Curtis Media Center’s inaugural Carter-Tinson Gallery exhibit ‘Rising Voices’ amplifies powerful student work

 
Story and photo by Hannah Kaufman '24

Outside of one of the high-tech classrooms in UNC Hussman’s Curtis Media Center-a projection of a girl screaming lights up the wall. In one exposure she looks at the camera calmly, and in the other, she’s crying out, doused in yellow light.
 
The scene changes, and a video plays that follows the daily experiences of a Black man who is afflicted by societal pressures and a fear of police violence.
 
Next up, the scene reveals a tattoo parlor where transgender and Black artists build community despite forces of intolerance trying to tear them down. Next frame, we’re examining the difficult journey of Olympian Allyson Felix following her pregnancy. Finally, we’re introduced to a Dasani campaign that created a digital database of student resources  that have been banned in Florida schools. And then it’s back to the screaming girl.
 
These five works may seem unrelated, but they are all part of an art exhibit that amplifies marginalized voices, tying UNC Hussman student artists’ work together to create a web of stories about social justice.
 
The “Rising Voices” exhibit opened to the public on October 12 as the inaugural digital installation in the Curtis Media Center’s Carter-Tinson Gallery. The gallery is the result of years of planning and support from UNC Hussman alumni and donors J.J. Carter ’96, global chief operating officer and president for the Americas at FleishmanHillard, and David Tinson ’96, chief experiences officer at Electronic Arts — for whom the gallery is named.
 
The exhibit is the product of collaboration between Carter, Tinson and UNC Hussman’s Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (ABIDE) committee. Student artists were nominated and reviewed by school faculty and staff in summer 2023.
 
“We just really wanted to make sure that the exhibit was in keeping with the vision of the donors, which was to look at work that tackles issues like bridging gaps to access in health care and education and fostering understanding and empathy for marginalized populations,” said Trevy McDonald, the selection committee chair and associate dean for ABIDE. “It’s an opportunity to demonstrate the school's commitment to work by students that amplifies unheard voices.”
 
One of those student artists was Aayas Joshi ’26, who created the photograph of the screaming girl, titled “The Masquerade.” Joshi, an international student from Nepal, created “The Masquerade” as part of his studio lighting class project, a four-part photo essay that depicts his feelings around his recent diagnosis with ADHD—and the pressure to “mask" those symptoms.
 
“I didn’t really know that I had had it all my life, and so when I came to college and realized that I wanted to get tested for it — things started to make sense, things started to click,” Joshi said. “ADHD can look very different for different people, and it's not necessarily only the stereotypical, big, prominent symptoms that people associate with ADHD, so I wanted to do a photo essay on the less visible effects.”
 
His photography has won numerous awards, but his selection for the “Rising Voices” exhibit and the recognition he received at the opening event wasn’t something he had anticipated.
 
“It feels a little surreal that something that I made was up there, and people were talking about it,” Joshi said.
 
Joshi wasn’t the only student artist who felt this way. Also present at the opening event was J’sha Gift ’23, a recent UNC Hussman graduate and the artist behind “Caged,” a short film about the experience of Black men.
 
“I was so elated [to be nominated], not just as affirmation for what I want to do in my career and as a filmmaker and creator, but more so just that other people will get to see it,” Gift said. “That’s really exciting — it’ll get to touch more people.”
 
During her time at the school, Gift found a safe space in her advanced documentary stories class, where she shared her experiences growing up in a Black home and attending a primarily white institution. She created “Caged” in that class to bring light to the racial and social issues she was seeing in the United States in 2021.
 
“We were going through George Floyd and all this tension that we had in our communities, on a micro and macro level, and so I wanted people to just see, on a personal level, what it was to be a Black man in our community,” Gift said. “I really wanted to dedicate the piece to them and just show: ‘Hey, we see you, and we hear you, and we acknowledge what you're going through.’”
 
After Gift spoke about her piece at the event, she engaged in conversations with students, faculty and alumni, discussing topics like police brutality, masculinity, vulnerability and creating safe spaces to talk about these issues. One of those conversations was with Carter, who flew in from California to attend the exhibit’s opening.
 
“The most validating comment that night was J’sha’s comment about the school having a safe space for important conversations about identity,” Carter said. “Nothing we could have written about our vision would have been more impactful than the sincerity of her words last night.”
 
Tinson also said he felt the full impact of the students’ work and voices.
 
“It’s so rewarding to see all the thoughtful, creative and insightful work from Hussman students on display as we open the inaugural exhibit of the gallery,” Tinson said. “I think it’s imperative that we shine a light on work that is contributing to the public discourse around underrepresented voices and social change, and I’m grateful to be part of this important initiative.”
 
And the exhibit isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The pieces in the exhibit will be on display through spring 2024, at which point the committee will take nominations and select new works to install for fall 2024.
 
Raul Reis, dean of UNC Hussman, said that he is excited to see the powerful work that the space can hold going forward.
 
“Our students produce incredible, insightful work that tells stories that might otherwise be overlooked,” said Reis. “The Carter-Tinson Gallery is a dedicated space in Carolina’s newest building that invites our school community and broader public audiences to consider perspectives outside of their own.”
 
And even UNC Hussman students who get the chance to see the creative pursuits of their peers every day in class still have the power to be surprised — and delighted — by their dedication and quality.
 
Joshi said that witnessing the art that his peers created for the exhibit made him realize the full extent of talent that exists within the school.
 
“As I was watching the other works that were displayed, I had the thought of, ‘Whoa, there are some really cool students on this campus with some really cool work,’” Joshi said. “And I think that's exactly what I would hope it brings to other people as well: discovering other’s works and realizing that there are a lot of cool things that happen on this campus.”
 
And for Gift, who recently started working as a videographer at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in Raleigh, the nomination confirmed what she had hoped for her chosen career path.
 
“It definitely reaffirmed this is what I'm supposed to be doing,” Gift said. “In the past I thought I could maybe do photo or video, but when I was nominated, I realized that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be. This is what I want to do.”