Faces of Russian Resistance: A Successful Exhibition at Macalester College

Friends, hello! I want to share with you a success story from our state, Minnesota! :) At @macalestercollege, the exhibition "Faces of Russian Resistance" took place. Let me tell you how it all came together. In the fall, Professor Tamara von Schmidt-Pauli invited me to present at the university, where I suggested to the students the idea of organizing this exhibition, which had been held in many cities across Europe. Amman Al Hussain, a senior student, decided to take on this project. Together, we chose a spot on campus where it would look great and met several times to discuss the details. Amman decided to tie the exhibition to his final project under the guidance of curator Julia Chadaga. To make the exhibition happen, Amman found a construction company that brought the fencing to campus—this all cost $800 and was sponsored by the Lealtad-Suzuki Center for Social Justice and the Russian Studies Department. The entire project took several months of collaboration, but Amman was the campus leader and truly the project manager. :) In the end, this exhibition became the first in the U.S. where the fencing was placed outdoors. The exhibition was viewed by university students and attendees of the large conference Art and the State in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. We also hung letters from political prisoners on the fencing, including an article by sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, the editor-in-chief of the Rabkor channel, and our exhibition was also featured on their channel! Minnesota is on the map! :) I want to give a huge thank you to Tamara von Schmidt-Pauli for inviting me in the fall, to Macalester College for highlighting such an important issue, and most importantly, to Amman Al Hussain for bringing this project to life! He truly changed the entire campus for two weeks, raising awareness about Russian political prisoners!