Kisses, canines, rocks and pillow fights. These objects seem like everyday items with no connection to each other, but for the Aesthetics of Gender and Identity class at West Texas A&M University, these objects hold the very essence of what the support of diversity and difference looks like in art form.

“We all come from different backgrounds, but we all wind up in the same place,” Ryan Turner, senior Studio Art major, said. “Hopefully there’s a sense of community. Everyone at some point goes through a struggle where they feel as if they don’t fit in.”

It was this sense of community and identity that led the class to transform their essay assignment into an interactive demonstration of public art. It’s entitled Rock the Real and has a goal of not only highlighting diversity, but also empowering people to have confidence in themselves and tolerance towards others.

“We were going to do an essay, boring writing, then they did this show-and-tell project where each of them stood up and talked about an aspect of identity that they chose,” Dr. Amy Von Lintel, assistant professor of Art, Theatre and Dance, said. “They each found a voice through that and then the students corresponded through that and asked good questions. We talked about activism as identity politics, whether it was feminist activism or we looked at other LGBTQ artists that are being active in gay rights, so then we were like, ‘What can we do?’”

The class, which includes more than 20 people, began the project by brainstorming ideas and figuring out which ones they wanted to showcase. Members of the class are from all areas of study and are not necessarily all art majors.

“We have to be a community. We have to be collaborative and a collective of thoughts,” Von Lintel said. “Everybody got to voice their identity. Everybody got to voice their opinion and we had to agree. It was hard. This many voices is hard.”

Ultimately, they split the project into five stations: Come Unburden Yourself and Get a Kiss, Wash Away What Weighs You Down, Rock the Real Because Being Real Rocks, Burden Me No More and Talk the Real. Each station featured different aspects of diversity and identity in an engaging way while evoking thoughts of self-discovery.

“College is a very transitional time for people where they find themselves and they try to figure out who they are, and so I think in the midst of that there could be a lot of people out there not necessarily judgmental of others, but judgmental of themselves, so just showing them it’s okay to be who you are,” Elena Flores, sophomore Graphic Design major, said. “College is a place where you find yourself. Don’t be ashamed to grow into the person you’re supposed to be.”

The class was able to discuss their personal views on identity before the project started and gage what they hoped others would take away from the demonstration.

“There’s a lot of aspects with identity that can be seen as negative,” Flores said. “I think not only acceptance from people who may be unfamiliar with another type of identity, acceptance for each other, but also acceptance for the self. Not seeing it as a negative identity, embracing one’s own identity and being proud of who they are and also accepting other people for who they are.”

The class hoped the diversity of WT would be represented through their demonstration and the symbolism of the population would be evident through the objects they chose to use, specifically the rocks.

“Our rocks kind of symbolized [diversity]. They are all different colors, textures or weight but they’re all rocks and they are all going to have words on them,” Von Lintel said. “It’s sort of a unifying acceptance of everyone’s got a burden that might feel different than someone else’s, but it’s still a burden. We all have those things we have to carry around.”

Attendees of the event were able to express their own personal identity in the last station. They could share their experiences and perspectives of the event with the class members. The goal of this station was to help students overcome some of their burdens, to let them know they are not alone, and to pay it forward in their own way.

“An anecdote is a really powerful thing. You tell your story or you tell someone else’s that you know personally and that can convey to other people but at the same time you have to get beyond that one single story and think about how it impacts society,” Von Lintel said.

The class chose the Pedestrian Mall as the site for their project in efforts to engage the public in their demonstration. As a group, the class visited the site to ensure that it would work with the stations they had planned.

“I really view the site as being important, so we as a class walked out there and looked around,” Von Lintel said. “You can have all these great plans, but until you get out there and walk it, it’s not going to come out.”

Aesthetics of Gender and Identity is a pilot class as part of the gender studies certificate. Von Lintel hopes to teach another course in this manner.

“One thing our art department is working on is art as social practice, making art collaboratively, making it publicly and not just about a precious object that some rich person buys,” Von Lintel said.