Photo taken by Hoffman showing volunteers receiving weapons. Photo by Lucy Frost-Helms, Copy editor. By M.K. Bryant
The University of Montevallo’s Peace and Justice Studies program partnered with the Fulbright Ukraine Program to present a photo exhibit highlighting the works of Ukrainian photographers and American photographers who have lived in Ukraine for several years. The exhibit is housed in Carmichael Library.
Described as a traveling exhibit, versions of “Ukraine: War and Resistance” have also been done at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Center for Media at Risk, University of Minnesota and in Berlin. It was first displayed in 2022 at the Museum of the City of Vinnystia in Ukraine.
Photographers featured include J.T. Blatty, Alexey Furman, Brendan Hoffman, Serhii Korovayny, Joseph Sywenkyj, Emine Ziyatdinova and Oksana Parafeniuk. All of the photographers, except for Parafeniuk, are Fulbright alumni. Parafeniuk is a former employee of the Fulbright Ukraine Program.
According to its website, the Fulbright Program is an “international program for exchange of scholars and students” that was established in 1946. It was established in Ukraine in 1992, following Ukraine’s independence in 1991. Since then, it has allowed hundreds of Ukrainians to travel to the United States, as well as hundreds of Americans to travel to Ukraine.
Although this was the first art exhibit that the PJS program has presented, they have worked on many other projects in the past. These projects include a criminal justice reform panel and a discussion of poetry, peace and justice with poet Elizabeth Hughey.
Co-coordinator of the University’s PJS program, Dr. Jennifer Rickel, said the program initially got involved with the photography project in spring 2023, when a member of Fulbright Program Ukraine and the Institute of International Education in their Kyiv Office reached out about the exhibit. Rickel said that the project was a group effort.
“Dr. Catherine Walsh in the art department is a member of our PJS committee, and she was indispensable in curating the version of the exhibit that is currently on display at UM,” Rickel said.
She also credited professors of art Colin Williams and Misty Bennett, as well as Dr. Charlotte Ford and Mike Price of the Carmichael Library as being vital in putting the exhibit together.
“Our PJS program prioritizes partnerships—we appreciate working with organizations involved in peace and justice issues, and we’re able to coordinate across campus fairly well because the PJS committee is comprised of faculty, staff and students from across the disciplines,” Rickel said.
The exhibit will be displayed on the first floor of Carmichael Library until Oct. 5.
M.K. Bryant is a contributing journalist for The Alabamian. She’s majoring in mass communication with a concentration in multimedia journalism, and she’s double-minoring in theatre and creative writing. When she’s not busy watering her plants or writing, M.K. can probably be found wandering around an art museum or a library.
