How do you “visualize” peace?
“Visualizing Peace,” an art exhibit, is being held Aug. 24 through Sept. 7 at the Factory in Farmington, Mo. The exhibit was inspired by the photography of Daisaku Ikeda, founder of the International Committee of Artists for Peace.
More than 100 visitors attended the Aug. 24 opening reception at this site of a former shirt-manufacturing plant, which today has been transformed into a mall with restaurants and an exhibit hall. The Factory will soon have retail stores as well.
A local youth group—led by Samantha Wroblewski, Reagan Day, Nick Young, Louise Orsini and Lauren Hebert—came up with the idea to host the “Visualizing Peace” exhibit in the idyllic Farmington community. City history dates back to 1798 when Irish-born Williams Murphy first arrived upon land west of the Mississippi River.
Michelle Day of St. Louis, mother of 16-year-old youth group member, Reagan, commented on how wonderful it was for ICAP to have put together an exhibition that focused on helping people to specifically imagine what peace can look like. “Peace—you have to take time out to visualize it in your own mind in order to make it happen” said Michelle, “What a wonderful way to spend the day with my daughter! Thank you so much!”
Twelve artists submitted works for this showing of the exhibit—in all, more than 50 pieces—which expressed their individual visualizations of peace. There was also an interactive workshop where visitors from 2 to 92, collaborated in creating a single piece of art around the theme of peace. One hundred cupcakes, each uniquely decorated, were created especially for this event, providing the “cherry atop the sundae” that was the opening reception.
Ten photographs by Daisaku Ikeda are also on display in this year’s “Visualizing Peace” exhibit.