In the course Power, Politics, and Decision-making, students studied the relationship between art and urban social movements, including as a tool to mobilize people for a cause and as a means to communicate with a broad audience and share information. Students chose social issues that were important to them and spent a class period learning the art of protest printmaking, using found materials, wood blocks, glue, and ink. Students used stencils to craft messages that they came up with to help communicate the struggle for social justice underlying the issues on which they were focusing.
On a chilly Tuesday in November, Dr. Murphy’s Public Policy and Cultural Diversity class met at Baystate Cafe and Market on Water Street in Worcester’s Canal District. The objective for the day was for students to wander around the neighborhood taking note of representations of different types of diversity in the built environment that have been discussed in the class - ethnicity, race, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status etc. They explored the neighborhood taking photos of store fronts, signs, murals, holiday decorations, advertisements, pavement, sidewalks, buildings, and architectural styles. Afterwards, the class reconvened at Baystate Cafe and Market for some Middle Eastern snacks and sweets as they reviewed their photos and engaged in a discussion of how diversity takes shape in the Canal District's built environment. The class considered which specific groups of Worcester’s residents are visibly represented, which groups appear to be l...