Exemplary

Spring 2023

This public art project asked who we honor at UChicago and why. Organized by a team five undergraduate students, Exemplary honored writer Susan Sontag, AB’51; dancer-anthropologist Katherine Dunham, PhB’36; astronomer Carl Sagan, AB’54, SB’55, SM’56, PhD’60; past faculty member and meteorologist Tetsuya “Ted” Fujita; and dining services workers.

The pop-installations and projects:

• Quotes from Susan Sontag were printed on large posters and installed among the portraits Hutchinson Common.
• Carl Sagan was honored with an all-day screening of the thirteen-part public TV series, “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” at the Logan Center and an origami workshop at the Smart Museum of Art.
• On February 28, members of the Ruth Page Civic Ballet Training Company give a pop-up dance performance inspired by the work of Katherine Dunham.
• A springtime “cloud festival” honored Ted Fujita, featuring cotton candy and a machine that made floating foam clouds.
• The students also interviewed dining services workers for a video project.

About
Organized by Juan Cardenas, William Hu, Suttyn Simon, Xueqi Sun, and Miki Yang, with the support of Laura Steward, Curator of Public Art. Major support for Exemplary was provided by the College.