The founder of PostSecret is coming to campus November 1. In my RHE 309K, we talked about PostSecret quite a lot. As a community art project, it interestingly updates 60s and 70s mail art. I'm also interested in how it uses a blog as a public art space, and how it constructs its public.

Leave it to public art of the semi-conceptual sort to create stunning cultural texts. Canadian artist Thom Sokolowski has installed 100 nineteenth century tents on New York's Roosevelt Island to commemorate the many populations who were institutionalized there in the 19th century--orphans, smallpox victims, people with mental illness.

Yesterday's campus events surrounding the unveiling of the Cesar Chavez statue were very exciting. The red United Farm Workers flag flew on the Main Mall while senators, state representatives, the US Undersecretary of Education honored Chavez's legacy and called for a continued struggled toward racial equality, workers' rights, and social justice. Like the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue on the East Mall, the Chavez statue and the Barbara Jordan statue (set for unveiling in Spring 2009) were the result of student-initiated campaigns and were financed by student fees.

I know a number of us talk with our classes about UT's campus statuary. I like to take students on a little tour each semester, after looking at materials about the debate.

A particularly interesting document is former UT President Larry Faulker's "Comments on the Report of the Task Force on Racial Respect and Fairness" from May 10, 2004:

http://www.utexas.edu/president/speeches/rrf_051004.html
(See especially paragraphs 46-57)