Serious lessons

The afternoon sun illuminated the artwork of MU graduate Akiva Segan as he spoke to fourth-graders from Lee Elementary School recently about his exhibits, “Under the Wings of G-d” and “Sight-seeing with Dignity,” on display over the past month at Stephens College.

At the college’s Davis Gallery, the children looked at Segan’s drawings of hate crime victims as the artist walked from image to image, explaining each.

The class’s teacher, Leann Renn, had prepared students for the seriousness of the exhibits by reading them a children’s story about the Holocaust. She spoke to them about persecution and discrimination and answered their questions.

Renn said that although she did not discuss the Holocaust in detail, the students understood the severity of the event. Ten-year-old Alan Schmidt said he knew the Holocaust as “a very evil time.”

The “Under the Wings of G-d” exhibit provided a way for students to learn through its images — drawings of the dead to which Segan has added wings. The children made their own drawings from a model, and many added wings similar to those in Segan’s works.

Wendy Sims, a professor of music education at MU, attended the exhibits as part of her daughter‘s class field trip.

“The kids asked questions in a concrete way,” Sims said. “It was intriguing to them that Akiva would include bird wings on images of the dead. Although they understood the concept of the Holocaust, they couldn’t really grasp the magnitude of it all but were eager to learn.”

Students were told that every depiction was of someone who had been killed because of religion, race and/or nationality.

The piece that stood out in most of the students’ minds was “Smiling Man with Single Wing,” in which a bearded face with undefined eyes and glasses was accompanied by only one wing on the the right side.

“I thought that the man with one wing was supposed to be the artist. It looked just like him,” said fourth-grader Isabella Holt.

Because Lee Elementary School is an “expressive arts school,” art is integrated in every area of learning. Lee art teacher Ann Mehr said she team-teaches with other teachers in order to maintain students’ well-rounded education.

“I thought this exhibit was a great experience for the students,” Mehr said. “Akiva really valued their take on his work and appreciated their questions. At the same time, they were able to learn at a younger age that hate should not exist simply because someone is different.”

At a slide show in Pickard Hall this month, Segan discussed his “wings” drawings with an older crowd.

“He conveys the feelings of desperation coming from the Holocaust, yet there is an uplifting, spiritual quality about the work that may be more effective than a heavy-handed, gruesome approach,” said Nelson Cowan, an MU psychology professor who was in the audience. “The images are poignant, aesthetically satisfying and touching.”

Beth Shalom Jewish Synagogue also arranged for a private viewing of the exhibits with the help of Laura Flacks-Narrol, a congregation member who said she was extremely pleased to have such a resource in Columbia for residents to view and learn from.

“The people in the drawings were not depicted in the act of death but in the acts of life,” Flacks-Narrol said. “It helps one remember that the huge number of dead all had lives, names and real stories.”

Segan emphasized that his work is there to create awareness. He hopes it will inspire not only people who are Jewish but all who think that hate and discrimination are problems in this world.

“It’s said by some that it’s easier in the affluent countries to close one’s eyes to all the violence and troubles; and many people are only concerned with their own lives and not about what goes on elsewhere,” Segan said in a later e-mail interview. “That may be the case, although I have to agree with Elie Wiesel, who has said that apathy is more frightening than hate itself.”