Including various photographic mediums and a Palouse-based theme, “Shared Light” will be on display from Aug. 18-22 at WSU’s Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The collaborative pop-up exhibition will feature community-driven curation of their recently created cyanotypes and pinhole photographs.
The face behind the project, Keegan Baatz, is a third-year MFA student at WSU who intends to tell the story of ‘place’ in the Palouse. Baatz said to him, ‘place’ means focusing on the “history and cultural meanings of the Palouse and what it means to make art in relation to [a] specific site”.
His decision to focus on the Palouse and its history culminated into a multi-workshop-based project where community members could learn about different mediums of photography and help curate an exhibition.
“It stemmed from me wanting it to engage with the community,” Baatz said. “Specifically members of the community that I typically wouldn’t have interacted with outside of an educational sphere.”
Over the summer, Baatz conducted three workshops on separate topics. The first involved the medium of cyanotypes, an early camera-less photography method which utilizes UV reactive chemicals and the sun to create a blue and white print. This is also where the term “blueprint” comes from.
The second workshop was a discussion-centered viewing of historical Palouse photographs in the museum’s collection. Baatz said that the local group spoke about what the photos meant to them under the context of ‘place’. The collection photos shown in this workshop will also be featured in the exhibition.
The third workshop is divided into two parts, with the final part to be completed from 4 to 6 p.m. this Friday. Participants constructed their own pinhole cameras, and will be taking photos with them to finalize the exhibition’s curation.
Baatz estimated that a total of 50 to 60 people have attended the workshops and helped develop this project. He hopes that the community will attract more locals and family of the participants to view what was made and curated.
“For me, it was a way to further–or, hopefully further–that invitation for locals and people of the Palouse to be a part of something that, in other ways, I wouldn’t have been able to make happen without them,” Baatz said.
He also said that the exhibition is valuable for newer Pullman residents and students to see how the people who have lived in the Palouse for multiple generations have experienced it.
“It’s a great opportunity for there to be interaction between newcomers and people who have called this place home longer,” Baatz said.
Additionally, from 4 to 5 p.m. on the exhibition’s final day of viewing, Aug. 22, there will be a casual closing ceremony at the museum with Baatz in attendance. Anyone is welcome to attend, especially workshop participants; light food will also be provided.
“Anish Kapoor: Dissolving Margins” and “Color Outside the Lines” will also be displayed as semester-long exhibitions from Aug. 19 to March 14. These two curated exhibits debuting alongside “Shared Light” will feature more mediums of art such as printmaking, and explore unique themes related to breaking out of stereotypes.
