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Review: Natalie Selden Barnes's Honor The Precariat, Annah Krieg

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry

This review details the fall 2017 exhibition of Natalie Selden Barnes's installation, Honor the Precariat, which took place in the Directions Gallery in the Department of Art and Art History at Colorado State University. By combining data with plexiglass figures in an immersive artwork, Selden Barnes compels the viewer to engage with the complex reality of the majority of university educators, those who are adjunct instructors.

Honor The Precariat, Natalie Barnes

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry

Honor the Precariat is an art installation conceived and executed to acknowledge and honor the significant contributions of non-tenure track faculty, particularly those colleagues teaching at Colorado State University. The exhibition and accompanying article recognize faculty who work in anonymity and often without security, teaching, advising, and mentoring hundreds of students and representing millions of dollars in tuition revenue.

The essence of the artwork captures the 20+ year struggle of the artist to come to terms with the value of a career in which she has been viewed as a second-class faculty member – and this dichotomy facing all members …