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Unfinished Revolutions: Living Stories of American Rights Exhibit Opening
Spurlock Museum of World Cultures
600 S. Gregory St.
Urbana, Illinois 61801
(217) 333-2360
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Stop by anytime between 5pm and 8pm to explore the exhibit,
enjoy light refreshments, and listen to protest music performed by Paul Kotheimer.
You can also become part of the exhibit with our zine making craft!
Express yourself artistically in response to the themes and
the pieces will be pulled together into a zine that will be
placed on display within the exhibit.
Unfinished Revolutions: Living Stories of American Rights
explores the bold promises of liberty, equality, and justice
the United States was founded on. But the path toward fulfilling those
ideals has been anything but straightforward. Our exhibit theme of
unfinished revolutions explores the ongoing struggle to define
and expand the meaning of freedom in America. From the Revolutionary
era to today, individuals and communities have challenged injustice and
demanded change—through protest and litigation, war and grassroots
organizing, formal politics and everyday resistance.
This exhibit is multivocal. The objects vary, and the people interpreting
and reflecting on them are diverse in view, experience, expertise, and background.
These ideas will weave through the text created by many different contributors,
interpreting objects from Spurlock’s collections and across campus.
About Paul Kotheimer:
For well over 30 years now, songwriter Paul Kotheimer has been blending music and activism in Urbana, Illinois. His catalog of original songs is decades deep, recorded almost entirely at home in his living room studio. He's "locally world famous" as a solo acoustic performer and lyricist par excellence, with an ear for vintage stylings, whip-smart storytelling, and an eclectic mix of genres drawn from every page of the American songbook. Onstage, PK delivers, with lung power gained over years of busking on street corners and belting it out in bars and coffee houses. He's also a longtime student of the American tradition of folk song for political action--Labor, social justice, and anti-war songs are all tools in his kit, and he advocates for musical performance as a powerful community bonding force.
About the zine making project:
If you’ve ever watched the summer Olympics, you’ve likely noticed the popularity of the track and field relay races. Relays involve teams of four runners; each charged with sprinting with the baton and successfully passing it to the next runner. While teammates hold the same responsibility and collective goal, the how and why of their individual roles may differ.
What if we used the metaphor of a relay team for Unfinished Revolutions? Instead of sprinting to the finish line for a track and field relay race, imagine you’re contributing to an unfinished revolution for liberty, equality, and justice.
Who are you passing the baton to?
What are you fighting for?
How does it impact the success of the race?
The Spurlock Museum invites you to contribute to the Unfinished Revolutions exhibit by creatively responding to these prompts. You’ll create a page to be included in a special exhibit zine. (Zines, short for magazines, are small, handmade booklets often designed to share special interests or personal stories.) Your page, created on canvas, will be put on view as part of the exhibit zine.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to have your voice included in Unfinished Revolutions.