Sports, Advertising, Art History, Pop Culture, Civil Rights—The Things That Tie Us Together

The title wall for Hank Willis Thomas’ newly opened exhibition All Things Being Equal… Feb. 22 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. Photo by Natalie Demaree.

BENTONVILLE, Ark.—The woman looked contemplative as she walked out of the exhibition. Being 80 years old, Nina Selz remembered the sentiments of events recorded in the artwork. She had lived through it. She had seen it with her own eyes. 

Artist Hank Willis Thomas’ All Things Being Equal… is an exhibiton at Crystal Bridges meant to examine popular culture and raise awareness in the ongoing struggle for social justice and civil rights through 91 different pieces, according to the museum’s website. 

“History is usually told from one perspective, and it’s really our responsibility as scholars, as we go into higher education, to start to demystify and nuance how we understand history and our role in it,” said Allison Glenn, associate curator of contemporary art at Crystal Bridges. “I think this is one opportunity of many to kind of demystify our understanding of history.” 

 In a town with a Black population of just under 3 percent, according to the most recent World Population Review, Bentonville might seem like an unlikely host of the exhibition. However, the exhibition relates to everyone as it allows people of all backgrounds to claim this historical narrative as their own, and take a step toward a more diverse community

Graphic by Natalie Demaree.

The audience is asked to become participants in acknowledging, reconsidering, and deconstructing old ways of thinking that hinder opportunity, liberty, and inclusion for all people, according to a Crystal Bridges press release.

The entire exhibition is very intentional starting from the placement of each piece to the lighting in the room, Glenn said. 

The exhibition “will underscore the impact that the art of our time can have in fostering public discourse about important issues,” said Rod Bigelow, executive director and chief diversity and inclusion officer at Crystal Bridges, in a press release. 

Musician Epiphany Morrow, from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, said the mix of creativity and statement within the pieces make the exhibition impactful.

“The branded thing could have been a three sentence thing. He could have been like ‘hey, Black bodies are utilized as a very connection to slavery,’ or you could have a dude in a three-point stance versus somebody who’s picking cotton in a three-point stance, and that’s a different level,” Morrow said. 

Whereas sentences he could forget, Thomas’ images are buried into Morrow’s mind, he said. 

Morrow said this exhibition is a conscious stride to a more diverse community, though there is still much to do.

“Diversity is not just having non-white bodies, it’s also understanding and respecting cultures where it almost becomes natural to understand that is part of a natural tapestry of America rather than just like ‘the other,’” he said. 

Justyce Yuille, UA student, said she thinks the problem with diversity is that it’s become an aesthetic rather than systemic.

“It’s more like, ‘make sure you have this person in the picture so that we can show our diversity,’” Yuille said. 

It is important for people to recognize that Black history is American history, and it plays an important role in how many things are shaped, she said. 

However, there are some who disagree.

At the end of the exhibition, participants are given the chance to answer the question, “what does freedom mean to you,” on a card and hang it up. 

One of the anonymous cards in the exhibition read, “Freedom of whiteness and white supremacy.” 

Nonetheless, Yuille said exhibitions such as this one are valuable because some of the sentiments of the past are still valid today.

“The things that they were fighting for then, we’re still fighting now,” Yuille said. “As a Black woman, I’m still fighting against racial discrimination.” 

The division between Yuille’s generation and the one before is that the things that her generation has now, they actually fought for in the civil rights era, she said. 

“And we’re still fighting it, but just on a different scale than my grandma had to,” she said. 

Nina Selz said Thomas’ art exhibition does an excellent job at recording the history that she has witnessed. 

The nation has always had a problem with acceptance of different cultures and people, she said.

“Step back 100 years in terms of women and Blacks, hispanics. Look at what happens if someone wears a scarf, they get rocks thrown at them. Now, if you wear a mask, you get rocks thrown at you. It’s unfortunate today, it’s like it was when I was in school,” Selz said. 

In addition to the art exhibition, Crystal Bridges is partnering with other organizations in the community to host a series of talks meant to educate community members about the nation’s past, allow a space for people to share what they feel, and a conversation to think of a solution to the problems they face today.

“We will have to find a solution one of these days, won’t we,” Selz said.