Social Change by Design: Visual Storytelling at U-M

black & white images on table with colorful paper

Title: Social Change by Design: Visual Storytelling at U-M

On September 15th, the Ginsberg Center hosted a two-day campus visit with guest artist Ariel Aberg-Riger, Director of Creative Strategy & Design for the City of Buffalo, NY and author of the award-winning book America Redux: Visual Stories from our Dynamic History. Kate Livingston, Associate Director of Teaching, Research & Academic Partnerships, selected Ariel as the featured guest speaker for Ginsberg Center’s Democracy Week programming for her engaging, impactful use of visual storytelling in her professional career and community work. 

As a self-taught artist, designer, author, and community activist, Ariel uses her art to share stories about local and national histories, policy, and politics.  Her visual storytelling explores equity and social justice issues, from environmental racism to the public library. 

Participants in Ariel Riger's workshop working at tables with paper and scissors

 

Guests identified Ariel’s stunning examples, the session's interactivity, and the opportunities to practice visual storytelling as some of the most valuable aspects of the event. Additionally, many participants said they would be incorporating what they learned into their work moving forward, citing the advantages of this medium:

 

  • “Visual storytelling forces people to slow down and asks them to engage with information in a different way.”
  • “Collage as a method of conveying complicated ideas: when it comes to words, less is more.”
  • “The power of visual storytelling and visual communication components across different topics and disciplines.”

The Stamps School of Art + Design's Roman J. Witt Short-Term Visiting Artist Program and the Democracy & Civic Empowerment Initiatives Democracy Week Grant program made her visit possible. 

Dr. Camille M. Wilson, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, Professor of Education, and Ginsberg Faculty Advisory Board member, described the event as “an opportunity to learn and create together in such an engaging way, all in service of learning more about how to contribute to research-informed action and advocacy. Ginsberg is great at hosting compelling events that address vital topics while also creating opportunities for joyful connection among attendees.”

We were thrilled to host Ariel for three separate events during her visit. 

Reaching the People: Visual Storytelling for Access & Action with Ariel Aberg-Riger 

 

At this hands-on event, over 60 students, faculty, staff, and community partners learned how images, design choices, data, narrative, and context all work together to communicate ideas to broad public audiences. Participants looked at examples of visual storytelling and data visualization that have deepened public understanding of complex issues while opening pathways for action, then practiced by creating their own visual stories. 
 

During the first part of her talk, Ariel shared examples of visual storytelling from her work as an artist, writer and from her work with the city of Buffalo. Through her own examples, she highlighted elements of visual storytelling that make it a powerful medium for communicating information to the public. She then had participants practice creating their own visual stories by creating a postcard using collaged materials. Using a postcard that U-M sent to Ypsilanti residents about U-M’s data center project, Ariel outlined the persuasive visual elements of the postcard design and asked participants to create their own postcard communicating a message or story related to data centers. Participants used brightly colored paper, historical images, and text to develop postcards using visual storytelling techniques. 

Breaking the Frame: Visual Storytelling Workshop with Ariel Aberg-Riger

The Ginsberg Center invited local community leaders from our network to attend a private visual storytelling workshop with Ariel Aberg-Riger the morning before her main event. These community partners have been working on archive projects and storytelling projects of their own and attended the event to learn from Ariel Aberg-Riger’s work. Ariel led them in discussion and a visual storytelling exercise. Community partners included:

 

 

Amanda Healy, Assistant Director for University-Community Partnerships at Ginsberg  describes how community partners were brought together for a private workshop with Riger

“We were able to reach out to community partners whose projects related to storytelling and communication. At the event, many similarities were revealed between projects, setting up connections and networking opportunities for participants. The Aberg-Riger event brought together partners working across issues, who are all figuring out how to tell stories that bring together past, present, and future.”

Class Visit with seniors at STAMPS in ARTDES 475 taught by Professor Nick Tobier

The morning after her main event at Ginsberg, Ariel traveled to North Campus to meet with Prof. Nick Tobier’s ARTDES 475 students. She joined their senior studio class and led a hands-on visual storytelling exercise. 

"Ariel's visit came at the perfect time in the semester. Seeing her work and hearing about the trajectory of her life from college through her career path helped students foresee lives of many possibilities. The work we did with her is still up on the studio walls as reminders of the energy and excitement that comes working with words and images."

Hand drawn design on yellow paper held in front of a group of students in Nick Tobier's class


We’d like to thank Ariel Aberg-Riger for sharing her work and teaching us that visual storytelling for social change is a commitment we can all carry forward.