Students within BYU's College of Family, Home and Social Sciences created many art pieces for the college’s 2024 Belonging and Diversity Art Contest starting on Sept. 18.
Student participants were given the theme, “hearts knit together in unity and love,” a line found in Mosiah 18:21 from the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
Kathleen Reyes, the program manager of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at BYU, chose the theme for the art contest this year. She observed that diversity and inclusion had brought up difficult but important conversations at BYU.
“A lot of people feel that (diversity) is a divisive word, when in reality I think it is the complete opposite,” Reyes said. “It literally allows every individual to feel ‘Yeah, this is a space for me,’” Reyes said.
First place winner Kayla Homer created a multimedia art piece titled “With His Hands.” The piece was a charcoal drawing of Jesus Christ's hands holding a brightly colored "Y" emblem, painted with acrylics stitched together by a piece of yarn.
Homer said creating her art piece was an inspiring process.
“I definitely had moments of ideas that just kind of came to me,” she said.
Many students also included Christ in their work to focus their art on the Savior’s example of belonging. These pieces were touching to many who visited the exhibit.
“I think it’s just really meaningful to see their expressions of how the Savior relates to belonging in their lives. And I think there’s also a lot of expressions of pain, but also an expression of unity as different communities at BYU have provided that belonging,” Laura Padilla-Walker, dean of Family, Home and Social Sciences, said.
“You can understand what’s in their heart and what they were thinking,” she said.
Niwako Yamawaki, associate dean of Belonging, also noted that the art was a way to see the students’ unique perspective of what was most important to them.
“I really believe that art is the way of communicating without words, and I really felt the students' love for their Savior,” Yamawaki said.
Not only did the art contest give students the chance to grow closer to Jesus Christ, but it also gave an opportunity for students to be creative in a way not typical to their major.
Betsy Richardson, a BYU senior studying psychology, was especially grateful for the opportunity.
“I wanted to be an illustration major, but it didn’t work out for me,” she said. Having this chance to contribute to the contest and express herself artistically was meaningful to her, she said.
The art pieces from the event were displayed at the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures. This was the fourth consecutive year that the art contest took place and the second year the art was displayed in an exhibit. The exhibit will be open to the public for two weeks.