Made by Hand
ART MEETS SOCIAL JUSTICE Above: A Willamette student appreciates artworks in the “Border Crossings” exhibition. Right: Artist Betty LaDuke
A migrant farmworker stoops to pluck radishes from an Oregon field, his posture cramped and awkward. Under a blazing sun in Mozambique, women scratch a living from the depleted soil. An Eritrean family in a refugee camp dreams of a beloved homeland. For decades, internationally renowned Oregon artist Betty LaDuke has captured the lives and struggles of such people through art that addresses social justice, sustainability and shared humanity. Through a grant from the Willamette Sustainability Institute’s Green Fund and with support from the Mark O. Hatfield Library, University Archives and the Hallie Ford Museum of Art brought a number of her artworks to campus this semester for an exhibition. LaDuke also visited campus to meet students in classes, as well as to take part in a public panel discussion about art and activism. “Betty LaDuke has a long history of using the visual arts as a vehicle for the kind of social change that’s integral to Willamette’s mission and core values,” says university archivist Mary McRobinson. “As she says, her images ‘bridge people as well as continents. We are one.’”
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FALL 2017