Healing and Remembrance Panels help GC&SU community cope with tragedy

Hundreds of panels located on Front Campus and in Blackbridge Hall are one of the examples of how GC&SU students and the Milledgeville community are remembering the Sept. 11 disaster and showing that that day still holds a special place in our hearts.

“The panels for Healing and Remembrance resulted from a project coordinated by my Paper, Books, and Sculpture class. I wanted the class to create a group installation, and I have several students in PBS who are also in Dr. Roxanne Farrar’s Public Art class,” said Ursula McCarty, assistant professor of Art. “So the students who are in both classes came up with the idea of asking townspeople and GC&SU people to create panels in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”

Visitors of Fest ‘o Villehad a chance to see the panels.

Shannon Wallace, a senior art student, was one of the people who made the project happen.

“I just wanted to get everyone involved in an art project, and everyone was interested in the attacks from September 11, so we decide to go with that theme,” Wallace said.

“It was a lot of work to get the community involved,” said Jennifer Avant, a senior art student. “We passed out flyers to encourage involvement to local businesses, local schools, clubs, organizations, and the art department.”

Many of the panels were very personal to the artists who made them. “On the panel that I created, I used the world as a symbol, because I felt that the terrorist attacks were not just a New York situation, but the entire world uniting together,” said Melody Smith, a senior art student.

“I made a panel in remembrance of a friend that was lost in the attacks. On the panel I used a poem and dedicated it to him,” Wallace said.

All of the people who made these panels possible agreed it was a great experience.

“This was definitely a learning experience; mostly I learned how great it was to come together for a cause,” Smith said.

“I had never done a public art project before; it was an experience working with other people and the community,” Wallace said.

McCarty is satisfied with the finished product.

“We got a fair amount of participation, but not quite as much as we had hoped for. But overall we think it has been a successful project,” McCarty said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 30 2001. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry