Visibility Initiative’s History
Formation
Visibility Initiative (VI) was formed in 2013. Early efforts were led by Nick Carson and Brenna Helppie-Schmieder. While early leaders debated forming a student organization, advised by Ernest Perez, the Visibility Initiative eventually became a committee within the Student Body Association. Becoming an SBA committee made more sense for the organization, because the founding leaders did not plan to host events and panels like a traditional student group. VI’s mission was to ensure that the law school space reflected the many forms of diversity of the NLaw community, through documentation and celebration. One early contributer to the initiative, Chime Asonye, noted that “ elite portraits and paintings featuring white men were a constant, reinforcing the idea of law as only serving a narrow community, dominated by judges and lawyers, and entrenched in power and privilege.“ The founders saw their work as an “aesthetic disruption… to engender new realities and possibilities.” By advocating for diverse forms of expression such as sculpture, graffiti, photography, and fiber-based works, VI aimed to disrupt the monotony of the NLaw collection and expand its diversity and inclusion for all. Asonye notes the humanizing power of art and cultural expression which can, “humanize the political, humanize the legal space, make it habitable for him.” Leveraging space in these ways is powerful.
The Visibility Initiative was unique among student led organizations because many stakeholders within the law school community were involved. Alumni, administrative staff, and faculty members joined students in advocating for increased diversity within the Law School art collection. The formation of VI coincided with increased diversity in class composition at the law school. The newer classes were able to point out gaps in NLaw’s programming and collection that prior groups may not have seen. Dean Rodriguez and other senior administrators were very supportive of VI’s efforts. Leaders worked to streamline a fundraising program for the initiative. Donors broadly chose to support DEI at the law school through the establishment of scholarship funds instead of facilities-directed donations. Scholarships are a very important component of the NLaw mission. However, this development left the group with a shoestring budget. Together with Dean Langford, the members of VI worked to plan and complete a display for the Social Justice Hallway on the first floor of McCormick.
The McCormick Social Justice Hallway was VI’s first major project. Partnering with leaders at the law school, students organize an email campaign soliciting image suggestions from the entire NLaw community. One student organizer remembered the email as a request that individuals share photos of social movements that led to policy change. Other organizers remember it as a call for images that invoke the reasons that submitters chose to come to the law school. From the pool of submitted images, a committee selected a series for display. This project was logistically difficult to implement because many of the submissions lacked attribution. Yet locating the licensing information is a necessary step in ethical collection management. The ADA photo series was particularly hard to find. The committee eventually located the photographer, who was in the hospital at the time, through Facebook. The photographer was excited to hear that their work impacted students and gave permission to use the image. However, the Law School had to find a suitable print shop as existing prints were unavailable. The project was supported by many stakeholders within the NLaw community.
Continued Growth
Fundraising was difficult for additional projects, but the Visibility Initiative was chosen as the graduating class gift several times between 2014-2018. This allowed the members of VI to further their goals of inclusion and representation through various projects, including the selection of local artists for the atrium expansion and photographs depicting important legal figures in the basement lounge. The group also coordinated several events with Simple Good, an organization that prompts youth around the world to explore resilience, purpose, and empathy through artwork. One exhibit, staged in “the most trafficked area of the school” featured stories and artwork from children in Tanzania. Another event brought students from Fenger High School to the NLaw atrium to present the stories behind their work. These events were shared broadly over social media, free and open to the public, with one theatrical showing of Crime Scene Chicago: Let Hope Rise garnering over 600+ reservations. The performance was followed by a community discussion about the ongoing violent crime epidemic.
In conjunction with the advocacy of VI, a concerted effort was made to acquire artwork created by diverse artists. The committee met frequently to talk about what space would look like on a conceptual level. Dean Langford would locate pictures and share them for group discussion. Inequality was a major theme of these early conversations. They considered the paint colors, the language of the wall descriptions, the sizes of different pieces in relation to one another, and even the order of display. Every decision was carefully considered for tangible impact. In the lead up to the hallway being unveiled, the group was thoughtful about the different movements they wanted to represent within the space. Yet Lartey encouraged students to “change the art, make it fresh/you/relevant to times.”
In addition to advocating for specific changes to the collection, VI also hosted several events. They partnered with Simple Good to host short term exhibits in the atrium of the law school. They also invited performance artists and other folks into the NLaw space. These events had a massive impact in the NLaw community. Folks “expressed feeling more invested in the school since it began to reflect their reality… [they felt] closer to their peers because they felt comfortable being vulnerable in these settings.” Even today, participants who attend the campus art tours hosted by Dean Langford and Elide Endreson leave the experience changed. One attendee shared that they were in tears after the tour with George. They hadn’t felt good about being in the building before, but after the tour they expressed “feeling a sense of pride, curiosity, affection for the space” every time they walk through the halls.
Struggles and Dissolution
VI was inactive during the 2020-2021 school year, and most of the institutional knowledge within the student body was lost during this time. Meegan Mayer took charge of the committee in 2022 to “advocate for and uplift some of the underrepresented voices at NU.” Under Mayer’s leadership, the mission of the group shifted from art towards other concerns of the student body. Mayer saw the organization as the “SBA version of DivCo… a force for internal advocacy rather than social connection.” The Diversity Coalition (DivCo) is a Northwestern student organization that fosters relationship building between different affinity groups. It plays an important role among the student body but has limited access to administrators. The Student Body Association (SBA), in contrast, has regular advocacy meetings with several deans. However, it was difficult to navigate relationships with administration and SBA leadership without prior knowledge of VI’s history. Students were also broadly unfamiliar with VI, which limited the number of folks who reached out for assistance. Wren Martyn and Jasmeene Burton were also involved in this phase of the initiative. One major accomplishment was coordinating student organizations to send image descriptions in their event emails. This made student activities more accessible to folks who use a screen reader to engage with technology for various reasons. The committee was formally disbanded by the SBA at the beginning of the 2022/2023 academic year. Representative positions were created on the Admissions and Governance and Oversight Committees “to identify issues and improve policy related to matters of inclusion.”
VI shifted from being an informal, albeit independent, student organization focused on diversifying the art on campus toward formal institutionalization as an art-focused SBA committee. It then became an SBA committee for general DEI concerns, before being disbanded and replaced with designated positions in other SBA committees. By this point, the original connection to campus art was forgotten. The positions were not filled during the fall of 2023. Mayer protested the decision to disband the VI committee, but never received a response. She shared, “I really hoped someone would just continue the work.”
Revival
Efforts began to revive the group in fall of 2023. At the time, former Chair Kobby Lartey advised future student leaders not to give up. He noted that there are no rules when you’re the first, and lots of energy and support. The first VI committee accomplished so many things and created a foundation for future efforts. He advised future leaders to rely on the community for help; don’t try to do things alone. And remember the work of those that came before. He shared the idea of sankofa, meaning to go back and retrieve, an Adinkra symbol in Ghanian tradition of a duck scratching its back or looking back. To future VI leaders: reflect on the past; learn from it; and go forth.
With the support of many stakeholders, Visibility Initiative (VI) proudly returned as an SBA Committee in January of 2024.