Between Fences was a phenomenal success

While the Between Fences exhibit at Princeton Public Library was a phenomenal success as gauged by record general attendance numbers for programs and tours, the story that most resonates with me took place during one of the programs with the lowest turnout. The event, called “Beyond Fences: A Conversation about Disabilities, Inclusion and Empowerment,” was designed to highlight metaphorical fences and obstacles that handicapped and otherwise physically disabled people deal with on a day-to-day basis. It was a panel discussion in front of a group of only 40 audience members in which the conversation focused primarily on discrimination and various social coping mechanisms that had allowed for the speakers to achieve as close a sense of normalcy as possible throughout their lives.

The impact of this group on the audience was enormous. I know that I was not alone in feeling the tremendous sense of humility (and my own pettiness when thinking of the so aptly named daily “struggles” that I concern myself with) that they portrayed; incredibly, their stories revolved around triumph instead of sorrow, gratitude instead of thanklessness, optimism over pessimism. This single event embodied the philosophy behind the Between Fences exhibit: It was an exposition of the figurative fences that we put up to separate ourselves from others who may be different, while others try to break these same fences down in order to alleviate and overcome that same difference.

Questions from the audience toward the end of the program were easy enough for the panelists; The why, what and how-style reflective of an outsider learning about something brand new constituted the majority of what was asked. The answers inevitably came back to the same point: The disabled are not so different from the able-bodied; the physical differences on the surface inappropriately lead most to believe that the fences and obstacles faced are much larger than what was actually true. One of the most important themes of the Between Fences exhibit was precisely this: It is by analyzing and discussing the fences and hurdles in our daily social, religious, physical, emotional, philosophical and epistemological attitudes toward one another that we realize that they are not nearly as foreboding and impossible to overcome as they might seem.