The Samek Art Museum will host a panel discussion among four scholars focusing on questions surrounding immigration and migration and the effect they have on the human condition on Tuesday, March 19 at 6 p.m. in the Gallery Theatre, third floor, Elaine Langone Center. This panel is free and hosted in connection with the current exhibition Border Cantos | Sonic Border on display now at the Samek Art Museum’s Campus Gallery, which is just down the hall from the Gallery Theatre.
Border Cantos | Sonic Border is a two-person collaborative project between photographer, Richard Misrach and composer Guillermo Galindo that explores the experience of crossing the U.S./Mexico border through sound, images and objects found in the space between both countries. By working collaboratively, both artists create space outside their personal perspectives, collapsing political and divisive conversations about immigration into a thoughtful representation of the border and the struggles required to cross it.
The panel discussion, Borders and Immigration, will explore the ideas presented in this exhibition while adding perspectives from multiple areas of study and personal narratives to start a conversation that seeks to understand the experience of immigration rather than form positions and policies around it. Featuring Bucknell faculty Vanessa Massaro, geography; Elizabeth Durden, sociology & anthropology; Adrian Mulligan, geography; and Hilario Lomeli, a Ph.d. candidate at Pennsylvania State University, the panel seeks to explore the topics presented in the exhibition through an academic lens that maintains the humanity and individuality captured in the artists’ work. Along with presenting their own research, the panel will set aside a majority of the program for questions from the audience to start a casual conversation that maintains a global view of immigration stories and ideas while offering an event that is specific to the community of central Pennsylvania.
A reception will follow the discussion in the Samek Campus Gallery.
Border Cantos | Sonic Border is organized by Crystal Bridges Museum Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Generous support for this project is provided by Art Bridges Foundation.