UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Arts and Architecture’s Woskob Family Gallery will host an opening reception for the latest iteration of “A Conversation with the World,” an acclaimed exhibition of multimedia art by School of Visual Arts faculty member Lonnie Graham, on Thursday, Feb. 13, from 5-7 p.m. The gallery is located at 146 S. Allen Street, State College.
The opening reception will feature an open question-and-answer session starting at 6 p.m. facilitated by Savita Iyer, senior editor of The Penn Stater magazine. The exhibition is on display through Feb. 28.
“A Conversation with the World” is an exploration of human commonality that transcends cultural boundaries through portrait photography and recorded dialogue. The ongoing project has spanned Africa, Asia, the Pacific Rim, Europe and the Americas, capturing intimate portraits paired with casual interviews of tribal elders, scholars and community members.
Since Graham, a Penn State Distinguished Professor, began the project in 1986, the exhibition has been commissioned in more than 50 countries on six continents.
The project centers on a simple question and answer interchange between Graham and interviewees chosen at random. Through casual conversations that stem from a template of eight questions, participants voice their responses from their own distinctive cultural standpoint.
Serving as a critical balance to the photographic portfolio of portraits are the recorded interviews that accompany them. The recordings illuminate stunning cultural parallels, revealing consistently uniform themes: the fundamental need for shelter and safety, the profound influence of family and ancestry on identity, the role of traditions in shaping society and the deep connection to spiritual beliefs and personal values.
“A survey of this sort is meant to help clarify preconceptions many people hold about one another and lead to the acceptance of our shared human experience,” Graham said in an artist statement. “It aims to lay foundations for establishing a climate in which people are more likely to seek one another for support, rather than abandon each other in ignorance. Through deeper understanding, fear is dispelled, and connection prevails.”
Graham, who has been a faculty member at Penn State since 2003, is a Pew Fellow. He created the African/American Garden Project, a cultural exchange between urban mothers and Kenyan farmers. He was cited as Artist of the Year and presented the Governor’s Award by former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.
Graham also served on the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts/Pew Charitable Trust Travel Grant for travel to Ghana and is a four-time Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship recipient.
His book that chronicles the decades-long multimedia project, “A Conversation with the World,” was published in 2004 by Datz Press in Seoul, Korea.
Classes, student organizations and university offices are encouraged to visit the Woskob Family Gallery, a unit of the College of Arts and Architecture. Inquiries can be directed to [email protected]. For more information on this and other exhibitions, visit the gallery’s website. Keep up to date with the Woskob Family Gallery by signing up for its listserv or following on Instagram @woskobfamilygallery.