Steve Cole
The Hate Project

October 12 – December 7, 2016
Opening Reception: October 16, 2–4 p.m.

The Hate Project, by artist and scholar, Steve Cole,  is an art installation that depicts the growing prevalence of intolerance by graphically illustrating the almost 1,000 hate groups currently active in the United States as identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, White Nationalists, Christian Identity, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, Black Separatists, Anti-Gay, Border Vigilantes, Racists Skinheads, and others are represented by 10 inch cast figurines geographically mapped state-by-state by the groups headquarters on the gallery floor.
 
In his statement, Steve Cole, tells us:  “There is a Buddhist saying that peace and compassion can grow by the smallest of actions.  Well hate and intolerance can grow too by the smallest of inaction.  This is a call for the rational and courageous to speak up when others can't or won't.”