Siouxland Magazine - May 2019

Siouxland Magazine | Converse /24
Community Conversations: Bringing People Together
By Philippa Hughes
Like many Americans, I was surprised by the outcome of
the 2016 presidential election. Although I’m a Democrat,
during the lead up to the election I consumed media
from left- and right-leaning outlets to try to understand
the deepening divide—and the anger, fear, and frustration
voiced by voters of all political stripes—across the country.
Despite my research, I maintained certain assumptions
about what the results would be, and I even wondered how
Republican voters would react when their candidate lost,
prompting me to begin exploring ways to heal the rift after
the election.
My first, pre-election attempt at reconciliation was to cocurate
an art show called US + THEM = U.S.: Finding
Common Ground in a Divided Nation, which I’d begun
planning with a small team in the early fall of 2016, but
which would open one week before the inauguration.
Finding common ground in a divided nation took on new
meaning after the election results came in.
Breaking bread together seemed like a good start to
closing that gap. One week after the 2016 election, I began
inviting voters from both sides of the aisle over for dinner
at my house and continued hosting meals with guests who
held different political opinions from my own for the next
two years. I wanted to engage in difficult conversations
face-to-face and ask my own questions, to dig beyond the
filtered observations and analysis offered by journalists,
pundits, and thought leaders. At each meal, I experimented
with ways to improve our interactions. When we spoke faceto-face,
we began to see each other as humans and not as
avatars or data points. Curiosity about one another led to
more empathy and stronger relationships. Art emerged as
one of the most effective tools for framing and facilitating
dialogue.
The small dinners cooked by me in my home culminated
nearly two years later in October 2018 when I partnered with
American University School of Public Affairs to organize a
dinner for 50 people from across the political spectrum, and
an art exhibit I curated in the Heurich House Museum called A
[Good] American. Before taking their seats at the dinner table,
guests were invited to view artworks created by seven local
artists reflecting on what it meant to be a good American. Art
brought together curious people who would not normally
have met and became the starting point for dialogue. Using
art to frame and facilitate a difficult conversation while
sharing a meal became the basis for Looking For America,
a partnership between New American Economy, a bipartisan
group advocating for better immigration policy,
CuriosityConnects.us, and American University’s School of
Public Affairs, which teaches civil discourse as a foundation
of democracy.
Looking For America will include art exhibits featuring local
artists and dinners with guests from across the political
spectrum. Local artists will create works in response to
this question: “What does it mean to be American in your