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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula August 9, 2006 Text and image © 2006 and courtesy Paula McCambridge. Reprinted with permission.

"Social Art" by Paula McCambridge at Omphale Gallery through Sept. 4

CALUMET -- "Social Art," a cooperative art project by Hancock artist Paula McCambridge, is on exhibit through September 4, 2006, at the Omphale Gallery in Calumet. A reception for the artist will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11.

The exhibit, which concerns freedom of expression, includes contributions from people all over the United States.

McCambridge says her centerpiece for the show is a drawing of a man who is blind, not physically, but blind because he refuses to see what is in front of him.

This drawing by Paula McCambridge was reproduced as a postcard with a quote from Noam Chomsky, "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for those we despise then we don't believe in it at all."*  McCambridge sent the postcard to people in each of the 50 United States and is exhibiting their responses, including one from Chomsky, at the Omphale Gallery through Sept. 4. (Image © 2006 and courtesy Paula McCambridge. Reprinted with permission.)

"I had this drawing mechanically reproduced onto postcards," McCambridge notes, "added the Noam Chomsky* quote, 'If we don't believe in freedom of expression for those we despise then we don't believe in it at all,' and sent them, addressed and stamped to return to me, to somewhat random people in each of the United States."

McCambridge says she linked the image of the "blind" man, with the quote from Chomsky, to the subject of freedom of expression, asking each person to contribute whatever he or she wanted to on that topic.

"I have about 50 postcards representing people in about 40 states, including one from Noam Chomsky," McCambridge adds. "The finished postcards represent a partnership between the original artist -- me -- and the people I invited to work with me on this project."

McCambridge says the people to whom she mailed the postcards range from teachers, business owners and secretaries to political activists, political cartoonists, prisoners and others.

"This subject means a lot to me because I believe rights, including free speech, are ideals a government cannot merely grant or protect," McCambridge explains. "Instead, they are something we need to claim in order to activate them. Without our claiming free speech, it is just an idea."

The exhibit also includes several other drawings and a collage by McCambridge.

The not-for-profit Omphale Gallery is at 431 Fifth Street in Calumet. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday and Noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Editor's notes: In addition to working as an artist, Paula McCambridge is a contributing writer to Keweenaw Now and the MTU Lode and an experienced journalist who has reported for newspapers in Michigan and California. She is also a full-time student at Michigan Technological University, where she is studying communication and culture studies, psychology and art. * Noam Chomsky, the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is known as a scholar, political activist, author and intellectual. To read more about Chomsky visit his official Web site.