Walking into the current exhibition at Wellfleet Preservation Hall, one is greeted by Jo Hay’s oversize painting of the country’s youngest inaugural poet, Amanda Gorman. On the opposite wall is Sheryl Jaffe’s installation of hanging pods constructed from leaves and other natural materials. The contrast between Hay’s bold, colorful painting and Jaffee’s delicate sculptures is dramatic. It encapsulates the spirit of the show, which trades homogeneity, of artists and aesthetics, for an experience that focuses on inclusion.

The exhibit was produced by ArtPeace Makers, a local collective that “explores the connections between making art of all kinds and making peace on all levels,” according to a statement on the group’s website. Since 2003, they have been holding shows in Wellfleet to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“The show is as much about process and connection as it is about the finished products,” says Sara Blandford, a member of the collective and an organizer of the show. This year, the ArtPeace Makers issued an open call, and the responses came from established artists like Hay and Jaffe but also included works by children and beginners. In the past, iterations of this exhibition have focused solely on children’s artwork. Intergenerational community building is central to their mission, says Blandford.

Themes of politics, activism, and history are obvious in some of the work, such as Robin Joyce Miller’s Homage to John Brown. Miller plays with the convention of a school bulletin board in a busy composition that incorporates text, historical images, and three-dimensional objects like chains and handcuffs.

In Amy St. John Ramsdell’s graphic painting Daily Affirmations, the phrase “Love Hard, Fight Racism!” fills the composition. The graphic quality of the text and the bright yellow background reference signs one might see at a demonstration, but here the textured surface underneath the image slows down a quick reading.

Abby Fay Smith also begins with a graphic language typical of protest art. In her mixed-media piece Shoot From the Hip, an acrylic and silkscreen picture of a woman (perhaps a teacher) shows her clutching herself, surrounded by stars and six stylized heads peeking over desks. Two guns frame the scene.

Smith, who works in a studio in Barnstable, employs various materials and visual strategies to position this work within the tradition of protest art: the use of silkscreen, often adopted to widely disseminate political imagery; a central, heroic figure; the color red, typically associated with revolutionary struggles. The cluster of shredded denim strips at the bottom of the composition is less politically legible, however, and shifts the artwork into a territory of greater intrigue as both an art object and a social statement.

Current events bubble to the surface in a few of the works on display. In a 3D assemblage created this past summer, Dawn McKenzie depicts Kamala Harris walking out of the White House, striding confidently with her hand raised high. The shrubbery in the scene is made of dried lichen. Other works reference the ongoing conflict in Palestine and Israel, including a folksy painting by Farrukh Najmi titled Where Olive Trees Weep and a gestural, mixed-media painting with the word “peace” written in Hebrew, Arabic, and English by Harriet Korim.

Korim made her image during an earlier Middle East crisis, but it resonates with the present situation. It represents not only the ongoing, cyclical nature of the conflict but also Korim’s dedication to peacemaking and activism. She founded ArtPeace Makers in 1984. Its first public program was an all-ages “Art for Peace” exhibit following a traditional Quaker vigil in front of Wellfleet Town Hall to mark the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Since then, the group has held meditative walks, vigils, kids’ art-making projects, and exhibitions addressing issues such as human rights, anti-racism, and environmentalism.

This year, to honor Martin Luther King Jr., the group will lead a ceremony on Monday, Jan. 20 with drumming, songs from the Civil Rights movement, and some short remarks followed by a silent walk to Wellfleet Preservation Hall, where participants can view the exhibition from noon to 1 p.m. and hear recorded speeches by King, which will be broadcast in a meditative listening space.

In connection with the theme of MLK Day, a number of works directly address the African-American experience, including some striking portraits. Hay’s piece, rendered in swirling gestures with thick paint, celebrates Gorman as belonging to a long line of African Americans contributing to literary culture. In Laurence Young’s painting A Quiet Desperation, a black man in a stark environment gazes downward. Jackie Reeves’s painting Daughter, Sister, Mother honors a Black woman for her dedication to family. It’s a striking image painted on fabric. The material bleeds out, its ephemeral effect tempered by a sharpness in lines defining the face. The woman looks directly at the viewer, confident and kind.

Other works in the exhibition are less overt in how they address sociopolitical themes. Elspeth Slayter is represented by two small abstractions that embody a tension between light and dark colors. Jaffe’s airy and poetic installation Gathering Hope II uses corn husks, fish bones, banana stalks, and wisteria threads to create pods punctured with spiky branches that stretch outward. The pods sway gently, suggesting a sense of safety and comfort despite their fragility. According to an exhibition statement, the installation was created to honor the life of Delilah Sampson Gibbs, a healer and midwife who was considered in local lore to be the last Wampanoag woman who lived in Wellfleet.

The variety in the exhibition represents the possibilities inherent in art — whether it’s the materiality of a piece or what it communicates to a viewer. Korim and Blandford appreciate art for its ability to unite people without off-putting rhetoric or the baggage of language.

“Art is innately a way to bridge divides between people and approach the social problems we face without being boring or turning people off,” says Korim. “Our hearts are moved.”

Martin Luther King’s Legacy

The event: ArtPeace Makers community art exhibition
The time: Through Feb. 4; MLK Day silent walk and gathering, 11 a.m., Monday, Jan. 20
The place: Wellfleet Preservation Hall, 355 Main St.
The cost: Free