Students in Dr. Steven Schoen’s class Artistic Expression in a Global Society, IDS 3336, sent a powerful message about the status of women living in poverty around the world through their “Creative Engagement” group project. Calling their display “The Invisible: Women in Poverty,” students used clear packing tape to construct partial torsos of women that were transparent or only partially visible. In modern urban environments, it is all too common for people to fail to “see” the “bag ladies” or women living in the economic margins and this project made that situation visible by depicting their invisibility. The goal of the assignment was for the students, most of whom are non-artists, to use art as a way to engage people with an issue of global significance. The students displayed their project in a high-traffic area next to a mecca of consumerism, Starbuck’s in the Green Library and affixed the sculptures to the wall – using tape, of course. Asked for his response, one passer-by commented: “I almost didn’t see them.” The student artists responded: “Exactly.”
