The Culture Club at Ramapo College hosted their annual Multicultural Exhibit this past Monday.
The Culture Club sets out to spread awareness and celebrate the many cultures of the world, and there are many instances throughout the school year in which the club engages the Ramapo community with different programming aimed at achieving their goal as a club.
This specific exhibit, however, is one event that the club takes particular pride in, as it allows members of the Ramapo community to be exposed to artifacts from Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Cuba, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, India, Iraq, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Panama, Russia, Spain, Vietnam and the U.S. The artifacts that were displayed for people to see and touch were from the collection of professor Niza Sabre, who has been the Culture Club advisor for about 20 years. The artifacts were not limited to those supplied by Sabre. The Culture Club invited others at Ramapo to contribute their own cultural items to share with the community.
Included in the exhibit were artifacts that were bought from shops or found in different places around the world. Some of these items included Native American drums, figurines from Spain, and basinets, shirts and aprons from Costa Rica.
Sophomore Andrew Herrera, who is the president of the Culture Club, said, “This exhibit is a really nice way of letting people enjoy things from different cultures at their own pace. Being that it is our goal to have students walk away learning something, we do not want it to come off as if they are taking another class. We want it to be academic while you are having a good time.”
In addition to the event being a multicultural exhibit, the club also felt that it was necessary to serve food and refreshments that were culturally inspired. Chinese and Italian dishes were among those at the event.
Eric Candelario, a junior, attended the exhibit and said, “This was a different experience for me because I usually attend events that have a speaker and that really isn’t as interactive as this was. I also came because there was food offered and it’s a great strategy to get people to support.”
Senior Caroline Chavez said that she grasped a greater appreciation of her culture of the Dominican Republic with all the artifacts that were displayed. She said, “It’s an eye-opening feeling and I really enjoyed myself.”
lpapageo@ramapo.edu
