Participants will be guided through a series of conversations and hands-on activities that begin to unpack the ways in which our whiteness and privilege function in the world, and in our practice as media-makers.
Presenters:
Jessica Bal
Alexis Lambrou
Sarah Winter
Location:
Online
Our Online Workshops are proudly supported by our partners PhotoWings with additional contribution by the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation.
What does responsible ownership and exploration of whiteness look like?
Heirlooms/Evidence is an archival workshop in which we collect and reflect on personal objects and images that represent lineages of privilege in North America. These items act as a sort of physical evidence—as well as a concrete place for starting a dialogue and intentionally exploring identity.
Participants will be guided through a series of conversations and hands-on activities that begin to unpack the ways in which our whiteness and privilege function in the world, and in our practice as media-makers. Heirlooms/Evidence invites participants to examine what we have inherited, and to rethink and shift the nature of what we pass on.
We believe that addressing the inequities in our industry requires engaging more honestly and deeply with our identities and biases as image-makers, and hope this workshop can provide a grounding, critical lens that makes whiteness more visible.
Presenter Bios
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Jessica Bal is a documentary artist, educator, and arts organizer passionate about projects that involve interdisciplinary collaboration and reciprocal approaches to storytelling. Bal’s work has been supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation, Magnum Foundation, The Polis Project, and Fledgling Fund, and published in The New York Times, BuzzFeed News, VICE, The Miami Herald, Narratively, and others. She coordinates education programming for Photoville and has taught photography to graduate students as well as middle and high school students in New York City. She also manages the digital archive of photographer Susan Meiselas. She received her master’s degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and holds a B.A. in english and art history from Tufts University.
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Alexis Lambrou teaches photography and media literacy at Bard High School Early College. She has collaborated with young people through Sarah Lawrence College’s Social Justice Collective, the New York Public Library, the Magnum Foundation, the International Center of Photography, Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School, New York City’s Parks and Rec Centers, Photoville NYC, and the Sioux YMCA. Lambrou received her master’s degree in art and education from New York University and holds a BFA in photography from Rochester Institute of Technology.
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Sarah Winter is an arts educator based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the community engagement liaison at the Community Art Center (CAC). Originally from Minneapolis, she formerly worked in education and interactive media at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where she worked on digital story-telling interactives and the early iterations of the Museums As Sites for Social Action (MASS Action) initiative. While living on the west coast, Sarah coordinated community engagement and education programming at a non-profit in Eugene, Oregon focused on arts accessibility and environmental sustainability. Sarah received her master’s degree in art, education and community practice from New York University, and holds a B.A. in art history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
