College student artwork on display in Holland’s Van Bragt Park

HOLLAND — Artwork produced by regional students in reaction to the 2020 Big Read Lakeshore is now on display at Van Bragt Park in Holland.

The art was carried out by learners in Jes Kiwiet’s class at Zeeland’s Cityside Middle University. There are 14 pieces on show in the park with 18 pupils contributing. 

Learners who contributed artwork for show are Lydia Nickles, Sophia Rodriguez, Ash Boersen, Emily Wierenga, Sophie Gronevelt, Brynn Geerlings, Joely Juros, Zee Victor, Brooklyn Amante-Welfer, Maddy VanderZwaag, Seth Miller, Alexis Bosch, Emiliano Gibson, Alaiyah Busscher, Camryn Tibbets, Selah Alford, Ellie Branderhost and Madi Berens. 

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Several of the displays have brief response (QR) codes to scan with a cellphone digital camera to open up a statement from the university student artists. 

Juros and Victor collaborated for a piece titled “A Story of Conquering,” which presented a timeline to show “courage and persistence of the Black neighborhood via the years.” 

“We decided to consist of a timeline in the variety of a quilt to show all the struggles and stories the Black group has confronted by way of the several years,” the artists’ statement explained. “Today there is still a good deal of discrimination against the Black local community and we hope that during 2021 there will be anything carried out about it.”

In Busscher’s “It Helps make An Effects,” the goal was to “show a little something psychological, authentic and somewhat individual.”

“Everyone goes via struggles in existence, and I set mine on this piece of paper,” the statement stated. “The colored terms are actually what have gotten me through challenging instances, and the drawings signify me witnessing and using in all of the negativity. The grey watercolor demonstrates the raw, emotionless feeling of not acquiring truly worth at some points in my everyday living, but the terms overpower individuals inner thoughts and thrust me by the hard periods.”

The 2020 Major Browse Lakeshore and Minor Read through Lakeshore publications were “In the Heart of the Sea” by Nathaniel Philbrick as the principal choice, “Never Caught, the tale of Ona Choose: George and Martha Washington’s Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away” by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Kathleen Van Cleve for middle faculty students and “Galapagos Woman/Galapagueña” by Marsha Diane Arnold for younger audience.

“Our driving concerns all around these nonfiction texts included: ‘Whose histories are instructed? Whose are silenced? How do we inform tales from the previous? What can we discover from them,’” said Deb Van Duinen, director of the Big Examine and Small Study Lakeshore programs. “The pupil artwork shown in Van Bragt Park explores these thoughts with themes of bravery and persistence in the deal with of adversity.”