February 5, 2022 – April 30, 2022
Weikamp Gallery
Reception: Friday, March 4, 2022, 5-8pm
“I would be invisible because it will help others when I see that they are talking to themselves, I can go up to them while I am invisible and see if they are having a bad day or not.” – POP! SBMA artist, age 9
The South Bend Museum of Art presents POP! SBMA, a community exhibition showcasing ideas around identity through the creation of a paper-craft project that takes the shape of a collectable figurine. The project was announced over the summer during the museum’s KidBeat program and grew to include works from, IUSB’s Art Department, the Boys and Girl’s Club of Elkhart County, and many other organizations and families from our community. POP! SBMA asks its creators to come up with an identity for their figure and to think about what that identity means and the various ways we can convey complex identities.
In December, we were pleased to work with a talented and inspiring group of young people at the Boys & Girls Club of Elkhart County, ages 5-15. We talked about superheroes, their powers, and how they help their communities. We then changed the conversation to look inward, asking the members identify their own superpowers, how they could use them to help each other, ultimately creating their own POP! SBMA figure.
POP! SBMA will be on display in the Wiekamp Gallery at South Bend Museum of Art from February 5, 2022 – April 30, 2022.
Image credit: POP! SBMA figurine by James Jursinic, 2021
