About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 23, 2020)
LOCAL The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, July 23, 2020 3A ‘We’re back in the game again’ Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Quinlan Visual Arts Center Executive Director Nairika Cornett views a new pop-up exhibit Wednesday, July 22, from the Georgia Art League. Left: The Quinlan Visual Arts Center’s Allison Wacho installs pieces for the pop-up exhibit Wednesday, July 22, from the Georgia Art League. Above right: This piece, by Georgia Art League President Nancy Rhodes, celebrates on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote in the U.S. Georgia artists join for pop-up exhibit at the Quinlan BY KELSEY PODO kpodo@gainesvilletimes.com Amid the pandemic, local artists have channeled their emotions and free time into something beautiful. The Quinlan Visual Arts Center on Green St. in Gainesville is showcasing a pop-up exhibit of work from North Georgia artists who have spent the last couple of months letting their creativity run wild. The collec tion’s pieces show the talent of the Georgia Art League, which is headquartered at the Quinlan. “We’re back in the game again,” Nancy Rhodes, president of the Georgia Art League said. “We didn’t just lay down and let this time in our culture stifle us in our creative work. Artists have this energy. If they don’t let it out in artwork, it comes out in less posi tive ways.” Nairika Cornett, executive director of the Quinlan, said the pop-up art exhibit is free for public viewing until Tuesday, Aug. 11. Each piece on display is available for purchased. “There’s such a variety of talent and artistic styles,” Cornett said. “It’s right here. Gainesville is really good about supporting local art. This is a good option for people to come view art and purchase very affordable art.” The arts center requires guests to wear masks inside the building and asks visitors to practice social distancing. Hand sanitizer stations have also been set up in the gallery. When the pandemic hit Georgia in March, prompting a temporary closure of the Quinlan, Rhodes said many artists found themselves quarantined at home, including herself. For a month, she was furloughed from her full-time job as a hairdresser. Instead of wallowing, Rhodes said she took advantage of the time to create. One of her “quarantine” pieces on display in the pop-up exhibit involves a mixed-media work celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Using paint, hot wax and other materials, she transformed a blank canvas into a celebration of the momentous occasion. “Through this pandemic, we’ve had a lot of anniversaries of historical events like the 19th Amendment, that have been over looked because of this virus and election,” Rhodes said. “I see the importance of our history, and right now we are in a battle for our history in all kinds of ways. ” Rhodes said the pop-up exhibit doesn’t encompass a theme, but instead features work from seven artists who have gener ated fresh pieces during the past couple of months. The space embraces different forms of art media as well as styles like con temporary, portrait, manipulated photogra phy, impressionistic and representational art. Despite the grief and despair surrounding the pandemic, the exhibit’s walls are filled with dozens of pieces, each just as vibrant as the next. “It’s a bad time, but also really good things happen,” Rhodes said. “It gives creative peo ple another platform to work with. It’s a time of renewal.” For more information about the Quinlan, visit quinlanartscenter.org. The center is also hosting its Summer Exhibition, which people can view until Saturday, Aug. 8. Pop-up exhibit Where: Quinlan Visual Arts Center, 514 Green St., Gainesville When: Now until Tuesday, Aug. 11 Hours of operation: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Admission: Free More info: 770-536-2575 CENSUS ■ Continued from 1A The Supreme Court blocked the administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census form, with a majority saying the administration’s rationale for the citizenship question — to help enforce voting rights — appeared to be contrived. New York Attorney Gen eral Letitia James, who, along with civil rights groups, fought the citizenship question in court, vowed to challenge the order. “No one ceases to be a person because they lack documentation,” James said. “Under the law, every person residing in the U.S. during the census, regardless of status, must be counted.” Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Proj ect, predicted Trump’s latest effort also would be found unconstitutional. “The Constitution requires that everyone in the U.S. be counted in the census,” Ho said. “President Trump can’t pick and choose. He tried to add a citizenship question to the census and lost in the Supreme Court... We will see him in court, and win, again.” Trump’s efforts have local support and opposition. Betty Fisher, president of Republican Women of Hall County, said that, speaking for herself, not the group, she favors the president’s stance. “If you’re illegal, you shouldn’t be allowed any of the advantages of the United States. If they are applying for citizenship, that would be great, but until they are legal or have some kind of visa here, whether it’s a work visa or whatever, I do not believe they should be counted.” Vanesa Sarazua, founder and executive director of the Gainesville-based Hispanic Alliance GA, disagreed. “The census has always counted everyone regardless of status in this country,” she said. “One of those purposes has been to appropriate rep resentatives to represent all living in the state at the time of the count. “This latest attempt, after a citizenship question flop, will only serve to deter our immi grant communities in par ticipating and being counted. This affects funding states and counties receive and, as one of the largest immi grant counties in the state, which depends on immigrant labor for our local and state economy, we should all be anxiously involved in making sure we’re all counted.” Sarazua added, “Like the citizenship question, like the order to terminate DACA, this too, will end up in court as another unconstitutional attempt to silence those who need and deserve a voice in this country.” DACA, or Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals, is a President Barack Obama- era program allowing illegal immigrants brought to the United States as minors to remain here and work. Phillippa Lewis Moss of Hall County’s six-member Complete Count Committee said, “The U.S. Constitution directs us to conduct a decen nial count of all persons living in the United States and its tprntnripc; “While COVID-19 definitely interrupted our campaign, there is still time over the next two months to close this gap. Complete Count committees all around the state will con tinue conveying the 2020 Cen sus message of ‘Every. One. Counts.’ It is my hope that conversations at every level of government supports this message.” Moss added that, as of July 22, 61.3% of Hall Countians had completed the 2020 Cen sus questionnaire. The 2010 Census completion rate was 67.5%. Jerry Gonzalez, execu tive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials also called Trump’s move unconstitutional. “The move by the Trump Administration is another unconstitutional attempt to suppress the growing power and influence of the Latinx and immigrant communities,” he wrote in an emailed state ment. “ The memorandum will likely be fought through litigation and we will win once again.” Trump’s latest move comes in the lead-up to the Novem ber election as he is trying to motivate his base support ers with fresh action against illegal immigration, which was a mainstay of his 2016 campaign “There used to be a time when you could proudly declare, ‘I am a citizen of the United States.’ But now, the radical left is trying to erase the existence of this concept and conceal the number of illegal aliens in our country,” Trump said in a statement. “This is all part of a broader left-wing effort to erode the rights of Americans citizens, and I will not stand for it.” More than 92 million house holds have already responded to the 2020 Census, with the majority doing it online. People can still respond on their own online, over the phone or by mail — all with out having to meet a census taker. Only last week, door knockers started heading out to households whose residents haven’t yet answered the questionnaire. Trump’s efforts to add the citizenship question drew fury and backlash from crit ics who alleged that it was WRECK ■ Continued from 1A treatment of serious injuries. Parker said Sosebee faces charges that include first-degree vehicular homicide, fleeing or attempting to elude, serious injury by vehicle, reckless driving, driving under the influence of drugs, speeding, failure to maintain lane and more. That stretch of Bethel Road was closed for roughly 3.5 hours during the crash investigation. “The Georgia State Patrol-Specialized Col lision Reconstruction Team is assisting with this investigation and other charges may be brought,” Parker wrote in an email. No deputies were involved in the collision. intended to discourage par ticipation in the nation’s head count, not only by people liv ing in the country illegally but also by citizens who fear that participating would expose noncitizen family members to repercussions. The financial and political stakes in the 2020 Census are huge, with Democratic-lean ing metropolitan areas with large immigrant populations worried about losing dollars and political representation through Trump’s efforts. After the Supreme Court blocked the citizenship ques tion from being asked, Trump ordered the Census Bureau to gather citizenship data from the administrative records of federal and state agencies. The administration hopes that will help it determine how many people are in the U.S. illegally. That order is being chal lenged in the courts and the overwhelming majority of states have refused to share information about driver’s licenses and ID cards. However, four states with Republican governors are cooperating. Iowa, South Carolina and South Dakota recently joined Nebraska in agreeing to share state driv er’s license information with the Census Bureau. Democratic members of Congress called the presi dent’s memo an effort to depress participation in the 2020 census, especially in minority communities. “Trump’s unlawful effort is designed to again inject fear and distrust into vulner able and traditionally under counted communities, while sowing chaos with the Cen sus,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “The House of Representatives will vigor ously contest the President’s unconstitutional and unlawful attempt to impair the Census.” It’s not the first time that an attempt had been made to keep out immigrants liv ing here illegally from the once-a-decade census and the subsequent allocation of congressional seats. In 1979, the Federation for Ameri can Immigration Reform and several members of Congress sued, demanding that the 1980 census exclude undocumented immigrants from apportionment. The case was dismissed, said Margo Anderson, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. When a congressman unsuccessfully introduced legislation in 1980 that would have kept undocumented immigrants out of the appor tionment count, U.S. Census Bureau director Vincent Barabba expressed concerns about entangling the bureau with immigration policy. He testified that doing so might entail procedures done in other countries, such as main taining registration lists, that Americans would find dis agreeable, Anderson said. In Alabama, state officials and Republican U.S. Con gressman Mo Brooks are suing the Census Bureau to exclude people in the country illegally from being counted when determining congres sional seats for each state. Trump’s memo Tuesday is an blatant attempt to suppress the growing political power of Latinos in the U.S., said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexi can American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The fund, also known as MALDEF, and other civil rights groups are challenging Alabama’s effort to exclude people in the country illegally from being counted during apportionment, and they pre-emptively challenged the very issues raised by Trump’s memo on Tuesday in a cross-claim, Saenz said in an interview. “It’s lawless but that’s characteristic of this adminis tration. We are already chal lenging it. We anticipated this ridiculousness,” Saenz said. The Times contributed to this report. 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