The Conversation
Join College of Arts and Sciences and Urban Arts Space experts for a conversation about exposing the reality of on-campus mental health as framed through the recent Me/We exhibition at Urban Arts Space.
Panel
- Jeffrey Haase | Associate Professor, Department of Design; Coordinator, Interior Design Undergraduate Program
- William Nickley | Assistant Professor, Department of Design
- Maya Jenkins | Third-Year MFA student, Department of Design
- Merijn van der Heijden | Director, Urban Arts Space
- Genevieve Wagner | Intern, Urban Arts Space; Undergraduate Student, Department of Art
Watch the Recorded Webinar Here:
The Exhibition Me/We
When was the last time someone asked you how you were doing? As mental health issues permeate The Ohio State University’s campus, graduate students within the Department of Design pondered this question in the form of a studio course in the 2019 Autumn semester aiming to challenge ideas about well being among college students. While a plethora of resources promote getting help exist on an individual level, a so-called “culture of care” extending to the larger student body is only just emerging. As a community, should we not challenge our complacency in ignoring each other’s struggles? This exhibition aims to showcase and build awareness of the individual yet shared difficulties college students face. Through class discussion and engagement with OSU’s student body, we were able to identify and illustrate this duality of separate, yet whole. Our evaluations included collecting responses to prompts about personal mental health from students at the Ohio Union. From these interactions, we found many conflicting polarities concerning unique triggers that varied from person to person, but also shared concerns among many groups. From this, we were able to represent the varied voices of OSU and reveal the complexities concerning the issue of mental health. By acknowledging each other’s struggles as a shared experience, personal difficulties may not become less burdensome or go away but can become a bit easier. This exhibit demonstrates a relevant reconsideration of the nature of solitude within a community. It also acknowledges the need for a more candid conversation on what can be done to imagine new solutions for the difficulties we face beyond traditional interventions on mental health by speaking to the collective experiences of OSU students.
The Class
- Susan Booher
- Yang Chen
- Luiza Souza Correa
- Rhys Gruebel
- Lucas Himes
- Maya Jenkins
- Noor Murteza
- William Nickley
- Madison Sabatelli
- Yiting Wang
- Professor Jeff Haase
