Gun Show: Discussion with Curator Dr. Kathy O’Dell

Dr. Kathy O’Dell opens her essay in the brochure that accompanies Gun Show with this question: “How does it feel to hold a gun?” At an event on October 5, starting at 4:00 PM at the CADVC and then moving to the Fine Arts Amphitheatre, attendees had an opportunity to explore that question as they viewed and handled (if they so wished) a selection of David Hess’s sculptures/facsimile guns on display in his exhibition. As attendees participated in the viewing and handling, special guests listed below were present to facilitate small group discussions on many of the wide-ranging issues that arise around guns: who does or does not own them, who should or should not own them, whether or not to legislate them, safe ways to use them, ramifications of their use or misuse, and how issues of race, class, gender, and age are embedded in these questions. A reception followed the event.

Special guests included:

• Amy Berbert, UMBC Visual Arts alumna, creator of photo project “Remembering the Stains on the Sidewalk”
• Chinen Aimi Bouillon, Curator-in-Residence for The Feminist Art Project – Baltimore (TFAPB) & UMBC graduate student in Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA)
• Richard Chisolm, UMBC Visual Arts alumnus, creator of “Guns and Choices,” 15-min excerpt from in-progress feature film (excerpt on view at Gun Show)
• Dr. Firmin DeBrabander, MICA faculty in Humanistic Studies & author of Do Guns Make Us Free? Democracy and the Armed Society
• Paul Dillon, UMBC Deputy Chief of Police
• Liz Faust, MICA alumna, MFA Curatorial Practice thesis on David Hess’s Gun Show
• “Mama Rashida” Forman-Bey, program director, WombWork Productions, Baltimore
• David Hess, artist, Gun Show
• Hank Mink, UMBC Mechanical Engineering, Advisor to UMBC Rifle & Pistol Club
• Dominic Nell, artist (Nell Aware House), community activist (For My Kidz, Kids Safe Zone), entrepreneur (City Weeds, MyNiche)
• Dr. Sheri Parks, UMCP faculty in American Studies & frequent commentator on WYPR