A combination of powerful art, reflective dance and historical courage are meant to connect and inspire a new generation of heroes.
The art exhibition Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein takes residence at Kent State University this fall.
The exhibit features 11 tapestries and 21 sculptures in Stein's signature style that highlight women who risked or lost their lives during the Holocaust. Themes of feminism and heroism are central to the art, which Linda Hoeptner-Poling, Ph.D., associate professor of art education, says is for everyone.
“It's for any audience that is interested in these important stories. And they are stories that we can all relate to, in some form,” Hoeptner-Poling said. “Everyday heroism, it doesn't have to be, ‘I blew up a Nazi train.’ That was Vitka Kempner,” she said, indicating a Heroic Tapestry. “It doesn't have to be as extreme as that. This is a role model kind of exhibition that is meant to inspire, to empower, to transform our thinking.”
“This is a role model kind of exhibition that is meant to inspire, to empower, to transform our thinking.” – Linda Hoeptner-Poling, Ph.D., Kent State associate professor of art education.
The exhibit has been a long time coming, according to Hoeptner-Poling, since she and Molly Merryman, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies, had originally secured the collaboration with Stein, a feminist artist, educator and activist, for 2020, but pandemic complications delayed the installation until August 2023.
To accompany the exhibition, Hoeptner-Poling and Merryman developed the special topics course, Feminist Art Encounters and Activism, which Hoeptner-Poling is teaching this semester.
The 16-week course invites students to explore feminist art theory, engage in social justice encounters, deepen their understanding of socially engaged art and nurture a personal sense of art activism or “artivism” with a series of guest lectures and interactive workshops.
Exclusive to the course, students were also offered the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in Stein’s art by becoming a living part of the exhibition through dance.
On Sept. 8 in the Center for the Visual Arts on the Kent Campus, Stein gave an artist lecture titled, “How Art is a Catalyst for Gender Justice vs. Bullying and Oppression.” Immediately following the lecture, a performance by assistant professor of dance Ambre Emory-Maier, and students from the Feminist Art Encounters and Activism course took place in the gallery.
Emory-Maier is the choreographer and creative extraordinaire behind the performance. When approaching the challenge of creating a piece for non-dancers, Emory-Maier gathered inspiration from the art, the lives of the featured women and the students themselves to inform the movement.
Along with the exhibit’s tapestries and sculptures, Stein provided two scarves that were used in the performance.
“The magic scarves are used in this work as a way to generate transformation in a positive way: to build courage, to lift folks up who feel like, ‘Oh, I could never stand up for somebody else. I could never be part of a support network to help somebody escape a really horrible situation,’” Emory-Maier said. “Within our work that we've created, you can see how, when the dancers come into contact with the scarf, they change.”
The performance was about five minutes long and included elements of movement, music, drum and spoken word. Emory-Maier’s intention was to honor Stein’s message through movement.
“I think what we're hoping to do is to honor the seriousness and the profoundness of the topic around the Holocaust, and what these fierce females did to help other people,” Emory-Maier said. “We're also bringing forth and hoping to recognize some of the qualities that upstanders have and cultivate.”
“I think what we're hoping to do is to honor the seriousness and the profoundness of the topic around the Holocaust, and what these fierce females did to help other people,” Emory-Maier said. “We're also bringing forth and hoping to recognize some of the qualities that upstanders have and cultivate.”
The exhibition is free and open to the public, and will be available to view through Sept. 29 in the Center for Visual Arts Gallery located at 325 Terrace Drive on the Kent Campus. Viewing hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays.
Hoeptner-Poling urges students and community members of all ages and identities to attend the exhibition and expose themselves to Stein’s art.
“Feminists really care about accessibility, and including all voices, so the fact that this exhibit centers [on] women is on the path of that kind of inclusion,” Hoeptner-Poling said. “Men get a lot of credit for being heroes in the Holocaust, and this is just one of those very powerful ways of correcting that narrative. Like, excuse me, women were also heroes.”