Library Director

Attendees explore student art about immigration

The Auraria Library’s second annual Auraria Creates, a celebration of campus scholarly and creative work, welcomed more than 70 campus faculty, staff, students, and community members across three showcase events during the week of April 22, 2024.  

Formerly “Auraria Writes”, the name was changed to Auraria Creates, to further encompass all the fascinating academic works created by Auraria Campus faculty, staff, and students from the previous year. 

“We learned from Auraria Writes in 2023 that the breadth of amazing work done by our campus community simply can’t be limited to the written medium,” said Keith Teeter, Auraria Library’s Research, Learning, and User Services Associate Director, “We had so much interest in 2023 from campus faculty and students members to highlight their scholarly work that we realized the event would outgrow itself just after the first year to what is now Auraria Creates.” 

See all the photos from the three events here!

 

The Intersection of Past and Present

The signature event showcased work by Krista Marks, Student Archivist Assistant in Special and Digital Collections, and Wes Brown, a CU Boulder alumnus. The two highlighted the fascinating history of the Auraria Campus through a retrospective journey of the campus as it is now, and looked back at the community through the 1800's using a combination of materials from the Auraria Library’s Special and Digital collections and maps from Wes' personal collection. 

“There is a large group of people who were displaced from this land to make space for our campus,” said Marks, “Until the 1970s, this area was known as the Westside neighborhood and was predominantly inhabited by low-income Hispanic families. An often-forgotten narrative of Auraria's past is the strength of the community of the old Westside neighborhood, as well as the trauma of displacement. When students and faculty study the history of this campus, we build a more nuanced understanding of where our own stories fit within the narrative.”

A New Group for Library Supporters 

This signature event was sponsored by The Society for Auraria Library, a new group open to everyone looking for opportunities to make a difference at the Auraria Library through annual donations and volunteerism. 

“The library serves as an intersection of possibilities and opportunities on the Auraria Campus; and it’s amazing to see how that aligns, from a historical perspective, with the Auraria Campus having been at the intersection of possibilities and opportunities for the indigenous populations and the prospectors looking for gold,” said Emily Gonzales, a member of the Society for the Auraria Library.

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From Grammys to Soil Symphonies

The second event saw participants through a series of faculty showcase presentations about their work and publications, both on campus, and from around the world: 

Path to the Palace and Escapades in Caves

Carrie Osgood

Carrie Osgood shared her creative journey throughout 2023 into 2024, from her Data Atlas of the World to the creative process and inspiration that resulted in her pair of newly published allegorical picture books for all ages, Path to the Palace and Escapades in Caves. She presented her creative evolution from designing infographic world maps to producing conceptual narratives to writing original short stories visualized with her own photography. Her assorted projects helped her develop her latest venture, YourStoryGPS.com, where her books are available for purchase. 

STILLPOINT

Mark Rabideau

What might be possible if we were to reposition creativity at the center of all that we do? Western classical music has fallen (over the past 120-years) away from creative practices in favor of re-creative practices. My creative activity argues for a return to creative practices. The result is STILLPOINT (New Amsterdam, 2023), a project five years in the making, made its debut on Billboard Magazine’s Classical Crossover chart at #6 and the Traditional Classical chart at #13 and was listed among “The Best Contemporary Classical on Bandcamp (August 2023) and received a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Jesse Montgomery, Rounds) among other accolades. 

RePeat – A Look and Listen at Post-Extraction Peatland 

Anne Yoncha

My work combines experimental art + ecological science to explore mechanics of plant physiology. By translating these processes into artworks, I aim to build affinity with unfamiliar ecologies apparently out of sight or possessing different temporalities than our own. My practice combines digital sensing technology, such as bio-data sonification, and analog processes including painting with ink I make from locally-sourced plant matter – so the materials used in the piece add another layer of data. When public understanding of ecological problems is limited, creative artists have been historically successful in uncovering background narratives, thereby shaping how scientifically-declared emergencies are perceived and acted upon. How do we balance a sense of urgency in the time of climate change with potential unintended consequences of our interventions? 

My History, My Rules

Izzy Lozano

I hope what I got across was how the power of art can help us process feelings of identity, purpose, and loss. How art has the power to reshape the mind and give it an accurate map to escape mental poverty.

Student Voices | Immigrant Voices

The final event of the three, “Glowing in the Darkest Night: A Visual Journal Through Immigrant Experiences” showcased student voices about their experiences with immigrating to the United States. It featured a series of artistic expressions, including written, verbal, and visual mediums from more than 10 students. Naima Oz, a MSU Denver student, partnered with the library to help organize the event as part of her capstone project. 

“I wanted to highlight immigrant voices on campus and just give them a platform to share their stories,” said Oz, “The research I’ll be conducting as part of the project is to see if this opportunity has any impact on their mental health and well-being, including their sense of belonging on campus.” 

An immigrant herself, Oz says the MSU Denver Immigrant Services Program was crucial in helping her gain a footing on campus after immigrating from the Middle East in 2002. Oz hoped her event could provide that same level of support to other students. 

“I didn’t really feel like my voice was heard and it just kind of stuck with me. And I feel like I’m unpacking a lot of how that’s impacted me,” said Oz, “Now, I just want to create a space where students can feel like they were a part of the campus and that their stories and opinions are important.” 

The art presented during the event will be on exhibition in the library until the end of May 2024. You can find the exhibit outside the Jackson Engaged Learning Classroom 111 in the Auraria Library.

Don’t Miss Next Year’s Event!

The Auraria Library prides itself on having as many faculty publications as possible in our collection. If you’re a faculty member who’s published or edited a book in 2023, please fill out our Recommend a Purchase form to help us fill in the gaps in our collection and keep you on file for future celebration invitations.