A white man with gray hair crouches behind a small hill, taking a photograph of a white pansy

Social Histories

Social history, sometimes called “history from below,” is a field that examines the past through the perspectives of minority groups. Instances of social change like the Civil Rights Movement served as a call to action for historians to move away from “top-down” histories that typically focused on privileged white men, and instead focus on the experiences of non-white people, women, the working class, and other historically underrepresented groups. ARI’s projects focusing on social histories highlight research on historical and contemporary instances of social activism against ongoing injustices.

Black Writing

An older Black man sits at a typewriter while a video plays behind him; an audience sits in front of him

2023

The year 2023 marked the 40th anniversary of the History of Black Writing, a research project that specializes in the recovery and preservation of texts by Black writers. This exhibition extended the goals of the project’s archive of Black storytellers to include visual art. Featured works by contemporary artists explored the power, politics, and complexities of language in contemporary Black culture.

Key people

Selected publications and media

Miller & Shellabarger, Untitled (Pink Tube)

Two balding men sitting across from each other, both crochet at either end of a long pink tube draped on the floor

2023

Artists Miller & Shellabarger (Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger) performed their work Untitled (Pink Tube) on April 28–29, 2023, at the Spencer Museum. The couple began the artwork in 2003 as a public performance where they simultaneously crochet at opposite ends of a long tube of pink yarn. They have agreed that when one of them is no longer able to perform, the other will begin unraveling the tube, which will also be a public performance. Their work addresses both universal human experiences and specific experiences related to queer identity. Artist duo Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens joined Miller & Shellabarger on April 29 for a public conversation about their years of performance work and what it means to perform as queer couples.

How the Light Gets In

A group of adults hunch over a pile of small white papers spread across a gallery floor

2022

This interactive installation sited at the Spencer Museum and Lawrence Public Library explored themes of knowledge, wisdom, and experience. Created by artist Sarah Newman and developed in collaboration with the KU Center for Digital Inclusion and metaLAB at Harvard, this project built on the work of KU Professor Hyunjin Seo and her team with formerly incarcerated women reentering society. The women in the reentry program submitted texts that were printed out and continuously fell to the gallery floor. Visitors to the exhibition at both locations could also submit their experiences. In this way, the wisdom of the women in the reentry program and that of the visitors were put into conversation with one another, encouraging viewers to approach others with compassion, curiosity, and humility. 

Selected publications and media

Danielle Roney, knowledges

A dark abstract shape appears to hang on a wall with a glowing white light behind it

Danielle Roney, Penumbra, 2019

2019

Artist Danielle Roney researches how surveillance technologies might be reversed and used as tools for those being watched. For the exhibition knowledges, Roney exhibited sculptural installations that provided portals for undocumented individuals who might not feel safe being physically present at the Spencer Museum.  

Selected publications and media

Fatimah Tuggar, knowledges

Blurry image of a clown wearing a blue blazer and clasping his hands appears inside an open desk

Fatimah Tuggar, Lives, Lies, and Learning, 2019

2019

Artist Fatimah Tuggar uses technology as both a medium and subject in her work to serve as metaphors for power dynamics. For the exhibition knowledges, Tuggar created hologram video installations that shared stories of workplace bullying from her own academic career and the careers of others. The holograms acted as a critique of the academy, suggesting that its promises may also be an illusion based on systems of inherent exclusion. 

Selected media and publications

The Ties that Bind: Haiti, the United States, and the Art of Ulrick Jean-Pierre in Comparative Perspective

A woman wearing a white dress and red wrap gazes toward a flaming dove that touches its beak to a beaded gourd she is holding while three children and a rooster sit at her feet

Ulrick Jean-Pierre, Marie Laveau, 2018, 2019.0001

2018

This exhibition revealed the deep historical connections between Haiti and the United States through the lens of contemporary Haitian art. It featured 12 paintings by Haitian-born, New Orleans–based painter Ulrick Jean-Pierre that portray striking historic figures and influential events in a monumental scale alongside 20th-century Haitian art from the Spencer’s collection.

Key people

Buffalo Boy: Resistance is Futile

An Indigenous man lays on a stage holding a rope wrapped around his arms; the top of his head is toward the camera

2018

Adrian Stimson, a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation, gave a performance as “Buffalo Boy” followed by an informal talk at Haskell Indian Nations University. The performance explored identity construction, specifically the hybridization of the Indian, the cowboy, the shaman, and the Two Spirit being.

Queer Social Histories and the Wartime Incarceration of Japanese Americans

An Asian woman with close-cropped black hair sits between two men while talking with her hands

2018

Visual culture professor and artist TT Takemoto gave a performative lecture and presented experimental video works about how artists and scholars approach queer social histories through the lens of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWI.

Pansy Project

A white man with short gray hair hands a flower to a young woman wearing a gray headscarf

2018

UK–based artist Paul Harfleet brought his international Pansy Project to Lawrence with a series of public events. Harfleet plants pansies at sites of homophobic abuse, takes a photo of the flower, names the image after the abuse that occurred, and posts it to his website. Harfleet’s visit included a pansy giveaway on the KU campus to spread the message of his project, the premiere of his short documentary PANSIES, and a reading and signing of his children’s book Pansy Boy. Harfleet planted pansies at sites of homophobia throughout Lawrence and led a planting tour across the KU campus.

Selected publications and media