A Unique Approach to Diversity

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 26, 2010) - An experimental museum created to take an interactive and emotional approach to opening minds about diversity - Boxes and Walls is one incredibly moving event of the Cultural Diversity Festival.

This interactive diversity museum is unique to the University of Kentucky, built by UK students for UK students. It gives the campus community who take part in experiencing this event a chance to understand how these students really feel in regard to diversity on campus.

Visitors will be led by a tour guide through a series of rooms each depicting a different historically oppressed group of people. These rooms will represent LGBTQQIA, African Americans, Latino and Latinas, Violence and Intervention and Feminist Awareness and Unity.

Jasmine Whitlow, director of multicultural affairs for the Student Activities Board (SAB), says that "Boxes and Walls is the perfect project to let campus know how students feel, a perspective that many think they know but often don't. Diversity is a vital part of life and the goal is to give the campus a real view on how students feel."

Boxes and Walls is a project that has been done by many universities around the country for diversity education and one that UK is proud to have on campus. This event is sponsored by the CATalyst Coalition, SAB and Student Government and involves several UK organizations including the NAACP, the Black Student Union (BSU), Latin American Student Organization (LASO), Delta Phi Mu sorority, the Gay Straight Alliance, the OUTSource, the Feminist Alliance and the VIP Center.

To experience it for yourself, visit the Center for Student Involvement, Room 106 Student Center. Tours will run from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, March 26 and Saturday, March 27, leaving every 30 minutes and lasting about 90 minutes. Boxes and Walls will be repeated April 23-24.

For more information, contact Rebecca Comage at (859) 257-0179 or at Rebecca.Comage@uky.edu.