Q&A: SHELIA TURNER
We could not pass on the opportunity to share a great Q&A featured on the New COURAGE Facebook Page that introduced the Center's Levine Museum Artist-in-Residence, Shelia Turner.
As the Levine Museum Artist-in-Residence, Shelia will work with the students and teacher Ellen Estes at South Mecklenburg High School on a photo project aimed at showing how television shapes our views on courage today.
Shelia Turner will be in residence at McColl Center for Visual Art from September 6 to November 22, 2011. The public is invited to meet the artist during Open Studio Saturdays on October 8 and 29 from 11 AM to 6 PM or on Friday, November 19 from 6 to 9 PM during a gallery reception. Admission is free.
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Shelia Turner, Levine Museum Artist-in-Residence
Hometown: Columbus, GA
Education: University of Florida, BA in Photo Journalism; University of California Santa Cruz, MA in Social Documentation, concentration in Photography
Hobbies: Likes badminton, bocce ball and music
What is your definition of “courage”?
Passing through your fears.
Describe your most courageous moment.
Other than accepting this residency (laughs). Going to graduate school because it was 25 years after my undergraduate degree. I really did do what appears to be a lifestyle shift. I went from a commercial way to doing photography to a community way of doing photography.
What has been the most interesting/exciting part of the New COURAGE project for you so far?
Learning about Dorothy Counts. I really didn’t know anything about her. [Her story] is so symbolic of the United States. … I didn’t know about her and her courageous act [of integrating Charlotte’s Harding High School]. I have to commend her parents. They too had to have a courageous act to put their child in harm’s way. They did it for her future but they did it for all futures. Sometimes we make these huge moves and it shifts a whole people. I can only imagine that Dorothy Counts’ parents wanted to do this for their daughter because they saw that she could get better but also what they were thinking for everyone. That really shows unconditional love. Learning that story and being able to remind students in Charlotte to look how cool this is. You’re in this land of movement is what makes this all exciting.
What issues in our community do you think require courage today?
Voting. It seems like people may believe that it’s not necessary. That it’s the same-old, same-old; and it is not and has not been the same. Will not be the same. Change is constant. It seems like voting should not be on the top of my list but it is. And another thing, and this sounds so broad, but liberty: standing up for what you believe in based on who you are and what you’re inscribed in. This land is based on liberty. It is important for us, as adults, to project on the young people that there is liberty, and certain rights and responsibilities particularly in being in this nation. If we get it good here, we become great global ambassadors. We have to create it here.
How can we become more courageous?
Talking to strangers. Speak to more people. Come outside of our own little world. We still hear young people being told, “Don’t talk to strangers.” Who is a stranger? Someone who we don’t know yet. Talking to someone while you’re standing in an elevator or in line somewhere, that’s an act of courage. We need to start the conversation on a daily basis. If you don’t speak; smile, extend your hand. That’s what we can do every day. Social media has gotten us talking to strangers but not in a physical way. We need to get back to physically talking to someone new.
What was your one-word reaction to the COURAGE exhibit?
Inspired.
Why do you think you had that reaction?
It allowed me to believe that good things are still to come. It really inspired me to “keep on keepin’ on,” in an old-school slang way. … On the backs of sorrow, dismay, mayhem, they were courageous. That’s the beauty of a storm. After the storm, the calm comes. We’re living in a calm area now. It doesn’t seem that way, but in comparison, we are.