The American Friends Service Committee’s acclaimed traveling exhibition, "Eyes Wide Open: Beyond Fear, Towards Hope," is coming to Ithaca, October 6 through 9.
This exhibit was first installed in Chicago in January 2004 with 504 pairs of empty combat boots, one for each US military casualty in Iraq. Since then, it has traveled to more than 50 cities, including on the Mall in Washington, with more boots added at each stop, now totaling more than 1930. Each pair of boots is identified. Alongside the boots stands a large collection of civilian shoes representing the Iraqi dead, and names of Iraqis killed in this war will be read as well as those of Americans. The exhibition is coming to Ithaca from Minneapolis, and will go next to Newark and Boston.
Eyes Wide Open will be installed on the Cornell University arts quad on October 6, and downtown in DeWitt Park on October 7-9.
Locally, more than 60 organizations have sponsored the Ithaca effort, including Ithaca Common Council, the Town Board of Danby, many religious organizations, businesses such as Viva Taqueria, Alternatives Federal Credit Union, and GreenStar, and several offices and departments at Cornell including the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. On the Ithaca College campus, Students for a Just Peace (SJP) is leading the effort.
There is still a great need for volunteers on the days on October 6 on the Cornell campus and on October 7-9 at DeWitt Park. Tasks include setting up and breaking down exhibit, tabling, and helping set a respectful tone during the day. We also are in desperate need for volunteers for night shifts on Friday and Saturday night. Volunteers wishing to help with the exhibit, typically in two-hour shifts, can sign up on the web. They can also contact Garry Thomas (thomasg@ithaca.edu) to sign up or for more information.
People who have seen Eyes Wide Open have compared the emotion it evokes to that of visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial or seeing the traveling AIDS memorial quilt. Ithaca is the smallest city to have sponsored Eyes Wide Open to date. We share the organizer’s belief that we need to reflect constantly on the human cost of this war and all wars, and to honor the dead now rather than wait for war memorials to be built years later.
http://www.afsc.org/eyes/details/ithaca/default.htm
https://www.afsc.org/eyes/secure/ithaca-volunteers.php
