Augustana College's first art exhibition of its 2017-18 school year finds dozens of contemporary artists and poets responding to the history of multiracial coalitions – including the Rainbow Coalition, the Young Patriots Organization, and the Black Panther Party – that have organized against racism, poverty, and oppression.

The final area festival of 2017's summer will commence in this inaugural celebration of music, film, comedy, and visual art, with performances and activities scheduled at 14 downtown-Davenport venues.

Hovering high above the heads of visitors to the Figge Art Museum, a neon sign that reads “Colored Entranced” points the way into the third-floor gallery. Anchored to the wall, the sign sits at an angle so visitors who enter from either the elevator or the stairs see it almost immediately. Bright tubes of clean red-orange light form words that contrast with and illuminate the corroded tin support from which they extend. The glow of the neon affects the surrounding space by casting light in shades of pink and violet on the white walls. A ghostly reflected image with deep red and cobalt-blue hues can be seen on the polished gray floor.

Colored Entranced is visually appealing, but the symbolic history it represents is abhorrent. Seeing it for the first time, non-black visitors may feel an unexpected pang of empathy for those who were subjected to that kind of direct segregation.