Satellite Poster Exhibitions at Colorado State Illustrateartists’ Political Perspectives of Conflicts in Middle East,Northern Ireland

Two satellite exhibitions at Colorado State University will offer artistic perspectives of the long-standing turmoil in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.

The shows are part of the 10th Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition which begins Sept. 11 and runs through Oct. 24. All events are free and open to the public.

The Direction Gallery in the Visual Arts Building will host "Both Sides of Peace: Israeli-Palestinian Political Posters." The exhibit highlights work from both Palestinian and Israeli graphic artists that expresses opinions about the Middle East peace process. The exhibition was organized by the City Gallery of Contemporary Art, with the support of the Raleigh, N.C., chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Art. The gallery is open 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Curated by Dana Bartelt, a well-known artist and assistant professor of visual arts at Loyola University in New Orleans, La., the exhibition focuses on the need to end violence in the Middle East and the desire for peace from both sides.

"This exhibition is not about Jews and Arabs and it’s not simply about right or wrong," Bartelt said in a 1996 article published in Communication Arts magazine. "It is about a passionate and desperate show of desire of all people to want to live in peace, to grow and to flourish and to be allowed to raise their children with pride and joy."

A collection of work from Northern Ireland artists that speaks to the country’s virulent political turmoil is the theme of a second satellite exhibition at the Glass Gallery in the Visual Arts Building. The exhibition features posters that illustrate both sides of the civil unrest and violence Northern Ireland has experienced since 1969. The collection of 30 posters is on loan from the Linenhall Library in Ulster and features juxtapositions of images created by the Unionist Party, which supports continued ties with Britain, and grassroots movements, which seek to break ties with Britain. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Exhibition curator is Ireland native Roy Johnston, who is art professor and head of the art department at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich. Johnston was formerly a teacher at the University of Ulster and served as visiting artist at the Burren School of Art in Ireland.

Johnston said the exhibition features posters that are the handiwork of underground or grassroots movement organizers, who posted them as a way to generate support for their cause.

"This exhibition does not attempt to tell the whole story of political unrest, but offers interesting visual viewpoints of the violence and turmoil so prevalent in Northern Ireland," Johnston said.