Georgia Pacific Gallery Plaza

Temporary Exhibition: Entitlements
As violence and inequality cause scarcity and displace populations, impacted groups are frequently discussed as data and given impersonal categorizations such as refugee and asylum seeker. Entitlements humanizes conflict and insecurity around the world through compelling images of children at play and at rest. Featuring the photography of Authority Collective photographers Diana Cervantes, Jasmine Clarke, Meghan Dhaliwal, Stephanie Eley, Alexis Hunley, and Danielle Villasana, Entitlements is a global survey of childhood experiences. It celebrates the resilience of children denied the just and secure environments to which they are entitled. The children embody hope and inspire an urgency to uphold rights and protections detailed in documents such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration for Human Rights.

Photo by Danielle Villasana, Authority Collective, 2020

Globally, 420 million children are living in active conflict zones. More than half of people with refugee status are children and youth. Many are victims of detention, trafficking, exploitation, and family separation. In the United States, 13 million children reside in households below the federal poverty line, and 2.5 million American children are experiencing homelessness. Systemic injustices are evident in trends such as the school-to prison pipeline, a system that disproportionately refers Black children and children with learning differences to discipline by police instead of school administrators. This results in arrests and juvenile detention as opposed to counseling and educational alternatives. Outside of school, over policed neighborhoods render parks and playgrounds opportunities for interaction with law enforcement instead of places to learn, grow, and thrive.

Photo Gallery

    Photo by Danielle Villasana: Children climb a tree on the grounds of a school in the Rivera Hernandez, a neighborhood in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, that is notorious for high levels of violence in a city with some of the highest homicides rates in the world. While thousands of people attempt to escape this endemic violence by fleeing the country, one fallout of the constant stream of migration is increasingly empty schools where teachers must contend with high dropout rates and lack of resources.

    Photo by Danielle Villasana: Students jump rope during recess at a school for orphans in Maiduguri, Nigeria, where many have a parent who was killed by Boko Haram. Boko Haram was founded in 2002 in northern Nigeria’s Borno State, where its capital is known as “The Home of Peace.” The Islamic militant group has increasingly used violence to terrorize communities, killed more than 20,000 people, and forced millions to leave their homes. Through bombings, abductions, looting, burning and pillaging, they have disrupted access to vital services such as education and health care, and have debilitated daily life for both Muslims and Christians.

    Photo by Danielle Villasana: Boko Haram has increasingly forced young women to be suicide bombers and have kidnapped more than 2,000 women since 2009 in northeastern Nigeria. Amina, who suffered forced marriage and captivity at the hands of Boko Haram from the age of 13, now lives in a safe house in northeastern Nigeria where she says there’s peace and security. She hopes to go to school and to get married one day.

    Photo by Alexis Hunley

    Photo by Diana Cervantes: Joshua holds his 8-month-old daughter, Luna, as protestors march in Manhattan demanding justice for George Floyd who was killed by Minneapolis Police on May 25. Joshua said he wasn’t trying to make Luna raise her fist, she was doing it on her own because she understood the importance of this moment. Joshua and Luna represent not only how racism impacts generations of families, but also the resilience to create change in a system that often neglects the rights of communities of color.

Despite this, children remain incredibly resilient. From children playfully climbing trees in one of the world’s most dangerous cities to displaced children skipping rope and blowing bubbles, Entitlements depicts the persistence of childhood creativity and the unwavering youthful quest for exploration. Human rights laws and declarations charge us with securing our futures by providing environments where children are not criminalized and are free to realize their potential. When children reflect and imagine, their capacities to learn and build relationships are strengthened. As they find ways to process hardship, they also develop the skills required to become our next generation of leaders, advocates, and innovators.

Our Partners

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights harnesses Atlanta’s civil rights legacy to strengthen worldwide movements for human rights. A place to reflect on the past, transform the present, and inspire the future, The Center encourages visitors to gain deeper understandings of the roles they play in protecting the rights of all people.

The Authority Collective (AC) is a community of women, non-binary, and gender-expansive people of color working in photography, film, and VR/AR industries. AC empowers historically marginalized artists through providing resources and community, and takes action against systemic and individual workplace abuse and inequity in lens-based editorial, documentary, and commercial professions.

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Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP) is dedicated to the cultivation of photography as an art form and the enrichment of the Atlanta art community. ACP provides educational experiences through lens-based media and produces the largest annual community-oriented photo festival in the United States.

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