This year the Van Every/Smith Galleries are excited to have two Melon-funded internship positions for “Stories Yet to be Told: Race, Racism, and Accountability on Campus,” an initiative that will transform key campus spaces into interactive sites for interrogating race and racism. We’d like to introduce our second Stories Yet to be Told intern, Marquia Humphries ’22.
Name and hometown?
My name is Marquia Humphries and I’m from Jacksonville NC (not too far from Davidson.)
Class year and major/minor?
Junior. I’m majoring in Studio Art.
Did you do anything this summer or in quarantine related to the arts?
Sadly, my plans to intern at a sculpture park in Kentucky were cancelled due to COVID.
Why were you interested in the Stories Yet to be Told internship?
I felt this internship was a unique opportunity to get myself more involved with art on campus as well as play a role in the college’s movement towards a more conscious and equitable community.
What projects will you be working on this semester?
This semester we will be focusing on gathering demographic information for artists in our collection as well as taking inventory of any portraits that are/have been previously hung around campus.
What role do you think the arts play in conversation about race, racism, and accountability?
Art is a way to address and bring awareness to tensions that exist, allowing people to grapple with internal biases as well as provide a space for difficult conversations to happen.
What are the long-term goals of this initiative?
This project is about acknowledging who Davidson College has represented so far in terms of art how we can shift those demographics to include more representation. The end goal is to create a racial equity report for the Van Every/Smith Art Galleries that can be used as a reference point for the coming years
What are you most excited about for this internship?
I am most excited to delve into Davidson’s art collection and get a look at different artists we’ve exhibited here.