Building Bridges : The Partnership for Worker Education : UMass Amherst

Solidarity Through Art

Building Bridges is a UMass public art and engagement initiative that draws on the power of solidarity and creative expression to bring people together and create a bridge across difference. The phrase “build bridges, not walls” has become a popular response to the rhetoric of fear and exclusion that has been dominating US headlines. Building Bridges is an effort to counter this fear and exclusion by focusing on the very real and positive possibilities that exist when people come together across race, religion, class, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, nationality, and more. The initiative is a collaborative effort between The Partnership for Worker Education, Civic Engagement and Service-Learning and the Office of Equity and Inclusion.

Core Components

Building Bridges has four core projects: a participatory Art Installation made up of three 10-foot tall towers and our Building Bridges Cards; Our Immigrant Voices, which seeks to amplify the voices of immigrant workers on campus; Showcasing Worker Artists at UMass, which explores ways of highlighting the art created by UMass employees, and Worker Rights as Human Rights, which helps to reveal the interconnectedness of workers’ rights with all aspects of human rights. Each of these projects creates a context for dialogue and produces or shares creative work that engages members of the campus community in building bridges across difference.

Participatory Art Installation

Our Immigrant Voices

This project has sought to amplify the voices and visibility of immigrant workers on campus. Four class sessions have met since spring 2018, creating two unique sets of Our Immigrant Voices panels. Each set of panels – one that is 20-feet and another that is 24-feet long - provide snapshots from conversations that have taken place during the courses. Participants contribute and choose these quotes and images to be shared with the campus community in order to stimulate dialogue, reflection, and engagement about the experiences of immigrant workers. The panels have been exhibited at two Building Bridges showcase events, in the Whitmore Administration Building, and at the International Staff and Faculty Orientation.

In fall 2019, we began using the Photovoice methodology and have created five separate projects that include images, personal narratives and portraits. Course participants identified and then creatively documented issues that are important to them. This participatory action research technique, created by Carolyn Wang and Mary Ann Burris, invites people who are oftentimes overlooked to “identify, represent, and enhance their community” through photography and in doing so become “catalysts for change.” Participants identify themes that are important to their experiences here on campus and that they wished to share, for example: Respect in Action, Feelings of Invisibility, Our Values, Beauty in Nature, and Personal Development. The diversity of the themes is emblematic of the different experiences here on campus and underscores the fact that people’s days are filled with a variety of interactions, feelings and personal moments of reflection. Panels have been shared at our December 2019 lunch, our annual Showcase Events, the Physical Plant, and as a part of special events for the International Faculty and Staff Association, the College of Nursing, and Student Affairs and Campus Life.

Showcasing Worker Artists at UMass

Worker Rights as Human Rights

Drawing on our campus commitment to Building a Community of Dignity and Respect, this project helps to reveal the interconnectedness of workers’ rights with all aspects of human rights, while showing the ways in which people can come together to advocate for the dignity and respect of everyone. Each semester we offer one course, accompanied by one public film screening and community dialogue that invites UMass staff members to explore a particular aspect of worker rights. Our first semester focused on civil rights and centered on the film At the River I Stand, highlighting the Memphis sanitation workers strike in 1968. The second semester focused on gender equity through the film I Am Somebody, which tells the story of black female hospital workers in South Carolina who went on strike in 1969 for fair wages and union recognition. Future topics will explore worker rights intersectionally, within the context of immigrant rights, issues of class, LGBTQ, age, as well as the role of creative expression and music in collective struggle for dignity and respect.

The courses use film, audio, short in-class readings, and, most importantly, participant experiences and reflections in class discussion to explore historical and current issues, events, and actions. The public film screening anchors each course and provides for a broad-based community dialogue, inviting students, faculty, and staff to engage with and reflect upon these critical issues.

This project is an ongoing collaboration with the UMass Labor Center Director Cedric de Leon, former Center director Pat Greenfield, and associated adjunct faculty.