Huntington exhibit to “embrace differences”

Billboards of the kind planned for the village green

By Michael R. Ebert
michael.ebert@newsday.com

If you visit the Town of Huntington’s Village Green later this month, you’ll be in for a “big” surprise: 39 billboards. In a way, it’s a new form of advertising for the town.

“We’re promoting the message of diversity,” explained Steven Schrier, executive director at the Suffolk Center for the Holocaust, Diversity & Human Understanding, which is organizing the large-scale project. “Our hope is that this central attraction will provoke public discussion and encourage acceptance of difference.”

Entitled “Embracing Our Differences,” the outdoor exhibit will feature 39 pieces enlarged to 16-foot by 12-foot panels intended to demonstrate that diversity enriches our lives. In total, the center received more than 180 submissions, which were whittled down to 39 winners ranging from preteens to professional artists.

One winner was Maya Gouw, 10, a sixth grader at W.S. Mount Elementary School in Stony Brook. Her unique piece, which featured the slogan “Together We Can Do It,” was created with colored pencils and showed the Earth encircled by smiling kids and animals.

“A teacher asked her to join the diversity exhibit, but she didn’t expect to beat out so many competitors,” admitted her mother, Pin, who calls her daughter a “perfectionist.” “This exhibit’s message is very important. We need to increase tolerance in our society.”

Work by Maya Gouw will be among those enlarged for billboards.

In addition to the exhibit, the project also includes programs and activities offered throughout Long Island during the month of October by the center’s community partners, such as Ballet Long Island, the Long Island Philharmonic and the Cinema Arts Centre. Public and private schools are also invited to visit the exhibit and teachers will be provided with sample educational activities.

“It’s unfortunate, but undeniable, that Long Island needs to do more to address the prejudice that persists in our society,” said Huntington Town Supervisor Frank Petrone. “We’re proud to be affiliated with the project and the hope that it holds for the future.”

The center’s panel of judges consisted of Erik Neil, executive director of the Heckscher Museum of Art, Bob Carter, professor of art at Nassau Community College, and Sunita Mukhi, executive director of the Wang Center at Stony Brook University.

“Embracing Our Differences” will be on display at Huntington’s Village Green from Sept. 26-Oct. 8, and at the Heckscher Park from Oct. 8-24. A calendar will also be created from the chosen entries, Schrier said.