Arts

Who Are We? Phillips Academy in 2008

Despite the controversy following Kip Fulbeck’s address to Phillips Academy, he has left something of a mark on the walls of the Gelb Gallery in GW. “What Are We? Phillips Academy 2008-2009” is a collection of photos of members of the Phillips Academy community, along with a response to the question, “What are you?” Demetrius Lalanne ’11 said “I think [the exhibit] was a great way for the community to come together by taking an idea from Kip Fulbeck that was kind of controversial… It allowed artists and non-artists to express ourselves.” Responses to the question “What are you?” warranted a variety of answers. Faculty, staff students and children responded with drawings, foreign languages, blank pages, a simple “X” across the page, charts, one or two-word responses, poems, paragraphs, compilations of phrases and references to popular culture (“I am smart. S-M-R-T”). Juliana Reider ’10 was also pleased to see the variety in sources: “I didn’t expect to see faculty up there along with the students. That was a pleasant surprise… we’re all just kind of here together.” The exhibit also gave participants an unusual opportunity to reveal some personal details that would not normally come up in conversation. Reider said, “I really liked the fact that I got to see a different side to people that I didn’t know they had.” If you have any interest in finding out more about PA students, faculty and staff, the exhibit is definitely worth a visit.