The college is also hosting multiple campus-wide events in conjunction with the exhibitions between September 9 and September 30.  The public is invited to the exhibitions as well as the additional events.  Admission is free.

“Hateful Things” is a traveling sample from Ferris State University’s Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia and features a collection of racist objects that trace the history of the stereotyping of African Americans. The exhibition contributes to and is in dialog with the scholarly examination of historical and contemporary expressions of racism and visual culture. It also seeks to promote racial understanding and healing.

The exhibit was created by David Pilgrim, who is a professor of sociology, vice president of diversity and inclusion and museum curator at Ferris State University; and Carrie Stermer, who is director of Ferris State University’s Fine Art Gallery.

The collection began by Pilgrim purchasing and disposing of racially insulting items wherever he found them.  He began collecting the items when he recognized their historical significance.  He views the collection of images and artifacts not as a traditional museum, but as a learning and teaching laboratory, where the images of intolerance are used to teach tolerance.

“I have goal to create a room that when people come into the room, it changes the way they talk about race,” Pilgrim said.

“Resilience” was curated by Dr. Heidi Kraus and features world-renowned contemporary African-American artists from the Kruizenga Art Museum and Chicago’s Monique Meloche Gallery, including Faith Ringgold, Sanford Biggers and Lorna Simpson.

The works in “Resilience,” while in conversation with the history of African-American oppression, focus on demonstrating a resilience of spirit and hope for racial equality.

The additional events scheduled in conjunction with the exhibitions will begin with a screening of the film “From Jim Crow to Barack Obama” on Friday, Sept. 9, at 4 p.m. in Cook Auditorium of the De Pree Art Center and Gallery.  Discussion led by filmmaker Denise Ward-Brown of Washington University in St. Louis will follow.

There will be an opening reception for the exhibitions on Friday, Sept. 9, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the De Pree Art Center and Gallery.  The event is being held jointly with the opening reception for the Kruizenga Art Museum’s exhibition “After the Rupture: New Directions in Mexican Art 1960s-1980s,” which is running Tuesday, Aug. 30, through Saturday, Dec. 17.

The Ebony Road Players will present “A Simple Question” on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the DeWitt Center studio theatre.  The production celebrates the impact of the 1967 landmark Supreme Court Case Loving v. Virginia, which overturned laws that prevented interracial marriage.

Marcy Sacks of Albion College will present the lecture “The Most Laughable Things I Had Ever Seen: Currier & Ives’ ‘Darktown Comics’” on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 4 p.m. in the Fried-Hemenway Auditorium of the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication.

In addition, the college’s fall Arts and Humanities Symposium will examine “Am I Not Human? Racial Identities in Modern America” on Friday, Sept. 30, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.  Additional information about the symposium will be announced in the future.

The gallery of the De Pree Art Center and Gallery is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The De Pree Art Center and Gallery is located at 160 E. 12th St., on Columbia Avenue at 12th Street.  The studio theatre is near the eastern side of the ground level of the DeWitt Center, which is located at 141 E. 12^th St., facing Columbia Avenue between 10^th and 13^th streets.  The Kruizenga Art Museum is located at 271 Columbia Ave., between 10^th and 13^th streets.  The Martha Miller Center for Global Communication is located at 257 Columbia Ave., at the corner of Columbia Avenue and 10^th Street.

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