Transformative Human Rights: 25 Years in the Field

Jointly curated by students in the Faculty of Information Master of Museum Studies program and the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. The exhibition ran from February 9 – 23, 2012, and featured a fundraiser opening, a student reception, musical performance, and curatorial tour. The exhibition team from the Faculty of Information consisted of seven students: Stephanie Butland, Gillian Gallimore, Rumin Jehangir, Shannon Linde, Rachel Meloche, Erika Smith, and Haley Smith; the Faculty of Law team was made up of six students who are also the editorial board of Rights Review, the journal of the International Human Rights Program (IHRP). The team was lead by two law faculty advisors, Renu Mandhane (Director of the IHRP), and Jennifer Orange, and former University of Toronto Museum Studies professor, Jennifer Carter.

The mission of this exhibition was to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the IHRP by showcasing the transformations in human rights law through the lens of IHRP student internships. The exhibition focused on four human rights issues in which IHRP interns have made significant contributions: Refugee Rights (RR), International Criminal Law (ICL), Corporate Accountability (CA), and Gender-Based Violence (GBV). The exhibit also looked to the future with a section on the Next 25 Years. These topics were narrated in five spatially driven installations and included photographs from the past 25 years of internships. The photographs communicated the intern’s experience and visualized the issues, while each space contextualized the topic. Text panels were implemented to discuss the developments within each topic along with a physical and digital timeline and map, which honoured the work of 300 interns since the program’s inception in 1987. The exhibition’s final outcome is a result of the decision process stemming from challenges related to the broad target audience of professional lawyers, as well as law, museum studies, and general university students. In addition, financial resources, limited photograph choices, resolution of the photography collection, and the nature of the exhibition space all had an effect on the exhibition. These challenges, brought to the forefront during the planning process led to changes from the project’s original proposal.

Opening Reception

Thursday, February 9, 2012, 6:30-9pm
University of Toronto Art Centre