by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“When you make something with someone, it’s almost like you’ve known them for years,” said professor of sculpture and video Greg Pond. “That’s why the arts were so important at Highlander Folk School—photography, film, plays, dancing, music.” To recreate that magic, Pond transformed the University Art Gallery into a “social sculpture.” The Highlander Library installation invites visitors to make art by interacting with the space physically, intellectually, and emotionally.

Founded in 1932, Highlander Folk School in nearby Monteagle taught local mountain people literacy and financial skills and how to unionize to lobby for better wages and working conditions. In the 1950s, the school’s mission evolved into training up and coming civil rights leaders such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. in strategies of nonviolent protest.

Pond furnished the space with re-sizable circular tables to emulate “Highlander’s non-hierarchical meeting practices.” Moveable chalkboard walls and a huge blank book invite visitors to record their thoughts and observations, and a map offers visitors an opportunity to mark sites of personal significance.

One wall features a poem by children’s-book author and educator May Justus, who volunteered as Highlander’s secretary-treasurer. Her church expelled her for her affiliation with the school.

Highlander founder Miles Horton introduces Justus’ poem with a quotation: “An idea cannot be padlocked.”

Following a middle of the night police raid, the school’s doors were padlocked, and the state ultimately revoked Highlander’s charter. Because the installation is primarily a library, select social justice titles encourage browsing. The shelves are sparsely populated, a nod to the past.

“In 1961, when the school was shut down, the books were disappeared for the most part,” Pond said. “Another way the public can engage with the project is by loaning books to the library to fill the gaps in the shelves.”

The inspiration for the Highlander Libraries installation came from Pond’s community engagement class last fall where students investigated Highlander Folk School by interacting with the Grundy County community. One student played and recorded music with Dennis Marlow, whose mother was a cook at Highlander. Another student created a video documenting her weekly breakfast with a retired Grundy County teacher.

In conjunction with the class, Pond and the students visited Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tenn., where the legacy of Highlander Folk School lives on.

Pond will fill some of the empty shelf space with a handmade book featuring excerpts from student conversations with Highlander Center directors.

Other handmade books will come from the bookmaking workshops hosted by Pond. “I’d love to help people scan their photos and news clippings and turn them into a book.” The workshops are free and open to the public.

The Highlander Library installation promises to be a busy place with Sewanee Praise performing Thursday, Feb. 20, documentary film screenings every Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday at noon, and philosophy, religion, and playwriting classes meeting there.

“How will interactions with the space influence student playwrights’ scripts?” Pond wondered, thinking aloud. “Socially engaged art starts with a conversation. What you bring to the table and what others bring to the table—insecurities, mutual vulnerabilities.”

The Sewanee-Yale University Collaborative for Southern Appalachian Studies and the University Office of Community Engagement co-sponsored the project. Other activities planned for the installation include a bible study class, voter registration drives, oral histories in conjunction with the Sewanee Black History initiative, and Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation events.

“In socially engaged art each person brings a unique perspective,” Pond said. “They create the project together.”

The first bookmaking workshop is scheduled for 9 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 1. To register contact Pond at <gpond@sewanee.edu>. To loan a book to the installation drop it off during gallery hours Tuesday–Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday–Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Books will be cataloged to ensure their return. The Highlander Library installation runs through April 8.