The Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) is hosting an exhibit, Teen Perspectives on Race and Health Equity. The included art is created by the young participants of a program organized in partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (BCBSM), and brings high school students from Minneapolis and St. Paul, and Perpich Arts High School in Golden Valley to work with teaching artists to address racism and health inequities through their artistic practice.
The young artists show paintings, mixed media pieces, drawings, digital work, photography and sculpture, exploring topics like medical malpractice and abuse towards women of color, and more.
“I was struck by how aware these young people are about this issue – not only in their lives, but in the lives of folks they know,” says Bukata Hayes, vice president of racial and health equity and chief equity officer at BCBSM.
The program came about after the foundation declared racism a public health crisis, and needed to address that.
“I think we also acknowledged that we would have to partner in new ways and utilize multiple avenues to bring about awareness, and to bring about action,” Hayes says.
A key component of the program was providing a voice to the young people who have been historically marginalized as they used art to amplify messages about racial health inequities and how we can move forward.
Ebony Beck, an educator in the program focused on keeping the space safe and inviting. She says that part was easy. “They were all so aware. I didn’t need to do much, which was awesome.” Beck also advised the young people on structure and value in their art piece, and helped them talk through the process and brainstorm.
Shawntea Kopseng, a student at Minnesota Transitions Charter School, created a piece based on her birth mother who had seven children. Kopseng is adopted and never met her birth mother who died two years ago from an overdose.
“She’s Native American, and I wanted to document her experiences with maternal health,” Kopseng says.
In the piece, Kopseng depicts a woman whose face is partially covered with hair. She wears a feather, and a shawl, and holdsan expression of depression as light from the windows shines through blinds.
“The expression that she has is a sad expression,” Kopseng remarks. “And since I never got to meet my mother, it was very hard to think of her in such distress.”
The piece came out of discussions she had in the program about health disparities in maternal health. “It was really nice to hear from other people and their experiences with racism and health problems,” she says.
Pasi Lee, a student at Perpich Center for Arts Education, also depicted a family member’s experience during COVID in her piece. In her painting, her grandmother seems to be peering through a window, or a doorway, and has an expression of desperation. It captures a feeling of Lee’s grandmother being closed in.
“During those years of COVID and also before COVID, she was very sick, and she had to be hospitalized for half a year,” Lee says. “It was a very long time, especially for her because she has a big fear of hospitals. That’s kind of common with my other older relatives as well.” Lee’s family is Hmong, and has a history of mistrust of the health system in the U.S. That barrier to health was a topic Lee wanted to explore in her piece.
Other artists have pieces that explore identity. Lucía Samayoa incorporated her Guatemalan heritage in “Dios no es destino,” a mixed media work that layers in photographs, maps, painting, and a poem called “Salud Mental” by Vianney Harelly, one of Samayoa’s favorite authors.
“She wrote this poetry book about generational trauma and struggles with being the daughter of immigrants,” Samoyoa says. “It really inspired me to make this piece.”
Robert Smith participated in the program, and, for the first time, dealt with issues around race in his artwork. “My piece is a showcase of my father’s experience with the police and is meant to show that, yes, even though the police departments have become corrupt, the people of Minneapolis can and will make it through.
Teen Perspectives on Race and Health Equity is on view at MIA through August 27.
