible. Students can submit up to three entries. 
  • Submission Information: The art should be photographed and images submitted, along with title and artist statement describing how the work explores the question of dignity. Please provide hi-res photos with good lighting. Crop if necessary to ensure nothing external to the artwork is included in the photo. 2-D work that is accepted should be framed or have hanging wire fastened to the back. 
  • Jurors: Undergraduate submissions will be juried by the University of Notre Dame's Geneva Hutchinson ('23, MFA) and graduate submissions juried by Fr. Martin Nguyen, C.S.C. (Faculty, Art/Art History/Design)
  • Prize: $100 cash prizes will be awarded to top entries.

Submission deadline: April 13, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.

submit art

 
Student Art Exhibit Opening Reception
Thursday, April 20, 2023 | 5:00 p.m. | Geddes Hall

Selections from the 2023 student art exhibit will be on display throughout Geddes Hall. Stop by to view pieces that explore contemporary realities in which dignity is threatened or enhanced. Food and drink will be served.

 
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration

Friday, April 21, 2023 | 4:00 p.m. | Geddes Hall, Andrews Auditorium

MacArthur “Genius” Nicole R. Fleetwood is a celebrated writer, cultural theorist, curator, and art critic. Growing up in Hamilton, Ohio, she witnessed the vulnerability of her community to excessive policing, punitive surveillance, and mass incarceration, and the direct impact these had on her family, especially her male cousins. The concept for her groundbreaking book Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration started in 2010, when she hung photographs of her cousins in Ohio prisons on the walls of her Harlem apartment. Marking Time explores the impact of US incarceration on contemporary visual art, highlighting artists who have been incarcerated alongside artists whose art examines US institutions and systems of confinement. Based on interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated artists, prison visits, and the author’s own family experiences with the penal system, Marking Time shows how the imprisoned turn ordinary objects into elaborate works of art.

 

Past Events: 

Pokagon Art Collection Opening

Thursday, February 23, 2023 | 4:00 p.m. | Geddes Hall, Coffee House

Join the Center for Social Concerns and artists from the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi in celebrating the new collection of art in the Geddes Hall Coffee House. Food and drink will be available. 

Featured artists: Jamie Chapman Brown, Kathy Getz Fodness, John Fox, David Martin, and Jason Wesaw

 

Singing the Story of American Workers: A Concert with Folk Musician Tom Breiding

September 19, 2022 | 7:00 p.m. | Washington Hall

The Center for Social Concerns is proud to kick off our annual Arts of Dignity series for 22-23 with Tom Breiding, a singer-songwriter long engaged with the labor movement and environmental justice in Appalachia. 

About Tom: Many would say that country music as well as the broader Americana genre are the musical heart and soul of our nation, but singer/songwriter (and working rock guitarist) Tom Breiding has been creating a sub-genre of Americana for decades. A celebrated writer, Breiding focuses on the true heart and soul of America: our laborers and union members. Hailing from West Virginia, a state with a large populous of mine workers and laborers, Breiding has shared an intense artistic connection with the union members of United States for the entirety of his career, most especially United Mine Workers of America.

 

La Casa de Amistad Mural Unveiling 

December 12, 2022 | 12:00–1:00 p.m. | La Casa de Amistad

All are welcome to celebrate the completion of South Bend's newest mural, a collaborative project between the Center for Social Concerns' Art and Social Change class and La Casa de Amistad's Citizenship class. The project was led by local artist, Freddy Rodriguez, and students contributed to the design and painting as they sought to translate immigration narratives into visual language and explore the role of beauty in enacting the common good. Lunch provided. 

Calendar

Event Date
Submission Deadline: Arts of Dignity Student Art Exhibit 04/13/2023 - 12:00am to 11:45pm
Arts of Dignity | Student Art Exhibition 04/20/2023 - 5:00pm
View All Events

Upcoming Events

March 2023

April 2023

03
Canceled: Social Concerns Fair | Immigration and Human Rights
Monday, April 3, 2023 - 4:30pm to 6:30pm
13
Submission Deadline: Arts of Dignity Student Art Exhibit
Thursday, April 13, 2023 - 12:00am to 11:45pm
19
Alumni Book Club | Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Wednesday, April 19, 2023 - 7:00pm to 8:15pm
19
A Conversation with Sister Norma Pimentel, MJ
Wednesday, April 19, 2023 - 7:30pm
20
Arts of Dignity | Student Art Exhibition
Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 5:00pm
28
Labor Café
Friday, April 28, 2023 - 5:00pm

May 2023

19
Senior Send-Off Ceremony and Reception
Friday, May 19, 2023 - 7:00pm