Article by: Ethan Long

Students and faculty from around Suffolk University took part in “Celebrating Diversity: A group exhibition exploring ideas of disability,” a part of S.O.U.L.S’ annual Unity Week.  The exhibit, which took place on Tuesday, included an art gallery exhibit located in the Donahue lobby. The exhibit was sponsored by a combination of S.O.U.L.S, the Office of Disability Services, and the New England School of Art and Design.

Every year, S.O.U.L.S’ puts on their Unity Week celebration to encourage students to learn about everyone around them, no matter what background they might come from. The idea helps students learn to accept the world they live in. Tuesday’s event focused on disability in and around Suffolk University. Students from NESAD created artwork to be displayed at the exhibit.

“The artists created the different pieces of art, and worked to interpret different disabilities and people that they may know who have disabilities and different situations, and just created all different art forms with little stories that go along and tell what the work is all about. It’s the student’s interpretation of what disability is and what it looks like at Suffolk,” said Rebecca Kmiec, one of the event’s organizers. “We facilitated meetings with the students from NESAD and from Suffolk and they put together all of the artwork. We just oversaw the program, the meetings, and really left it up to the artists to be creative for what they wanted to do.”

Students walking by the exhibit were intrigued, walking into the gallery to view the artwork displayed. “I think having the exhibit in this great location, the Donahue lobby, really made it easy for people to come out and check the exhibit, and I think everybody’s really been fascinated and interested in the exhibit as well,” said Elizabeth Irwin, who helped plan the exhibit.

“What’s really exciting about this for me is that in the true spirit of Unity week, this project brought together students from across Suffolk University in ways that we don’t typically do here. So, we had students from NESAD working and students from College of Arts and Sciences, and staff from a variety of offices and it really felt like a true collaborative effort and that was really exciting to be a part of,” said Tim Albers, Assistant Director of S.O.U.L.S. The artwork presented included paintings and sculpture that were created by students dealt with subjects such as quadriplegia, anger, and confidence.

“We really couldn’t have done this without the students, so we appreciate their effort, and we hope to do this again next year,” said Irwin.

For more information about S.O.U.L.S events and Unity Week, contact S.O.U.L.S at [email protected].