News & Media

Artist’s Message Comes ‘With Radical Love & Fierce Resistance’

Sam Gould to Discuss Ross Art Museum Installation at April 19 Gallery Talk

DELAWARE, Ohio – Ohio Wesleyan University’s Richard M. Ross Art Museum is hosting a gallery talk with Sam Gould, producer of the “With Radical Love & Fierce Resistance” exhibit now on display at the museum.

Gould will speak at 4:15 p.m. April 19 at the Ross, 60 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. He is the co-founder and editor of Red76, an experimental publication platform that supports forming publics through print and other projects, such as meals and meetings, that open space to discuss social, educational, and political life in America today.

Museum Director Erin Fletcher said “Radical Love” helps to rebrand the Ross as a site for generative questioning, social cooperation, and bridge-building in response to the social division impacting the nation. The exhibit will be on display at the university museum through June 2. It the first of a three-part exhibition series titled “Inside/Outside.”

Of his collaboration with Fletcher and the museum, Gould has said: “At their most elemental, sites of learning are ground zero for critical consideration of how past creates present, how theory becomes social form. These truths are always vital towards our engagement of civic life, but now they seem – and are – more urgent than I’ve ever encountered.”

Those who view the “Radical Love” exhibit are invited to write questions on blank paper and post them on museum walls. Groups also may hold issues-related discussions at the museum and opt to converse with others via “With Radical Love & Fierce Resistance Radio” – a streaming and FM free-form radio platform that seeks to build a national network of ideas.

“To bring geographically, and ideologically, disparate publics together in conversation and consideration across experience through these simple tools (radio, printed matter) with our project at the Ross Museum,” Gould concluded, “seems to me not simply a good idea, but a necessity.”

As a Red76 project, Gould currently runs the bookstore and publishing site, Beyond Repair in Minneapolis. He has taught at the California College of the Arts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gould also was the recipient of a 2014 McKnight Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship and a 2017 McKnight Foundation Mid-Career Fellowship. Learn more at http://red76.com.

Fletcher, who joined the museum staff in August, recently discussed the “Radical Love” exhibit and her vision for the Ross in The Columbus Dispatch. In the April 9 article, Fletcher said she is impressed by “how powerful and agile small university museums can be.”

“You’re surrounded by a community of thinkers,” Fletcher told writer Nancy Gilson. “You should be able to leverage that to create a powerful museum.”

To empower Ross patrons, Fletcher invites groups to schedule time to meet at the museum to discuss the “Radical Love” exhibit. For more information, contact elfletch@owu.edu, tpwallac@owu.edu, or call (740) 368-3606.

During the academic year, the Ross Art Museum is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is handicap-accessible and admission is always free. Learn more at www.owu.edu/ross.

Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers nearly 90 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Through Ohio Wesleyan’s signature OWU Connection program, students integrate knowledge across disciplines, build a diverse and global perspective, and apply their knowledge in real-world settings. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.