This week, the Edwards Art Gallery opened with a new show featuring an innovative collective exhibition called Reframe produced by the non-profit Amplifier.  The exhibition is a collection of bold posters designed by some of today’s top artists including; Shepard Fairey, Ernesto Yerena, Noa Denmon, LMNOPI. These posters are made for various campaigns centered on human rights, environmental activism, indigenous peoples, and voting rights.

Twelve of the pieces feature an augmented reality (AR)  function that can be triggered with the companion smartphone app. When Art Department Chair Marylena Sevigney first saw the interactive posters, she “immediately thought we have to show these on the Holderness campus. The AR invokes awe and wonder while provoking thoughtful contemplation.”  The app transforms the 2-D works with animation and storytelling, allowing the images to literally come to life and the subjects' own voices to share their messages.

“Student reactions to the posters have been extremely positive. It helps that the work is bold, beautiful, and, of course, interactive,” says Photography Teacher and Edwards Art Gallery Director Joseph Sywenkyj. “The posters ask more of students while offering them additional tools to help foster social change on many of the topics they care about most. I’ve always believed art should be engaging and accessible and couldn’t be more pleased with the results I’ve seen so far.”

Amplifier also provides curriculum and teaching tools around the pieces that encourage non-partisan conversations around social justice.  The Amplifier website describes the purpose as “we share these conversation drivers with the hopes that young people in every region of the United States will be inspired to shatter echo chambers and start talking to each other!” 

Holderness is pleased to have purchased these posters with the intent of displaying them around campus and promoting a prolonged discussion surrounding these important topics.