Alumna widens audience for “Safety in Numbers” exhibit, works at Rapha Hous

Missouri Southern graduate Jaclyn Kidd has continued advocating for women’s rights by continuing to share her “Safety in Numbers” exhibit across the community.

She’s been working with the people at Rapha House, a nonprofit organization that is committed to ending sex trafficking. Kidd has gotten involved as the marketing intern and used her graphic design degree to work on their website, and has continued to be a part of the organization as a volunteer.

“it’s just a great experience for me to work with them and they’ve always been really supportive of my work,” said Kidd. “They came out and saw the exhibit [Safety in Numbers] when it was at Missouri Southern.”

After seeing Kidd’s art project in the Spiva art gallery during a reception, the people at Rapha House got to see the installation for the first time. The project, which has exposed the unspoken horrors of sexual assault and the magnitude of such a problem, opened up an opportunity for Kidd.

Although the exhibit is now closed, the “Safety in Numbers” project moved to Rapha House.

The alumna left her mark at Southern with a project that has gained attention from local news and reached a larger audience than the campus. Kidd displayed her art at Third Thursday, giving her a larger platform.

“That’s really the goal of creating this type of artwork is to advocate and to have this conversation,” said Kidd.

Though the exhibit is not on display now, Kidd still has plans for the future.

“I currently don’t have anything lined up, but I’m looking at building out some instructional guides if other college campuses were interested in pursuing a similar research project that I could help with,” said Kidd.

According to Kidd, the community response to the project wasn’t all that different from the response she got at Southern.

“It’s really interesting to see people that are passionate about Rapha House really see this information on a local level,” said Kidd. “But, for the most part people were emotional about it as they read these marks because it can be really devastating.

“But people are also very encouraging and were happy to see that people felt safe enough to use their voices and want to do whatever they can to help.