1968 exhibit comes to Kean

By Cameron Beall | Published by March 16, 2018

In 2012, Arlene Marcus, an adjunct professor at Kean University along with Carrie Steenburgh, a professor at Union County College, started a 13 credit ESL curriculum course. With the help of a Title V grant, they were able to teach the course thematically around one specific year in our world’s history: 1968. During the final academic year of the grant (2016-17), the professors and their students began planning for a 1968 Students Museum to be installed inside the Kean University library.

“The 5 year grant ended last May. The spring before that, of 2016, I thought about using the pieces of writing, posters, and project materials to create a 1968 museum,” said Marcus.

Their goal was to use the knowledge their students gained throughout the duration of the course to help educate other students about the important events of that crucial year in history. 1968 was a year of turmoil and pandemonium in the United States as well as around the world. The United States was being divided even worse than ever before by race, gender, sexual inequality, war, police brutality, and assassinations of our country’s leaders, some of the same issues that still plague the United States today, fifty years later.

“In the Spring semester of 2016, we worked in earnest to put things together,” said Marcus.

“Two students, Jose Gabriel Saltos, a video producer from Ecuador and Barbara Resende, our website creator, from Brazil helped to move our plans forward. At the same time, Cristina Fittipaldi, who is a graduate student in charge of the art galleries at Kean offered to help us get a showing at the Nancy Dryfoos Gallery that coincides with the 50th anniversary of 1968.”

The ESL students who participated in the 1968 course and creation of the exhibit came from various different countries. Some of them include: Afghanistan, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, and Vietnam. People from all over the world and different walks of life came together to create this exhibit. Some have grown up in the United States while others were fairly new to the country.

There were numerous historical events and movements that took place during the year of 1968. Tragic events such as the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy certainly made some people lose hope in the progress of our country and where it was headed. However, movements such as the Women’s Rights and LGBTQ movements provided some progress that is clear today.

The 1968 Summer Olympics Black Power salute was a political and social justice demonstration by African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos during their medal ceremony at Olympic Stadium in Mexico City. This helped inspire many people to stand up and fight for their human and civil rights. While our country as a whole may not have made complete progress; people of color, women and people of the LGBTQ community definitely have more rights today than they did fifty years ago.

Union County college professors and students played an integral role in the 1968 Museum Exhibit. Students of both Kean University and Union County College visiting the gallery can complete pre- and post- activities and assignments, as well as view some amazing artwork and pictures throughout the exhibit.

The 1968 Museum Exhibit is located in the Nancy Thompson Library at Kean University, right next to the Starbucks. It will be up for viewing until March 12, right before spring break.

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