I am Mac MacDevitt - I am an artist heading up the My Lai Memorial Exhibit team for the Chicago Chapter of Veterans For Peace.
Our Indiegogo campaign ended on 11/5, but with the help of more than 100 backers we have raised almost 60% of our campaign goal - enough to ensure that the exhibit will be begin touring in March 2017. Visit us at the My Lai Memorial Exhibit for a tour schedule and information on how to host the exhibit in your area.
I came of age during the Vietnam War and avoided being drafted and sent to Vietnam by becoming a teacher, but I have always been haunted by the terrible suffering endured by the Vietnamese people. I began to explore how collaborative art projects can deepen our understanding and empathy. The exhibit allows participants to tap into the artist in each one of us and join together to speak up for social justice.
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Our campaign to create the My Lai Memorial Exhibit is an extension of the anti-war movement that challenged the military’s narrative about the war. With their fierce and persistent opposition, the Vietnamese people and anti-war activists joined together to help end the war. It is now widely acknowledged that the Vietnam war was unnecessary, unjust and immoral. Yet it is clear that we continue to make the same mistakes in our wars today. Wars that cause death, destruction, and floods of refugees, just like in Vietnam.
With your contribution, we can finish our traveling memorial exhibit to honor the Vietnamese who died in our American War. We expect that thousands of Americans will visit the exhibit over our two-year tour across the country. Through a unique and powerful artistic process developed by VFP members, participants engage in dialogue, make amends for the damage Americans caused the Vietnamese people and renew their commitment to work for peace and social justice in the world now.
What We Need & What You Get
Our goal is to raise $27,000 to complete the traveling exhibit and go on tour starting in February 2018. As a nonprofit organization your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
VFP volunteers are donating their time and energy to develop and travel with the exhibit. Your contribution allows us the assistance and materials needed to complete the exhibit, including:
Materials and Fabrication: $10,000
Design Services: $5,000
Travel Trailer: $4,000
Equipment: $3,000
Technical Assistance: $2,000
Initial Travel Expenses: $2,000
Operating Expenses: $1,000
Total: $27,000
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The My Lai Memorial Exhibit - What we will build with your funding
Area One – Exhibit Panels
16 or more informational panels help you to humanize and understand the Vietnamese as a people and the impact of the American War on families, the land and their way of life.
Area Two – Interactive Touch-Screen Simulation
Place yourself in the “sandals” of a Vietnamese farming family in a village where military activity is intensifying. You become aware of the difficult choices and painful consequences faced by Vietnamese families.
Area Three- Interactive Sculptural Collage Building
At the heart of the exhibit, engage in a unique artistic process to create sculptural collages. Dialogue with a trained mentor and connect what went on in Vietnam with your life today. How do we use violence in our society and in the wars we engage in today?
Area Four – Take Action Kiosk
Provide support to organizations that are actively engaged in remediation efforts in Viet Nam. Learn about local organizations that promote peace and oppose war and violence as a means to resolve conflict.
Area Five – The Sharing Wall
Digitally share images of your personal collage art with other exhibit participants and through social media.
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The Perks
$10 - Your contribution recognized on the project website
$25 - An assortment of ginger candies from Vietnam (a big hit at the 2017 VFP Convention!)
$40 - “My Lai Memorial Exhibit" T-Shirt
$50 - 2018 Americans Who Tell the Truth Calendar
$65 - Vietnam - Not Just A War T-Shirt
$85 - YES + Dove T-shirt
$100 - Letters to the Wall book sent to you or your local library
$200 - Hand printed YES + Dove Banner
$350 - Skype tour of the exhibit with developer Mac MacDevitt
$750 - Private poetry reading with VFP’s Poet Laureate, Doug Rawlings
$2500 - Develop a sculptural collage for your cause/organization/NFP of choice with exhibit artist, Mac MacDevitt
What if we don’t raise funds we need for the full exhibit? We will start our tour with the core of the exhibit and focus on the key areas that support the heart of the exhibit - the sculptural collages and opportunities for dialogue and sharing. As we travel and participants have a chance to experience the exhibit, we are confident that we will be able to raise the additional funds we need to build out the rest of the exhibit for the subsequent tours.
The Impact
I first started working with sculptural collages as a graduate student in the late 1960’s. When I first saw the photograph in LIFE magazine of women and children being lined up just before they were shot by American soldiers in Vietnam, I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. I developed my first sculptural collage to deal with these feelings.
At a recent social justice fair, participants explained that their collage spoke of concerns with US foreign policy, the treatment of oppressed people and the need to learn and understand what is really going on behind mainstream narratives. The conversations were heart-felt and intimate. When I sit with others today who create their personal collage and discuss their artwork, I feel hopeful that together, even in this troubling time, we can work towards peace and justice.
The National VFP Convention was hosted in August of this year in Chicago. We set up just a sample of what we have planned for our traveling exhibit. We had a sculptural collage for VFP members to work with, the same one featured in the video. The dialogue with these veteran peace activists confirmed the power of our artistic process. Here are a few examples of their work.
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Risks & Challenges
We know that the content of the exhibit may be difficult and painful for many participants.
Our exhibit panels on the Vietnam War and the My Lai Massacre examines the tragic impact of our political and military actions on the people of Vietnam; a people who in the midst of the American War were wounded or killed and had their villages, their homes, their livelihood and their social fabric torn apart.
The exhibit explores how our governmental and military policies and practices developed, nurtured, implemented and then covered-up a campaign that led to the killing of 2 million Vietnamese civilians during the course of this war; a campaign that allowed and encouraged the atrocity at My Lai, and other mass killings on the ground and from the air with bombs and artillery shells.
So why is it important to remember the destruction we caused to the Vietnamese people? Our VFP chapter is a member of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Coalition members include holocaust museums and sites where atrocities took place. Our Memorial Exhibit reflects the “memory to action” process that guides coalition members,“not only to preserve memories of historical events, but also to understand the context in which these events occurred and apply the lessons we have learned to today’s struggles for human rights and social justice.”
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We need to continue to make amends for ongoing human and environmental damage we caused in Vietnam. Bomb craters need to be filled. Kids have their hands blown off from unexploded shells. And children born with deformities caused by our use of defoliants like Agent Orange still need care.
To deal with this challenge, we have designed an exhibit that is welcoming, open and non-judgmental. We invite participants to process this difficult content in their own way. And we are there to listen wholeheartedly as people process their personal thoughts and feelings.
Other Ways You Can Help
We understand if you can not contribute to our campaign. We ask that you share our campaign with friends, relatives, co-workers, and veterans in hopes that they can contribute. Share on your social media pages or send our campaign link via email. Come and share the exhibit experience with us when we are on the road in 2018/2019.
If you know of any peace organizations that we ought to connect with to support our campaign or host the exhibit, please email us at mylaimemorialvfp@gmail.com.
Additional Information:
Veterans For Peace is an international organization made up of military veterans, military family members, and allies. We accept veteran members from all branches of service. We are dedicated to building a culture of peace, exposing the true costs of war, and healing the wounds of war. Our networks are made up of over 120 chapters across the United States and abroad.
If there are funds remaining after the project's completion or termination, they will be used by the Chapter to serve the cause of world peace.
Acknowledgments:
Video Producer - Sam Bowers - www.SamDonaldBowers.com
Music by Sam Neipp
Animation - Dan Schiffmacher - www.danschiff.com
Lead Designer - Ashley Borg - www.ashborg.com
Project Management - Maggie O'Keefe - www.mtminc.co
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We are continuing to fundraise on our site, www.mylaimemorial.org. Please consider contributing there.