Untold Stories: The Forgotten Underclass in Rust Belt Urban Renewal is an exhibition of Mahoning Valley native and Los Angeles based new-genre artist Jennifer Vanderpool. The exhibition narrative identifies outmoded imagery of blighted “Rust Belt” cities and employs them as allegories to evoke questions about neighborhood decay and gentrification, segregation and integrated cities, generations of unemployment and economic redevelopment.

Vanderpool has created her artwork by incorporating abstracted elements from historic tourism posters, souvenir postcards, print advertisements, TV commercials, company training films, corporate photographs, and other media with her design aesthetic to craft narratives of imaginary realism that evoke the “Rust Belt” region.

Untold Stories will include digital prints, archival material provided by The University of Akron Archives, and a documentary film. The film will feature interviews with Akron-area community members and professionals, such as University of Akron professors Dr. Ramona Ortega-Liston, David Giffels, Dr. Bill Lyons, several retired rubber workers including Don Heffner and Al Fitch, and others.

 

UNTOLD STORIES: THE FORGOTTEN UNDERCLASS IN RUST BELT URBAN RENEWAL | MARCH 11–APRIL 19
Panel discussion 6pm Thursday, April 11

GRAPHIC DESIGN SENIOR EXHIBITION | APRIL 25–MAY 3

 

Emily Davis Gallery
Myers School of Art
The University of Akron
150 East Exchange Street
Akron, Ohio 44325
330.972.6030
Uakron.edu/art/