Perspective shared by Takoma Park Arts Coordinator and Curator Brendan Smith
Throughout history and across the globe, war has been a constant force and a reckoning with the darker side of our nature. Politicians declare wars, but it is the soldiers who fight and die in them, while others return home with lasting scars of both body and mind. Veterans often are forgotten while they face a new host of challenges: traumatic injuries, PTSD, a lack of direction, or trouble finding a job. Art has provided an avenue of healing for veterans, offering an outlet for creativity and a vehicle of expression for past trauma which may be entrenched beyond words. The Uniting US organization (unitingus.org) helps veterans from across the country create art as a means of therapy and healing, as well as providing financial support for their families.
This new exhibition at the Takoma Park Community Center features a wide range of compelling artwork by Uniting US veteran artists, including paintings, photography, sculpture, ceramics, and mixed-media work. The artwork spans the breadth of human emotions through grief and pain but also joy for new beginnings. We hope you enjoy this exhibition. Some of the artists are featured in this program, and all proceeds from any sales benefit the artists. To buy artwork or seek more info, please use the QR codes on the wall labels or visit the website store linked below.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
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