The Nordstrand Visual Arts Gallery and the Student Center at Wayne State College jointly exhibited a traveling art show from the Babylon Art & Cultural Center entitled “Art Across Borders,” from August 25 to September 23. The show, featuring art work of Palestinian and Iraqi artists, has been exhibited internationally since 2002. The exhibit at WSC is sponsored by the WSC School of Arts and Humanities and the WSC Counseling Center – International Student Services. Partial support for this project has been provided bythe U.S. Department of State, through a grant from the Cooperative Grants Program of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. After exhibiting at Wayne State College, the show will travel to Ithaca, New York.

The exhibit, featuring over 70 contemporary artworks from Palestine and Iraq, has become known as a very effective introduction to modern art in those countries, also serving as an opportunity for viewers to become acquainted with the work of artists who work under conditions that literally threaten their survival. The exhibit includes a diversity of styles and subject matter, ranging from the experiments with symbols and texture to traditional Arabic Calligraphy, watercolor paintings, acrylic paintings, and pen and ink drawings.

The exhibit was collected by Meg Novak, an artist and community organizer in Minneapolis, and Flo Razowsky, an American-born Jew, who respectively spent time in Palestine and Iraq during August and September of 2002 as part of a Voices in the Wilderness sponsored delegation. The curators delivered medical supplies and children’s clothing, and hundreds of pounds of art supplies donated by American artists.

During their visits to Palestine and Iraq, Ms. Razowsky and Ms. Novak were able to visit the homes and studios of the artists, conduct personal interviews with them, and witness the daily life within these two countries. The works from Iraq in the resulting collection became the first exhibit of art work from artists living in Iraq since before the Gulf War.

The show opened opened on August 25 at 4:30 PM with a lecture by Meg Novak, who served as the director of the Babylon Art and Cultural Center in Minneapolis, MN. The location of the opening lecture was in the lobby of the Fine Arts building, and refreshments were served in the hallway outside of the Nordstrand Visual Arts Gallery.

The exhibit ran through September 23, and was available for viewing at the Nordstrand Visual Arts Gallery from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM, M-F, and daily in the WSC Student Center from 8:00 AM – 9:00 pm. The art work displayed in the Student Center was in place until September 17, 2004.