Santa Clara University

A Kind of Courage

From left, Bridget Cooks, Emily Lewis, Michelle Dezember

Art and museums generally display beautiful things. They also, sometimes, display art about ugly things, such as war, genocide, and racism. Disturbing exhibitions can force audiences to confront the shameful side of cultural history, an experience that people evidently want, even need. How else can one explain the throngs of visitors each year to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, or the popularity of shows about disquieting subjects such as lynching photography? The need to see the truth, as unpleasant as it may be, evokes a kind of courage in viewers—and a challenge, ultimately, to help bring about change.

As an assistant professor in both Art History and Ethnic Studies, Bridget R. Cooks is accustomed to dealing with questions and issues that are anything but cut-and-dried. One of her current projects has required her to view images more horrific than she had ever imagined.

“These lynching photographs—it’s just hard whenever I have to write about them,” Cooks confesses. “They give me nightmares.”

The disturbing photographs are research for a book that Cooks is writing about the history of exhibitions of African American art and culture in the United States. The final chapter addresses the terrorist practice of lynching by examining two exhibitions held in New York in 1935, as well as a recently touring exhibition.

“What is the point of showing and looking at such photographs?” Cooks asks. “Is it for public mourning? Do we see the black men in these photos

who are being hanged, or do we see the mob? And the forces that led up to the lynchings—are they discernible, or are they absent?”

Remarkable students

There are no easy or comforting answers to Cooks’ questions. But at least she is not alone in these investigations. In 2002 SCU junior Michelle Dezember began work as a research assistant. Taking advantage of Dezember’s aptitude and eagerness to explore an academic career in art history, Cooks has had the student helping her on a range of projects.

For example, Dezember has done a lot of the lynching research for Cooks. She also gathered background materials for a presentation about artist Romare Bearden that Cooks made at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and has provided formal feedback on the textbooks used in Cooks’ popular course on African Americans in photography.

Remarkable students seem to be drawn to Cooks. Another one is senior Emily Lewis, a double major in English and art history and a recipient of the English Department’s prestigious Canterbury Fellowship for the 2004–2005 school year. As a junior, Lewis put together the Explore with Me docents program that, in one quarter alone, led more than 14 tours of exhibitions at Santa Clara University’s de Saisset museum for local elementary schools and high schools, SCU classes, the San Jose Conservation Corps, and other community groups.

Cooks recently helped train Lewis’ docents to conduct tours of Dark Matter: The Art of David Huffman, a show that Cooks co-curated at the de Saisset Museum. Another example of Cooks’ attraction to controversial art, it featured the work of David Huffman (also an SCU lecturer), an artist with a sardonic sense of humor who depicts purposefully cartoon-like caricatures of African Americans in blackface. Huffman’s mixed media works examine the plight of Blacks inflicted with generations of physical, emotional, and psychological trauma—and envisions opportunities for healing.