An art exhibit first shown 17 years ago in Montana has made its way to Boise’s Wassmuth Center for Human Rights. The Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate project began when the Montana Human Rights Network received 4,000 copies of a hate-speech filled book circulated by a white supremacist group.
The network partnered with the Holter Museum of Art to commission artists from across the country to transform and reimagine the text with a creative lens. The resulting exhibit has toured the nation ever since, and is now in Boise for the first time.
“Even though we are not an art gallery or an art museum, it felt like a really interesting and really mission aligned opportunity,” said Christina Bruce-Bennion, executive director of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights.
She says that while the exhibit has been around for more than a decade, its message of hope and kindness as a force against hate speech and discrimination remains relevant as ever.
“Looking at all the different ways that we can take that kind of negativity and think about how in our words and our actions, in our way of being in the world, we can change that narrative," said Bruce-Bennion.
The artwork is currently installed at the Erma Hayman House, the Albertsons Library at Boise State University and the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights. The exhibit runs now through August 8.
