Minneapolis to Phoenix: George Floyd protest offerings displayed at ASU Art Museum

by Julia Thompson
  • Slug: BC-CNS-George Floyd Exhibit. 320 words. By Julia Schamko.
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TEMPE – ASU Art Museum partnered with Arizona State University’s Center for Work and Democracy and the George Floyd Global Memorial following a professor’s acquisition of a collection of offerings gathered during the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis. Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis during an arrest in May 2020, sparking nationwide protests over police violence.

Items including posters, letters, paintings and more are currently displayed in the museum’s “Twin Flames: The George Floyd Uprising from Minneapolis to Phoenix” exhibit through July 28.

“We say everything is somebody’s offering, therefore nothing is thrown away and that the people are more sacred than the memorial itself,” Jeanelle Austin, George Floyd Global Memorial executive director, said at the exhibit’s opening in February. “We’re people over property all day, every day, so we always have to check ourselves to say, ‘How do we ensure that we’re caring for our neighbors more so than we’re caring for the objects?’ – because that’s how we combat racism.”

Rashad Shabazz, an associate professor of African and African American studies at ASU, and Michael McQuarrie, director of ASU’s Center for Work and Democracy, won the offerings in 2022 at an auction at the Rise and Remember event in Minneapolis. Additional items were provided by Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro protests in the Valley over the deaths of Dion Johnson, Floyd and other African Americans due to police brutality.

“I hope that people find a reason to allow this space to be sacred for them and that they protect this space for themselves,” Austin said. “Because this is our love offering at GFS (George Floyd Square) to the Black community here at Phoenix to say we want you to have a place where you can go and you know that you belong because it’s yours, it’s your story, it’s your voice, it’s your history, it’s your presence, it’s your protest.”

People explore the “Twin Flames” exhibit at the ASU Art Museum in Tempe on Feb. 2, 2024. The exhibit runs through July 28. (Photo by Kevinjonah Paguio/Cronkite News)
Cheryl Wynn holds her head as she takes in the “Twin Flames” exhibit at the ASU Art Museum in Tempe, on Feb. 2, 2024. “I hope that people find a reason to allow this space to be sacred for them and that they protect this space for themselves,” says Jeanelle Austin, George Floyd Global Memorial executive director. (Photo by Kevinjonah Paguio/Cronkite News)
Jedeiah is silhouetted against a piece of the “Twin Flames” exhibit at the ASU Art Museum in Tempe on Feb. 2, 2024. “This is our collective story and layers and layers of voices,” says Jeanelle Austin, George Floyd Global Memorial executive director. (Photo by Kevinjonah Paguio/Cronkite News)
Nana Osei-Kofi looks at signs displayed at the “Twin Flames” exhibit in Tempe on Feb. 2, 2024. “It is an honor to be able to steward what other people have offered as their protest, as their pain, as their own,” says Jeanelle Austin, executive director of the George Floyd Global Memorial. (Photo by Kevinjonah Paguio/Cronkite News)
Tempe City Councilmember Berdetta Hodge, in gray suit jacket, poses in front of the centerpiece of the “Twin Flames” exhibit in Tempe on Feb. 2, 2024. (Photo by Kevinjonah Paguio/Cronkite News)
A patron reads the poem “We Must Be Heard” during opening night of the “Twin Flames” exhibit at the ASU Art Museum in Tempe on Feb. 2, 2024. The exhibit puts on display offerings by mourners and protesters during the protests in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd. (Photo by Kevinjonah Paguio/Cronkite News)
Patrons attend the opening night of “Twin Flames: The George Floyd Uprising from Minneapolis to Phoenix” exhibit at the ASU Art Museum in Tempe, on Feb. 2, 2024. This is the first time these items are on exhibit outside of Minnesota. (Photo by Kevinjonah Paguio/Cronkite News)