Items

• Grandma's Bracelet
  This 14K gold wrist chain is 7.5 inches long and 5mm wide. It has a hidden clasp with a safety catch to provide a seamless look to the olive leaf inspired pattern. The bracelet was made in the 1980s by the L C&C jewelry company with Beverly Hills Gold, whose trademark can be found on the underside of the bracelet in their customary shield shape.
• Arcuri, Covid-19
  This is a photo of the prescription I had to go on during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. I had to go on this medication because I got extremally depressed during this time and really in my head about a lot of dark things. Mental health has become more important to me after this past few years. Being stuck inside for weeks on ends really changes how you view yourself and the world around you.
• Arcuri, RIT Life
  This is a photo of a decimated Ritchie balloon that was featured at my transfer student orientation. He is my favorite RIT merchandise out there because he just looks so weird. It shows what types of events I have attended as a student specially at RIT. This was my first RIT event as well.
• Arcuri, Text Conversation with Mother
  This is a text conversation between my mother and me. I started this conversation on September 30th, 2022. The language of the text messages is in English, which is the same language I speak and read in. I talk to my mother almost every day.
• Arcuri, Article of Clothing
  These pants were purchased from the online re-sale app called Depop, and I paid through PayPal in order to purchase them. This communicates that I value secondhand consumption over buying new things. I try my best to live a sustainable life in ways that make sense for the current life I am living. I think that this aligns ethically to the idea of recycling and reusing as a green way of living. When I first bought them, they were too big so I used to have to pin the waistband, but now they fit perfectly so I can wear them as is. They feel like sweatpants, so I wear them whenever.
• COVID-19: River Starliper
  Physical Description: Photo of an unfinished, full-wall mural in the Commercial Art shop of Dauphin County Technical School in Pennsylvania.
• Heritage: River Starliper
  Physical Description: Collection of digital photographs representing a large family gathering.
• Map: River Starliper
  Physical Description: Screenshot of an ArcGIS map in which FEMA projected flood zones are compared to recognized wetlands in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania.
• Self-portrait: River Starliper
  Physical Description: Digital image taken on an iPhone 13 Pro, showing Samantha (left) and River Starliper (right) holding a small plastic army figurine in front of a lake, with the city of Toronto in the background.
• RIT Student: COLA Lanyard
  I received this lanyard when I was a freshman at RIT in 2020. This College of Liberal Arts lanyard represents my path at RIT and reminds me of when I was undecided in the Liberal Arts Exploration program. This program helped me find my major, Museum Studies.
• Heritage: Cream Cheese Cake Recipe
  This was my great Nana's recipe (my grandfather's grandmother). This specific copy of the recipe was written by my Nana in the early 90s to give to my second cousin. However, my grandpa can remember his mother making this recipe from as little as 8 years old (1940s). Since then, this dessert has made its way into every holiday and gathering. It's basically cheesecake but with a twist. There is cheesecake below a layer of cream cheese. That side of my family is Polish and Nana's parents were straight from Poland (Nana only really spoke Polish). Nana passed away in 2009 at the age of 87.
• Iranian Protest
  I did not participate in this protest but when I was visiting Washington DC in early October 2022, my dad and I noticed this protest on the street. I was mostly women and some men parading the Iranian Flag and shouting for Women’s rights. In Iran right now, women are fighting for their government to give them back basic civil rights and self-determination. Seeing this protest made me more aware of the conflict occurring in Iran and led me to research it more deeply. I admire the people who had the strength to protest for women’s rights in Iran and to stand up for others.
• Article of Clothing: Embroidery
  I embroidered this shirt myself. I relied on Target manufacturing for the plain white t-shirt and my own labor and knowledge to embroider the flower design with thread. This piece of clothing communicates that I enjoy physical creativity such as embroidery and I like to express my personality through my clothing. This piece of clothing does not reveal anything about my culture or political views. The embroidered flowers in the top corner are my addition to the shirt. I wear this shirt as a casual outfit, it is for everyday use.
• Art Map
  A map linking artists and writers throughout their careers in the 19th and 20th centuries. The names are written on pink post-its, pinned to the wall, and connected with blue string. Art and books are very important to Emma and their identity, and this map links together many of the influences that made them who they are today.
• Prompt 7: Sydney Majka
  I got my tiger shorts when I joined the RIT Women's Club Volleyball team my sophomore year. We wear them as cover shorts at every tournament and game we have because of how loud and bright they are. They make it easy to find one another at busy tournaments and they make us look like more of a team. Everyone on the team including myself loves the tiger shorts and I have so many happy memories in them at RIT and many other places.
• Prompt 1: Sydney Majka
  The map is an image from google maps of the town Penfield, NY where I grew up. The locations marked include Penfield High School, my childhood home, Rochester Ice Center where I practiced figure skating for 9 years, and Tri-County Sports Complex where I played in volleyball tournaments.
• Prompt 2: Sydney Majka
  This self portrait was taken in the photo studios at RIT. As a photo major I spend a lot of my time in the studios and it was nice to create images for myself rather than for a class. This image is just me having fun in the studio and creating some nice portraits.
• Self-Portrait
  Selfie taken of myself at Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Written Correspondence: Grandma's Note
  The note reads: Dear Kristin, I hope you are doing very well in school and having fun. Grandma is in Florida and misses you. Hope you are having fun. The weather is warm here. Hope that your weather is good. It looked like your stuff was what you wanted for Christmas. I’m sorry I don’t get to see you, but I’ll be back! In the spring. Have a wonderful school year. See you soon. Love Grandma Walker (dated 1/15/03) My grandmother loved her grandchildren with all her heart. She wrote this note to me while she and my grandfather were in Florida for the winter season. This note shows how much she loved me because at the time of her writing this I was only 6 months old and didn’t discover this note until my mom remembered it and pulled it in from storage. This note is written in my grandmother’s loving tone and cursive which will always remind me of her. My grandmother passed away in May of 2022 after a 7-year battle with dementia. In the last 4 years of her life, she couldn’t communicate with us or take care of herself. By the time of her death, she was completely non-functioning. This note shows the signs of early onset dementia as she writes to her 6-month-year-old granddaughter who cannot read and is not in school yet. She also misspells my name and repeats herself many times and makes a few grammatical errors despite being one of the first women in her hometown to graduate from college and work a full-time job.My grandmother was always a very loving and dedicated grandmother. She helped my mom a lot when she had my sister and then me. She did not deserve to suffer from the mind-eating disease called dementia. I have countless fond memories of my grandmother and she will always hold a special place in my heart. I would give anything to receive another letter from my grandma.
• Personal Momento
  This item is a purple 3 3/4" Care Bear with a 1 3/4" glittery purple plastic heart key holder. The bear has a white stomach with a rainbow flower on it.
• Heritage
  A digital picture of a windmill and tulips in Holland, Michigan.
• Personal Momento: Whiskers' Collar
  This was my cat’s collar. Whiskers passed away on December 4th of 2021 due to cancer. She suffered a stroke that night after only acting sick a couple of days before. She lived a wonderful 17 years, 15 of them with my family. She was the sweetest cat and we all still miss her very much and always will.She loved to escape out the door and sniff the flowers and we didn’t want her to get lost. We ended up getting her a harness we could put on her so we could walk her around the yard. Her favorite flower to sniff (and munch on) was catmint. She is buried underneath a bushel of catmint in our backyard now.This collar didn’t last very long as you can see how Whiskers absolutely destroyed the collar because of how much she hated it. The frayed edges remind me of her paws and her soft fur that I still occasionally find floating around after a year without her. I have a little memorial for Whiskers on my bookshelf with her paw print framed, pictures and her collar displayed.
• BeReal: RIT
  This is a photo taken via BeReal, an app many people use that goes off randomly for you to take a photo of what's happening. Etta took the photo on her BeReal when it went off while some of us were sitting in the Dane Gordan room on the first floor of the Liberal Art Building. We have dubbed it “Muse Lounge” whenever the room is booked for a meeting, you can usually find one or more of the museum studies upperclassmen doing work or hanging out with each other. This room embodies our community as connected with each other creating a space to hang out and make our own.
• Heritage:
  It was a gift for me when I became a bat mitzvah at the age of 13 from my grandmother. It indicates my culture and my religion as a Jewish person. It is a framed paper cut with the folwing inscription “Pay attention to the details” the translation on the Hebrew is Leah Hava which is my Hebrew name, and the other is tetzaveh which is the Torah portion I read from at my Bat Mitzvah. The meaning this hold is becoming woman in the eyes of the Jewish community that I am a part of. It may spark conversations about religion and maybe why I connect with it.
• COVID 19, Old Journal
  Visual Description, 6inx8.5in Black moleskine journal, 14 pages from March 15th 2020 to May 30th 2020