Every year, the JSMA partners with the University of Oregon’s Common Reading—campuswide programming around a shared book and its themes—to organize a Common Seeing exhibition that explores and expands on the Common Reading through visual art. The 2020-21 novel is This is My America by UO Assistant Vice Provost for Advising, Kimberly Johnson. The Common Reading’s charge of Listen. Learn. Act. incorporates different bodies of work across multiple platforms, focusing on Blackness, Black experience, and dismantling racism. The works on view in this year’s Common Seeing, on loan from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, are by Black American artists Hank Willis Thomas (American, b. 1976) and Alison Saar (American, b. 1956). Their art compels us to look, listen, learn, and act.

The JSMA believes that art can move people to change. As an academic art museum, it is critical for us to listen, learn, and act in order to build trust and understanding. We are committed to the advancement of anti-racism in museum culture and diverse and equitable approaches in our work. The JSMA’s exhibitions and public programs strive to amplify multiple perspectives, experiences, and voices. LOOK. Listen. Learn. Act. is generously made possible by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.

Image: Alison Saar (American, b. 1956). Sorrow’s Kitchen (detail), 2020. Wood, tin, acrylics, spray tar, ceiling tin and linoleum, 28 x 12 x 10 in. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer (Photo Credit: L.A. Louver).