FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
The FAU Libraries are excited to have our Special Collection items featured in two virtual galleries at Florida Atlantic University. Both galleries are part of an exhibition series looking at America's past, present and future politics. The University Galleries are closed due to COVID-19, so all of the galleries can be viewed virtually.
The first exhibit to include Special Collections materials is "I’m Not bad, I’m Just Drawn that Way: The American Woman 100 years of Ephemera." Marnie Melzer, an undergraduate Art History student, curated this collection under the direction of Dr. Karen Leader. Marnie pulled materials from across Special Collections and took almost a year to make. Marnie won an OURI award for her work and proposal.
The exhibit is in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. The exhibition looks at 100 years of FAU’s Special Collections ephemera, such as postcards and advertisements, to understand how women have been depicted in our country.
The second exhibit is “Political Pandemonium: Presidential Pop Culture from 2008 through 2020” by Dr. Jane Caputi, Head Curator, Sika Dagbovie-Mullins, Ph.D., Co-Curator, Robert Caputi, Ph.D., Co-Curator and Sofia Honekman, Curatorial Assistant and graduate student in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.
This new installment is the third iteration in a series of exhibitions featuring popular presidential campaign paraphernalia that reflects and challenges the inequitable tradition of the symbolic presidential candidate, along with the related social issues now roiling the nation. Fair warning: Some of the items in this exhibit graphically expound hate and bias, including racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and transphobia. Some use obscene language.
