UConn’s Benton Museum Announces New Human Rights Gallery

STORRS — The William Benton Museum of Art on the University of Connecticut campus at Storrs will formally dedicate its new Human Rights Gallery in a community-wide ceremony on February 1. Ceremonies will begin at 3:30 pm.

Participating in the dedication ceremony will be University President Philip E. Austin, School of Fine Arts Dean David G. Woods, Benton Director Salvatore Scalora, and representatives from the gallery’s partners and colleagues on and off the campus.

The Human Rights Gallery will be used exclusively for visual art exhibitions, public outreach, and education programs addressing human rights issues around the world. Salvatore Scalora, Benton Museum director, strongly believes the Benton Museum is in a unique position to add significantly to the research and discourse in the field of human rights and social justice that is already taking place on the University campus.

“Establishing the Human Rights Gallery and opening with Nancy Burson’s ‘Human Race Machine’ are exponentially giant leaps forward for the William Benton Museum of Art. It signals our strong, unwavering commitment to reaching out to students and adults of all ages to present and confront difficult global issues and to offer discourse in these core essential areas of humanism and social justice,” said Mr Scalora. “Our new affiliations and partnerships will provide us the institutional support we need to achieve our shared goals of providing educational experiences in the arts, culture and human rights.”

Mr Scalora envisions the dedication of this existing space within the Benton as the first step in actively seeking funds to build a second Benton addition, one that will become the country’s first visual art gallery dedicated exclusively to human rights. The first addition including the Evelyn Simon Gilman Gallery was dedicated in April 2004.

Nancy Burson’s “Human Race Machine,” is a one-of-a-kind machine that uses a highly interactive technology that challenges one’s perception of race by making it possible to view one’s face with the characteristics of six different races: white, black, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Indian.

The Benton partnered with the university’s Office of the Vice Provost for Multicultural and International Affairs to bring “Human Race Machine” to campus, believing in the machine’s ability to help address issues of race and diversity within the academic environment.

“The Human Race Machine” and two of Nancy Burson’s large, striking digital composites be on view through May 27.

The William Benton Museum of Art is at 245 Glenbrook Road on the University of Connecticut campus at Storrs.

The museum is handicapped accessible. For details, call 860-486-4520.