PostSecret Art Exhibit

Last week our Res Life department had their "educational week" for the fall.  The topic this year was "Art."  We are a liberal arts school, but given our volunteer faculty model, we do not have a fully rounded out program.  The arts are an area where we are lacking, so we decided that would be a great theme for our week!  The week included an art exhibit, some hands on art projects, discussions with artists, etc... 

One of the events was a PostSecret exhibit of post cards made by our students.  For those of you not familiar with Post secret...it is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Select secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits.  The simple concept of the project was that completely anonymous people decorate a postcard and portray a secret that they had never previously revealed. No restrictions are made on the content of the secret; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before. Entries range from admissions of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to confessions of secret desires, embarrassing habits, hopes and dreams. The secrets are meant to be empowering both to the author and to those who read it. Frank Warren claims that the postcards are inspirational to those who read them, have healing powers for those who write them, give hope to people who identify with a stranger's secret, and create an anonymous community of acceptance.  (text taken from Wikipedia.)

Here are some of the secrets created by our students..

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This one is a little difficult to read because of the glare from my flash.  It says, "My x-boyfriends girlfriend got pregnanat & I'm happy about it beacuse he will have to leave me alone finally."

And this one is blurry because I turned off the flash to avoid the glare.  It says, "Somehow I always thought that girls who wear spiked heels are sluttish!"