ReflectSpace Gallery at the Downtown Central Library is a new hybrid exhibition space designed to explore and reflect on major human atrocities, genocides, and civil rights violations. Immersive in conception, ReflectSpace is both experiential and informative, employing art, technology, and interactive media to engage viewers on an emotional and personal level. ReflectSpace strives to reflect the past and present of Glendale’s communal fabric and interrogate current-day global human rights issues.

The approach is intimate. Emphasis is placed on the witness narrative: who saw, wrote, spoke, or has been affected by social justice and human rights issues. The narratives unfold through multiple technologies–projection, interactive media, and immersive sound design–and multiple disciplines of thought and arts. ReflectSpace also presents installation art and engages with the archives, books, and texts in the library in which it exists.

ReflectSpace is an inclusive exhibition space. Its inaugural exhibit explored the Armenian Genocide, presenting personal as well as reflective narratives from survivors and artwork from descendants. It has also presented exhibits on Asian “Comfort Women”, the Holocaust, immigration, slavery in the US. With a focus on Glendale as well as an international perspective, ReflectSpace will also delve into contemporary issues like incarceration, homelessness, and violence in society, Japanese-American imprisonment, the disappearance of Native Californians as well as multiple other issues.

ReflectSpace is an intimate experiential space for reflection and exploration. At times it will be immersive, at other times disorienting, and yet at other times overwhelming. But it will always engage.