New art installation meant to inspire dreams of diversity

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A scroll adorned with handwritten notes hangs Monday, March 6, 2017, in the Morris Library rotunda. The “Dreaming Diversity and Art Display” is a three-week interactive installation. (Branda Mitchell | @branda_mitchell)

By Olivia Spiers

A new interactive art installation is opening the door for students to share their future dreams of diversity through “Nap-Ins” in Morris Library.

Student coordinator Marissa Amposta is facilitating four sleep sessions in March where students will be given the opportunity to nap for two hours in the rotunda during the library’s operating hours.

The sessions are meant to “internally generate student dreams of diversity,” said Amposta, a senior from Mundelein studying art.

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“The nap-ins are part of the internal journey to diversity,” Amposta said. “All dreams start while sleeping.”

The nap-ins are part of the Dreaming Diversity Art Installation, which was established Monday. The exhibit consists of a 15-foot-long fabric scroll hanging directly in the middle of the library rotunda that has students’ dreams written on pieces of fabric and paper.

A labyrinth will also be set up in the rotunda surrounding the scroll to “help guide students to their dreams,” Amposta said.

“The maze is sort of a metaphor for the general path to diversity,” Amposta said. “It takes a while to reach, and it’s complicated.”

On March 31, the dreams pinned on the scroll will be discussed at a women’s panel in Guyon Auditorium held by the art and women, gender and sexuality studies departments.

“People forget we are still working for equality,” said Nicole Tabor, graduate assistant coordinator of the Women’s Resource Center. “It might never happen if we stop fighting.”

The art installation is part of the Women’s History Month events planned throughout March to highlight local women, Tabor said. There will be two other art displays throughout the month, which will honor female trailblazers in the business world.

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Staff writer Olivia Spiers can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @_spierso.

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Correction: The nap-ins were initially incorrectly reported as being two hours long. Instead, students have the option of resting or napping for 15 minutes as part of the interactive art installation.

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