“Faces of Flint: Art & Design of an American Community College” Art Exhibit

Fiji National Museum

Suva, Fiji Islands

July 17-24, 2001

Faculty Organizer: Mara J. Fulmer, Assistant Professor/Program Coordinator in Graphic Design, Mott Community College, Flint, Michigan USA.

The artwork that was exhibited at the Fiji Museum, July 17-24, was created by participants in a cross-cultural educational study tour program travelling to Fiji and held through the Charles Stewart Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan. The majority of the work here was produced by students, graduates and two faculty from the college. In addition, two other participants are from other parts of the USA, including New York and Idaho. Their art experience ranges from novice to professional and exhibiting artists.

Flint, known as a blue-collar automotive factory town in mid-Michigan, just north of Detroit, in America’s mid-west region, is best remembered as the birthplace of General Motors and the American labour movement. This was highlighted by the famous "Sitdown Strike" which lead to the creation of the United Auto Workers union. In more recent times, it became the target of parody in the satire documentary by Michael Moore, called "Roger and Me", which tried to take an ironic look at the effect on the community of the closing of many of Flint’s automotive factories by General Motors.

Many of the students at Mott, named for Charles Stewart Mott who was one of the original founders of General Motors, are from families whose lives have revolved around the automotive industry. Many of them, their parents, aunts, uncles and cousins may have worked in the factories there. Many others, with no direct involvement in the industry, have in other ways been affected by it and its pervasive part of the local economy and social structure. For many, they are the first in their families to go to college.

These students are very much representative of the hardworking, curious and industrious American culture. Their work shown in this exhibit, was meant to provide our hosts in Fiji and the Fiji Museum in particular, a glimpse at who these students are, the world they live in, and their interests and everyday lives. These are meant to be "conceptual" self-portraits that tell you more about the participants than just what they look like. Identity goes deeper than face value and we hope that by participating in this program, the workshops and the general cross-cultural experience, these students will have begun to re-define their identity in the context of our global village and shared values.

See the "post" Fiji Art Exhibit.