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The "Finding Voice" runs from Oct. 16 through Nov. 13 at the UA's Union Gallery

By University Communications
October 6, 2009

An on-campus exhibition featuring the artistic work of immigrant high school students involved a program where they research, photograph, write and speak out about critical social issues in their lives and communities opens this month.

The "Finding Voice," which will run Oct. 16 through Nov. 13 at the University of Arizona's Union Gallery, will feature the photography of international students who are attending Catalina Magnet High School. 

Finding Voice is an innovative literacy and visual arts program dedicated to helping refugee and immigrant youth at Catalina Magnet High School develop their literacy and second language skills. 

Finding Voice educators Julie Kasper and Josh Schachter, founded the program during the spring of 2007 in collaboration with the Tucson chapter of the International Rescue Committee.

Kasper, Schachter and participating students will give an artist talk at the exhibition's opening reception on Oct. 16. The event will be held 5 to 7 p.m. with an artist talk beginning at 6 p.m.

The Union Gallery, located on the third floor of the Student Union Memorial Center, also will host a panel of Tucson artists, educators, and community members to discuss community-based art and the challenges of representation on Nov. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m. 

Both events are free and open to the public. The gallery's hours are noon to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; noon to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays.

Kasper and Schachter have worked with students from dozens of countries, including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burundi, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, India, Nepal, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Russia, Somalia, Yemen and Vietnam. 

The educators worked to help the students examine through words and photographs where they came from, where they live now and what future they want to create for themselves and their communities.

Issues related to depression, religion, family dynamics, peer pressure, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, immigration and war are among those the students explored in their photography and writing. 

The experience was intended also to help the students develop a better understanding of their Tucson neighborhoods and of culture in the United States while building strong connections to their own native cultures and families.