Students Invited to Submit Art for Exhibition on Berlin Wall, Borders, and Barriers

Undergraduate students from the Five College campuses are invited to submit with prizes for the best works

Arts
Berlin Wall panels

This spring, UMass Amherst will unveil a section of the Berlin Wall painted by the artist Thierry Noir. The wall segment was generously donated to the University and will be installed on the UMass campus in front of Memorial Hall.

Since walls are not just a relic of past histories but very much a part of our lives today, we are inviting undergraduate students from the Five College campuses to engage creatively with the topic of walls in the past and present and to submit their projects to be exhibited in the Fine Arts Center on the UMass campus.

The project submissions will be judged by a jury of Five College faculty and there will be prizes for the best work ($100 for first prize; $75 for second prize; $50 for third prize).

All works will then be part of a student-led art exhibit on view in the lead-up to a student art exhibit called “The Berlin Wall: Borders and Barriers in the Past and Present” in the Bromery Fine Arts Center Lobby with reception on April 24 between 5-6:30 p.m.

Submission Guidelines

  • Undergraduate students from any of the Five Colleges are invited to submit projects.
  • Students may create projects in any format: visual arts (paintings, drawings, photography, etc.), audio or video content, posters presenting research, websites, etc. All submitted materials must be in a format that can be exhibited in the gallery space on display walls or tables.
  • Digital and multimedia projects should be presented in poster or flyer form with a link or QR code directing viewers to a website with the content.

In their work, students should engage with one or more of the following themes:

  • Walls as canvas
  • Rebellion and reactions against fortified borders and political lines around the globe
  • Street art and art in public spaces
  • Responses to policing and surveillance by state authorities: collaboration and resistance
  • Documentary film and the construction of memory narratives
  • The wall as a subject of study in the sciences
  • Environmental impacts of border walls

Students must drop off their final projects in Herter Hall 524 or 541 between April 17-20 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

For questions, please contact Professor Kerstin Mueller Dembling at  muellerdembling [at] german [dot] umass [dot] edu.

Announcement posted in Arts for Current students